The Professor’s Daughter

The Professor’s Daughter published in 1997 by First Second (New York, NY) was drawn by Emmanuel Guibert and written by Joann Sfar. I didn’t find it delighted me as much as Gene Luen Yang’s books from the same publisher. This is a more whimsical topic, of course, and I did enjoy the drawings and water colouring. But I found the story too disjointed: it hopped from point to point with little to connect it or to motivate the reader to care about the urbane protagonists Imhotep IV and Lillian Bowell. Even the very beginning was rushed into from my perspective as reader.
Although very pretty I find this work too frustrating to recommend to anyone but those who appreciate comic drawing and don’t overly care for story.

Other Graphic Novels

Our library has a surprising number of graphic novels. Here’s just a few:

Kazu Kibuishi’s Flight or Amulet. Book 1, The stonekeeper

Michel Rabagliati’s Paul goes fishing or Paul has a summer job (translated from French).

Seth (who was at a Guelph author’s event I went to this past year): Bannock, beans, and black tea : the life of a young boy growing up in the Great Depression or Christmas days

Alan Moore’s The league of extraordinary gentlemen in volumes 1 and 2.  Moore is a bit dark but a complex and gifted story teller.  The first volume is better than the second IMHO.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s moving castle, V.1 which is based on a favourite movie.

A.B. Cover’s William Shakespeare’s MacBeth : the graphic novel.

The Amulet

Killing some time in a comic book store in Waterloo with my son, I came across and purchased the first book in The Amulet. It’s a graphic novel by Kazu Kibuishi who is also the founder and editor of the Flight series.
The characterization in this children’s novel are excellently and quickly established with the heroine Emily and her brother Navin as they desperately follow their mother into an adventure in an alternate Universe. I love the wonderfully drawn robots Cogsley, Morrie and, especially, Miskit. I am eager to read Book 2.
Highly recommended.

300

I haven’t seen the new movie but I probably will. I saw the 1962 movie long before and enjoyed it. The story of Leonidas and the 300 Spartans is an inspiring epic which is all the more intriguing as it is true history.
But lately I’ve enjoyed two treatments of the story that both occurred before this 2006 movie came out. And to celebrate my 300th posting here on my golb I decided to write about them.
My brother, also called Dan, told me about Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcasts and I’ve been enjoying them since. Show 6 – Shield of the West is about the 300 Spartans and how this one group of men changed history. I definitely recommend this show and all the others too if you are interested in how we got here. Carlin’s enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge really bring these histories alive.
The second version of 300 I enjoyed last night. This was Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s graphic novel “300“. It is a work of art from Dark Horse Books that won’t take you long to read but will not fail to amaze and inspire. Heck, the 2006 movie was inspired by it, from what I hear. I’ve covered Miller’s work before: it is always worth the effort.