Two new books from SelfMadeHero have come our way which are worthy of attention:Using one medium to convey another is always going to be a challenge and as with Chico & Rita, Rebetiko attempts to bring music to sequential art. Set in Greece in 1936 it brings us the story of backstreet musicians, the 'rebetis', driven underground by the military dictatorship at the time. The Comics Journal likened writer/artist David Prudhomme to Nicolas de Crecy (see here) in his ability to capture human expression and the artwork is beautifully evocative with moody coffee-toned colouring. See here for a review on BrokenFrontier.
A Chinese Life is an autobiographical retelling of illustrator Li Kunwu's life from his birth in 1955 including 30 years as a state artist for the Communist Party. Working with writer Philippe Otie, Kunwu offers a unique vantage point straddling a pivotal era in China's political history as well as charting the effects on his family and friends. The illustrations are wonderfully loose and emotive and at a whopping 691 pages it's suitably epic enough to meet it's ambitions.
For more information about all the titles from this publisher you can pick up a free SelfMadeHero catalogue in store.
Rebetiko book looks amazing (katapliktikos!!) Looks like Tsitsanis talking to the lady, and Papaioaniou playing Bouzouki in second cartoon - brilliant to see these guys being given some more exposure, they certainly deserve it!
ReplyDeletePerhaps I could also mention my own article on Rebetika, which you can find at:
http://yecaterpillar.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/blog-post.html
"The Caterpillar" is not exactly a comic, more of a collage-journal, that is also remixed as a Dub Version - hope ya don't mind me pluggin', but some folks might enjoy it and it's FREE.
Rebetika is something we should all have in our lives.