The Last Elegant Bear
Dennis Kyte
Published by Little Simon Books
Hardcover

The Last Elegant Bear is another one of those books where the story is eclipsed by the artwork. Story? What story? I can’t remember the story. But look at the pretty pencil sketches and colour pencil work!

The book follows the “Life and Times of Abiner Smoothie”, a well-bred bear born into privilege and a family tree to reckon with. Abiner’s constant companion is Puppy (who really is a rabbit) and they are never apart, even when Puppy is not supposed to be there.

We follow Abiner to a posh school, then to the navy, and then to his travels all over the world. 

Without doubt, the star of the book is the artwork. It’s colourful enough to keep a child’s attention, and detailed enough to appeal to adults. 

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Book Sunday: The Last Elegant Bear

This is me recording an epic fail in liu of a Book Sunday post. As in (1) don’t buy more books this year; and (2) don’t use credit card till I pay it off. (1) and (2) tend to be directly related. I was doing quite well until I went to the Times Warehouse sales. In short, I should have stayed away but I was tired and dispirited and needed a perk.

Everything in my pile is from the warehouse sale except the first and last book, which were bought from a Christmas stall next door to my office.

I have one more book I need to add to the pile before I “close shop”. Really. As soon as I can muster up the energy to battle the crowd in the Spring and get to MPH.

As usual, strikeouts have been read. Am currently reading “The Personal Organizing Workbook”, but in general, I’m not reading very much at all. Which is another good reason why I should curb the book-buying.

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Books - Dec 2008

Cover art for Blankets

Blankets
Craig Thompson
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Paperback, 592 pages 

I’ve never heard of Craig Thompson or any of his work before. When a copy of the very thick and very heavy “Blankets” landed on my desk by way of two friends, I thought it was a trade paperback of some obscure novel… until I cracked it open.

“Blankets” is Thompson’s second graphic novel - an ambitious venture, judging by the length of the tome. It is also the winner of three 2004 Harvey Awards for Best Artist, Best Graphic Album of Original Work and Best Cartoonist; and winner of two 2004 Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist.   

The graphic novel follows the life of Craig, starting from key moments in his young life into his teens and later, his early adulthood. His early years are shared with his younger brother Phil, as two young boys who had creative ways of irritating and playing with each other while surviving school, parents and life in  Wisconsin.

As a child, Craig has always been alienated by his peers.

“Something about being rejected at church camp feels so much more awful than being rejected at school.” he mused in a scene where he gets carted off to what he called a week of pretense of sharing “Christ-centered” recreational activities with other Christian youths.

Craig meets Raina at one of these church camps after he’s hit the teens and his relationship with Phil takes a complete backseat in the narrative. The attraction is immediate and mutual, growing deeper after they return to their respective homes. Letters are followed by packages containing “sweet high school nothings”. 

He decides to go and spend two weeks at with Raina and her family in Michigan, without mentioning to his own fundamentalist mother that Raina’s good Christian parents are getting a divorce. His timing is a little awkward for her parents but was a balm for Raina, who has to struggle to care for her adopted siblings and unwanted niece. 

Raina gives Craig a hand-made quilt, patched together from patterns that reminded her of him. This blanket became an underlaying theme, fusing together patterns that appeared through out the book.

The third and most consistant of Craig’s relationship is the one with God. One of the things that drew him and Raina together is that they shared the same delimma with this whole God thing - they’ve been raised Christians but found causes to doubt. This also made a few funny pages featuring Craig when Raina said to him, “Come to bed with me.”

“Blankets” is semi-autobiographical tale where nothing terribly dramatic or superhero-like happens, but it doesn’t take away the fact that it’s still a very interesting read. It’s almost like watching a movie.

The beauty of the comic medium is that things that will require a few paragraphs of description can be relayed in two panels. Thompson puts this to full use. A picture paints a thousand words. 

Where words are required, he doesn’t fall short. There are lines that are so beautiful and so true that it’ll bring tears to your eyes. As both the writer and the artist of “Blankets”, Thompson had the advantage of writing or drawing exactly what he wants.  

If you enjoyed the movie “Saved!”, you might want to keep an eye out for this book. While “Blankets” has a more subtle approach and is less satirical than that movie, it tells the same story about people who only want to be human.

Note: This graphic novel is for mature readers. Small children and big babies need not apply.

- Originally published in PostMag, The Borneo Post

I was reminded of this graphic novel during our visit to MV Doulos by Joyce, who remarked, “I bet you won’t find Blankets here.”

It’s both understandable and a shame. I can related to the protagonist of the book and the story of how he fell out of Christianity. If I recall correctly, Thompson said somewhere that this graphic novel was an attempt to explain to his parents why he chose to get off the church bandwagon. It had nothing to do with not believing in God or Jesus, but in how humans tend to fuck things up in between getting the message from God and delivering it to the unwashed masses.

“It denies the beauty of being human, and it ignores all these gaps that need to be filled in by the individual.” said Craig the character on the subject of Christianity.

It’s hard to fill in the gaps when you’re afraid that every move you make is gonna be an “OMG SIN!”

Some people have managed to grow up and live entirely within their own safe community of Christians without ever experiencing what it’s like out there in the “real world”. Yet within the Christian community exists a set of politics and internal backbiting that is made worse when you are taught to believe that these are supposed to be the good guys.

Blankets is possibly the most eloquent and profound description I’ve found of how and why some young people lose faith. And yet, it’s not the downfall of humanity. I see it as a process of growing up and getting a well-rounded education of the world and society we live in, and coming to our on conclusions. I can’t think of anything worse than letting other people tell us what we should do or believe in our entire lives.

You can read a few pages of Blankets here.

This gorgeous image is page 570 in the book and originally in B&W.
This one was coloured by DMV Comics and reposted here with
his kind permission.

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Book Sunday: Blankets

MV Doulos is currently in Kuching. It is the world’s oldest active ocean-going passenger ship and on its last tour of the world before being retired. The last time it was here was in November 2001, or so says one of my old journal entries. This is their third or fourth time in Kuching in my lifetime. I remember being very excited about what they do and couldn’t wait for an opportunity to join and help do God’s work around the world.

Obviously, it didn’t happen or I’d be a completely different person now. This can be a good thing or bad thing depending on what you know about me and what kind of function I fill in your life.

Bertha and Joyce are back in Kuching so we met up at tHe Spring for a drink before I suggested that we go take a look. I’ve been wanting to revisit this bit of memory lane and perhaps lose a chunk of money the way I usually do when you put me near a large collection of books.

The ship was smaller than I remembered, and their collection of books was disappointingly limited. Is that it, or did we come at a bad time?

I guess this is what happens after 7 years and you’re no longer the same person you were the last time you visited. It’s a good place to pick up some books on Christian living. They have a large collection of children’s books, but too kiddy to interest me. There are some classics and vintage editions of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys tucked in a corner somewhere, and a handful of coffee table books that are really very cheap.

But otherwise, there’s little to interest the three of us. One is allergic to religion, one consumes graphic novels and one thinks the selection is very dated. All three of us probably like our “Satanic” reading material better.

I found a book about movies - I forgot the title now - where the author breaks down a selection of popular movies to point out what kind of secular unchristian message they are trying to subliminally convey to the unknowing consumer. I used to update myself religiously in matters of “How Satan plans on getting yo ass now” but finding things like this made me glad I left the complexities of organised religion behind. I’ve had enough church-related drama to last me a lifetime.

The charm of Doulos probably lies in getting to know the people who willingly gave up months of “normal” life to do something they believe in for no salary. God knows I once believed, but God probably has something more interesting for me to do.

I couldn’t be bothered to take photos inside the book store, but Irene has a more complete entry about the Doulos here, which include directions to where they are docked.

(I attempted to shoot the above photo using a trick Louis Pang talked about on his blog, but had to tweaked it a bit with Photoshop. I guess it doesn’t really count.)

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MV Doulos in Kuching

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
Chris Riddell
Published by Macmillan Children’s Books
Hard cover, 171 pages

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat came before Ottoline Goes To School. You can see that she’s a bit younger in this book, but it doesn’t take away the fun of the series.

Ottoline lives in the Pepperpot Building (called so because it looks like a pepperpot) with Mr. Munroe, whom her parents found in a bog in Norway. Our intrepid young protagonist specialises in solving tricky problems and working out clever plans. She has a notebook specially for jotting down what she sees and working out those clever plans.

The mystery begins when Mr Monroe noticed posters of missing dogs and showed them to Ottoline. Soon, Ottoline noticed some interesting and possibly related activity in the crime pages.

One of the things I noticed about Ottoline is that she does manage to be a slightly annoying little snot the way young children are when then learn the proper codes of conduct but doesn’t know the appropriate time to sling it out. Nonetheless, she is still sincere and endearing.

Riddell’s line art is full of visual pun and references that adults are more likely to get. For example, does this scene look familiar?

And finally, another piece of evidence that Riddell might have been here:

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Book Sunday: Ottoline and the Yellow Cat