By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
NBM Publishing is one of the country’s classier comics publishers, and its latest wave of books is evidence of that.
Standing out at the top is A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: Black Dahlia ($15.99), by Rick Geary. Like all of Geary’s “Treasury” books, it is a comprehensive look at a famous crime, rendered in Geary’s distinctive faux-woodcut style. And like all of Geary’s “Treasury” books, it is riveting.
The “Black Dahlia” murder is one of the most famous unsolved crimes in America. Elizabeth Short, 22, was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles in 1947 by a dog-walker who initially thought her corpse was a discarded maniken. You can understand why: She no longer looked human. Short’s body had been drained of blood, scrubbed meticulously, posed naked – and cut in half at the waist. Further investigation revealed ligature marks, evidence of torture and a “Glasgow smile” – her face cut ear to ear.
“The murderer took his time,” Geary reports. “This was a monster who knew what he was doing.”
Aside from her gruesome death, Short was no different than the many other pretty girls who have moved to L.A. in the hopes of breaking into the movies. She was a flirt, but reportedly held her suitors at bay. She was nicknamed “Black Dahlia” for her habit of wearing black (before it was cool) and her striking black hair. Mostly she worked as a waitress.
How could such an ordinary story end in such a shocking manner? What possible reason could a murderer have to perform such a gruesome act?
As is his custom, Geary lays out all the known facts without fear or favor. His dispassionate writing style and posed, almost formal, art style keeps the reader at a remove from the horror. As a result, one can make up one’s own mind as to what happened in a clear-minded way, despite what’s at the center of the story.
Meticulously researched, immaculately presented, “Black Dahlia” is another page-turning whodunnit from one of America’s finest and most unique writer/artists. Geary, as usual, is the true treasure of the series.
And speaking of national treasures …
As a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, it is incumbent on me to reference Elvis Presley at every opportunity. But even if I were from somewhere else, I’d have no trouble recommending Elvis: A Biography in Comics ($19.99).
Written and drawn by Fabrice Le Hénanff, the story is a straightforward biography. It follows Elvis from his birth in Tupelo, Mississippi, through all the famous highlights – Sun Studios in Memphis, Hollywood, the U.S. Army, Las Vegas, Hawaii and more – to his death at Graceland. The actual text is little more than a Wikipedia entry, familiar to the King’s legion of fans (and many non-fans).
The star here – aside from Elvis himself – is the artwork. Le Hénanff employs watercolor in a remarkably controlled way, limning beautiful portraits in every panel, not just of Elvis, but also fellow legends like Hank Snow, Jerry Lee Lewis , B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf and Roy Acuff, and famed places, like Sun Studios and Graceland. The work is almost photographic – many panels are lifted faithfully, in fact, from famous photographs – but imbued with the warmth and personality that only watercolor can bring. Le Hénanff’s work is so amazingly precise, his faces so mesmerizingly accurate, it makes one wonder if some other medium is involved, like colored pencils or pen and ink.
Regardless of its provenance, Elvis: A Biography in Comics is a gorgeous book, worthy of coffee table, library or Elvis shrine. You just can’t have too much Elvis.
That ends the pop culture segment of our overview. Now comes the classy stuff. To wit: The Louvre.
NBM has been publishing a series of books where France’s best cartoonists and a few international contributors have been invited to create graphic novels that in some way involve the famous French museum. As you can imagine, this has resulted in a lot of stories where the art comes alive, but other stories have imagined the Louvre as it is being excavated in the future (and the wild guesses the future historians make about us), or of the spirit of the museum helping an old man come to terms with his own death.
In recent months, NBM has produced two such works. Neither are the strongest in The Louvre Collection so far, but neither are they the weakest.
Cruising Through the Louvre ($22.99) is written and drawn by David Prudhomme, a French creator of bandes dessinées (graphic novels done in the Franco-Belgian style). He’s created a great many, and is perhaps best known for Rébétiko, a story set in 1930s Greece that mythologizes folk musicians (rebetes) that some see as symbol of East-West unity, and others see as representative of Turkish influence and criminality.
Cruising isn’t nearly as ambitious. Instead we follow a character as he looks for Jeanne (wife? lover? daughter?) in the Louvre, but he is just a plotter’s tool. As he moves through the museum, the reader sees a lot of cool art (the Louvre seems to have nothing but cool art) and the people who have come to view it.
Prudhomme sometimes fuzzes out the foreground so that the audience is vague but the art is in sharp focus. Sometimes he does the reverse. But mostly he juxtaposes the two. Sometimes it’s to show parallels (a modern couple smooching before statues of a pharaoh and his wife); sometimes it’s to show a constrast; sometimes the connection, if any, is lost on me.
As was the magical realism bit near the end, which involves a talking, flying, disembodied head. Yeah, I read the book and I don’t get it, either.
What does it mean? Well, early on Prudhomme’s protagonist (likely Prudhomme himself, researching the very graphic novel in the reader’s hands) tells someone on the phone that being in the Louvre is “like I’m walking inside a giant comic book. There are panels on the walls.” So Prudhomme might be telling us that it doesn’t mean anything; we’re all in a comic book.
Or maybe his point is made later, when his protagonist says, “I know [sic] longer know which way to turn … in this palace of beautiful randomness.” Randomness does seem to be the guiding principle here.
But the art – all in colored pencils – is very nice.
The second book, Guardians of the Louvre ($24.99) is the better of the two. It’s written and drawn by French-influenced manga artist Jiro Taniguchi (Summit of the Gods, The Walking Man), and yes, you read it back to front, like a manga.
Here, another unnamed protagonist who is likely the artist succumbs to a fever while in Paris. In his fever dream (or possibly some other reality, you be the judge) he is visited by the Winged Victory of Samothrace (a very famous statue). Victory informs him that each item in the museum has a story and soul, and she is the guardian of them all. She then takes him on a tour of time and space – he chats with Vincent Van Gogh, watches the art evacuated during World War II, etc. – so he (and we) see the stories behind the museum pieces.
The art here is a softer manga style than most I’ve seen, no doubt due to the Franco-Belgian influence. It’s very polished and inviting.
Two books about the Louvre? Now that’s classin’ up the joint!
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (captaincomics.ning.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
I haven't read Black Dahlia yet, but I am certainly looking forward to it. I missed the original solicitation, but when it came out I was at my LCS, and right when I picked it up, the owner said, "We got an extra copy of that, I'll sell it to you half off."
I told him, "Cool. I was going to buy it anyways."
What Rich Geary has does with his Treasury books has been incredible. I'm just upset with myself it took me so long to get into them. There hasn't been one I've read that I've been even slightly disappointed in.
Hear, hear!