This quote is at the beginning of the compelling documentary Stories We Tell by actress/writer/director Sarah Polley. I highly suggest this film. It’s a fascinating example of how stories are constructed from multiple points of view, particularly as a portrait of a person that’s passed away. What is truth? What is fabrication? What is opinion? It’s worth your time.
Here’s the Stories We Tell film trailer:
This quote is at the beginning of the compelling documentary Stories We Tell by actress/writer/director Sarah Polley. I highly suggest this film. It’s a fascinating example of how stories are constructed from multiple points of view, particularly as a portrait of a person that’s passed away. What is truth? What is fabrication? What is opinion? It’s worth your time.
Here’s the Stories We Tell film trailer:
I consider myself a big nerd and comics seem to go hand in hand with the social status. I never really got into comics (or graphic novels) and when I did attempt I never knew where to start. There are millions of reboots and story arcs for the thousands of different superheroes out there but which ones are good and where do I start? It was Scott Pilgrim that started my journey into graphic novels and with Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds recent release, I thought now would be a perfect time to talk about the graphic novels I love.
As an easy way to distinguish between comics and graphic novels, I call single issues (30-40 pages) a comic and a graphic novel is the anthology that contains a full story arc (normally 4-5 single issues). What I find really interesting about a graphic novel is that it is simply a new way to tell a story. It is not always about the superhero, graphic novels can explore high concepts in a whole new way.
Take the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize, Maus by Art Spiegelman. In this story we read about Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, it is biography of living and surviving Hitler’s Europe. The graphic novel not only addresses the holocaust and life in a war torn country it does it in a unique way. Exploring the reality and fears of surviving in a visual way, the Jews are depicted as mice and the Nazi’s hunting them as cats.
There is also the autobiographic story of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis, a coming of age story of a girl living in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. The whole concept of cultural change works really well in this graphical depiction. There is even an animated adaptation which is worth checking out (even if it is exactly the same). If you prefer a more quasi-autobiographical story maybe try Ghost World by Daniel Clowes or even something by Chris Ware like Jimmy Corrigan or Building Stories.
Finally, if you prefer your graphic novels to be about superheros or people coming to terms with their new found powers, I have some suggestions for you as well. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction is the first story arc in this new Hawkeye series and explores a life of a superhero outside fighting crime and saving the world. Also by Matt Fraction, with the help of Chip Zdarsky is the weird and wonderfully dirty Sex Criminals. This is a story of a woman that discovers that time freezes after an orgasm and the shenanigans she can get up to with so much quiet time. This graphic novel will not be for everyone; if you want something very different that is full of dirty visual puns then I would recommend it.
I would love to recommend more comics but some of my suggestions are not yet released as a complete story arc yet. If you are interested in more graphic novel suggests let me know in the comments below. I hope this will give you some suggestions if you have never tried a graphic novel before. I’m also happy to take more recommendations in the comments below. Happy reading.
Tweets and blog posts made it clear over the weekend, but Pantheon Books has spelled out what Chris Ware told attendees of the CPAP meeting in Chicago. BUILDING STORIES, his highly anticipated new book, will be a boxed set of small volumes. Or as tweeter Kathleen Dunley put it:
And here are more pictures:
BUILDING STORIES comes out in October and it’s certain to be at the top of the list for graphic novel readers — and for those who want to give a beautiful, unique book as a Christmas gift.
Buildings are like books with stories that last
They tell us our present and also our past!
The outside of a building says quite a lot.
About setting, about character, and even about plot.
Beloved Children’s Author Gives Advice to Parents of Budding Architects
National Building Museum Online sat down with Isabel to discuss her work and her advice for the parents of budding architects.
National Building Museum Online (NBM Online): As an urban planner and architectural historian, what motivated you to create books for young children?
Isabel Hill: Quite honestly, I was inspired to write my first children's book, Urban Animals, by my own daughter, Anna. When Anna was younger we used to take walks in Brooklyn where we live and I would always point out architectural details. One day, as we were wandering around our own neighborhood, I stopped to point out an interesting floral detail on a building and Anna interrupted me saying, "Mama, there is a dog on that building!" So my wonderfully-observant 5-year old daughter gave me the idea to create books for young children about architecture.
NBM Online: What was the inspiration behind your latest book, Building Stories?
Isabel Hill: For many years I worked as an urban planner in an old industrial neighborhood in New York. I walked by a building with spectacular, yellow, terra-cotta pencils on the outside and just had to find out why they were there. I researched the building and discovered that it was the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory, famous for making those yellow, Number Two pencils that were used for generations all across America. Fast forward to two years ago: as I began to brainstorm about a second children’s book on architecture, the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Building came to mind and inspired the book.
NBM Online: In Building Stories you look at the details of a building as being the characters, plot, and setting of a story. Have you always thought of buildings in this way?
Isabel Hill: No, this was a new concept for me but I think it works extremely well. Buildings do have stories and, when you think about it, what goes on inside can be mysterious as well as educational. Sometimes a building can have many plots and characters depending on what goes on inside and who is involved with the building.
NBM Online: What advice do you have for the young readers who enjoy your books?
Isabel Hill: I am so excited about these books and want them to be the catalyst for walking around one’s own neighborhood and observing all the interesting architecture that surrounds us. My advice would be to go out, walk the streets, take the books as your guides, but find your own architectural treasures. Photograph them, draw them, write about them, and share what you find with other children and adults.
NBM Online: What advice do you have for parents of budding architects?
Isabel Hill: I think it’s great for parents to read the books out loud, to help their children tackle some of the harder words, and to ask their children what they see in the books that relates to what they see in their own neighborhoods.
NBM Online: As an architectural photographer, what is your favorite city to photograph?
Isabel Hill: I must admit I love the city I now call home—New York—because it is so vast and has so many different kinds of buildings, architectural styles, and fantastic details. But Washington, D.C. is the place I used to call home, and I have a huge affection for the beautiful choreography of scale, m
A big sad box full of little heartaches….
OMG!!! I LOVE the chapters of Building Stories we’ve received so far and I was already really looking forward to the collection. But this is just….OMG! So cool!!!
I see the cover of the previously released volume on the screen there. Don’t tell me this is going to include a copy of the very same book? That would take up pretty much half of a box that size.
Not that it would stop me from buying it like crazy.
Lovely! Chris Ware can do no wrong, in my book. Every year when a new Ware book comes out, it’s better than Xmas for me.
Felt Duchamp’s Box in the Valise was always a great idea and Ware has given it a current, graphic sensibility and purpose – now if it included a mini replica of one of the objects in the stories… omg.
Finally!
I blame Chris Ware and the small font he uses for my needing to wear reading glasses. I still look forward to anything new by him though (grin)!
The only complaint I have is Chris works really large, his artwork is really detailed, but he most often packages it in a greatly reduced size. It’s almost like he;s saying, “If I make this really small maybe no one will notice it.”
I was at this Jack White concert tonight and thinking about how he makes his vinyl art objects. It’s not only the content that’s art; the packaging is, too. Chris Ware is doing the same thing. It’s pretty cool. We’re living in an interesting time for art.
Does it come with a loaded revolver so you can end your suffering after reading Chris Ware’s horribly depressing stories? Beautiful stuff, but never cheerful.