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PERSEPOLIS
by Marjane Satrapi

(Pantheon Books)

Review by Sean McGurr

It is rare to find a graphic novel that can entertain, educate, and emotionally move a reader. Art Spiegelman did it with Maus. Alan Moore did it with From Hell. Frank Miller did it with 300. Persepolis is another of these books. Perhaps Marjane Satrapi will someday be considered a master in the field like these writers.

Satrapi is a normal girl growing up in Tehran, Iran. She is nine years old in 1979 at the time of the Iranian Revolution, and can easily be mistaken for an American girl. She likes Michael Jackson, reads comic books, and plays with her friends. Although her family is not very religious, she believes that when she grows up, she will be a prophet. When the revolutionaries overthrow the Shah's government, at first her family feels that Iran will be a better place. But they quickly see that the fundamentalists will be a more repressive government, especially for a secular, Westernized family like Satrapi's. When Iran goes to war with Iraq, things get worse. Eventually, when she is fourteen, Satrapi is sent by her parents to Europe for safety.

Satrapi illustrates her story in a simple style. It is almost as if she is drawing it as a ten-year-old girl. Despite the style, Satrapi is able to capture emotions, both horrors and joy, as she relates the story of her country and her family.

Within the 150 pages of the book, I learned more about Iran, its history and its government, but without feeling that I was being taught a lesson. Satrapi blends the political issues with her own personal story. As a child, she goes from parroting what adults say, to actually making informed decisions about the issues. Seeing the conflict within her and how it plays out makes this story involving. The fact that it is true and that the events actually happened makes it astonishing.

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BEAR #1

($2.95, SLG Publshing, Jamie Smart)

Review by Rick Bradford

Jamie Smart's Bear is about a cute little (yep, you guessed it) bear, his human housemate and the human's cat, who is clearly insane and lives to torment Bear. It's cutesy mayhem that really didn't do much for me at first so I read about half of it and set it aside. When I picked it up again a couple days later, I enjoyed it much more. No, I don't know why. I figure either the latter half of the issue is better or the thing just grew on me. Whatever the case, my favorite story is one in which Bear explains why Karl (the human) is unsuccessful with women: "You're straight. To be everything women love in gay men you'd have to be gay. In which case you wouldn't be bothering in the first place." While that logic is slightly flawed, there's still enough truth in there to be both frustrating and amusing. But such philosophizing is rare; mostly Bear is about a deranged cat entertaining himself in mostly sadistic ways. I'm betting Steve Purcell's Sam & Max was a big influence on Smart, which may give you some idea of his approach to humor. I'm looking forward to seeing his work develop.

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< zines/art >



1-UP #3

($13.00 ppd from Raina Lee)

Review by Yakov Chodosh

I found 1-UP magazine issue 3, edited by Raina Lee and designed by John Pham, at the comic shop yesterday. This is a great issue, with dynamite illustrations by Souther Salazar, Jordan Crane, Martin Cendreda, Sammy Harkam, and plenty others; there are comic strips by Cendreda (very Clowes-influenced) and John Pham; each copy comes with a silkscreened action card of an imaginary Street Fighter character (one of six); and I haven't even gotten to the written content, which is also great. This issue is professionally printed with very high production values and three-color interiors (blue, pink, off-white) and it's gorgeous! Highly recommended!

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PURE EVIL #6

(PO Box 348 / Flemington, Victoria 3031 / AUSTRALIA. E-mail. I believe this is available in the States from Top Shelf)

Review by Rick Bradford

If you're curious about the comix scene in and around Australia, a good place to start looking is this issue of the Pure Evil anthology. There's lots of good stuff in here, a bit of it by familiar names but most of these cartoonists will be new to anyone abroad. None of the pieces are too terribly long (none over six pages) so it's a nice showcase for a large number of artists. Some of the work that really stands out for me: the "City of Tales" comic by the Oats Comics guys, Stefan Neville and Clayton Noone; a creepy dream by Neale Blanden (at least, I hope it was a dream); "I'd Like to Give My Dog to Uncle Sam", a hilarious (er, I mean "patriotic") WWII song illustrated by Susan Butcher and Carol Wood; Nicki Greenberg's "Bug" in which the heroine romances a toaster; Kieran Mangan's disturbing pet story (it's a cat-sized beetle, for cryin' out loud); Anton Emdin's lovely one-pager (as always, wish there were more!); "Punkin Moon" (by Lachlan Conn, I think, and reminiscent of Mat Brinkman); and David Nichols' "Evil Empire", a bizarre mix of personal lives and surreal advertising.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's other nice stuff by Peter Savieri, Ben Hutchings, Mandy Ord, Glenn Smith, Nick Potter, Q-Ray and still others. Along with the late, great Sick Puppy/Atomiser, this is one of the best anthologies I've seen out of Australia.

For more info on many of the contributors, check out this page at the Quickdraw site.

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UN FANZINE À LA TAILLE DE MES AMBITIONS #9 & #10

(10pp half-digest, SASE or trade from Anne Bacheley / 23, rue du Père de la Croix, Appt. C61 / 86000 Poitiers / FRANCE. Web: http://anne.bacheley.free.fr/ufaltdma.html)

Review by Christine Douville

This is the first perzine from France that I'd heard of. It's usually in French, but issue #10 also has two pages in English, plus a lot of drawings. Issue #9 was the one I liked best (it's only in French, though). It has a more personal feeling and is less abstract. This zine is a bit too short in my opinion – only ten pages – but ask for two issues and you might be satisfied!

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DWARF ATTACK Volume 6
by Greg Stump

Contact/harass Mr. Stump for information on how to order and what might be available in the first place; #6 is the latest)

Review by Tom Spurgeon

When cartoonist Greg Stump used to be news editor of the venerable, spiteful industry news and reviews magazine The Comics Journal, his best pieces were often one or two lines. After suffering an avalanche of public relations pressure from comics and regular press circles over forthcoming nuptials for the Man of Steel, Stump summed it up succinctly with an entire news story that read, “Apparently, Superman is getting married.” A sense of humor is a rare thing, particularly one with a taste for the absurd, and it’s therefore essential that more people read Mr. Stump’s weekly alt-paper comic strip, "Dwarf Attack". Running in Seattle’s The Stranger (when they used to do regular comics) and in the Portland Mercury (whom I believe still do), "Dwarf Attack" comes on strong and weird and smart. Stump’s most frequent plan of attack is to take a lame high-concept idea – an oversized dog, teeth in search of a mouth, a house that’s a person – and play it totally straight-faced and stiff until the essential stupidity of what he’s engaging wilts under the high-pressure seriousness and yields unexpected comic depth. In tone "Dwarf Attack" is probably closest to Michael Kupperman’s work as P. Revess in "Up All Night", only toned down slightly without the same degree of blunt humor being kneaded out of the concept up front. When it really cooks, "Dwarf Attack" comes closer to being the kind of strip that might be drawn by one of Kupperman’s characters rather than by Kupperman himself, and at those times it gives off the curious energy of an angry, sunburned man in bad pants. In other words: comedy gold. More people should see this work, either on-line through one of the Joey Manley sites or from the cartoonist directly in glorious mini-comic form.

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