In The Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust - A Graphic Novel

 

In The Shadows of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust

"Doing Time" by Kazuichi Hanawa

"Doing Time" by Kazuichi Hanawa is truly an unique and amazing document of life in a Japanese prison.   First of all there is hardly any narrative, but just the daily activity of a prisoner in his cell with the others, but beyond that it goes into almost fetish like detail about the food served in prison.  Which according to Hanawa is not bad, not bad at all!

There is also architectural design of the cells as well as a detailed account in what is in each cell.  How many towels a prisoner can keep, or how many books as well as observations on toilet practices and when and how one can take a bath.  Prison clothes is also shown in great detail, and how one folds their bed, shirts, pants and so forth.

In a way I am sort of reminded of a Robert Bresson film where you are seeing factual actions as they start their day to their bed time.  There is nothing harsh about this prison, in fact it looks nice in many ways.  But still one gets the impression of being locked up with others - and dealing with the issue of space, work and eating together.   Also there are flights of fantasy or surrealism, but it fits perfectly with the theme of the graphic novel, or more rightly this memoir.

Hanawa, the author and artist, was arrested for carrying and owning an illegal weapon - a gun.  Without a doubt the NRA would be tearing their hair out of their head's if they read this - but Hanawa doesn't make any bones or any thought of un-justice - life is what it is.  Without a doubt I feel this book is very much a masterpiece.

The Adventures of TinTin/"Red Rackham's Treasure" by Hergé, plus Documentary on TinTin

I have known TinTin all my life and i must have read the series as a very very young tot, or my mom read them to me.   For the past 40 something years I have been avoiding re-reading the books, while at the same time being very attracted to the author/artist Hergé's artwork.  in fact I am totally nuts about it.

It is fascinating that Hergé did a remarkable amount of research for his narrative/artwork.  He made models of locations/ships, and in many ways they are sort of like little films or at the very least visual film treatments - but alas, that doesn't really matter, because the work really does it best on the printed page.  "Red Rackham's Treasure" is the second TinTin book, and my understanding is that it is sort of attached to the first adventure "The Secret of the Unicorn" which I will read next.  Nevertheless "Red Rakham's Treasure" stands up on its own, and all the eccentric characters are fully exposed and explained.  What we have here is a boy's adventure,  but with very well dressed characters.  And that alone is worth the attention, and seeing how Hergé works and thinks, this has to be an important aspect to the aesthetic of TinTin.

This book as well as the others I will read shortly are young reader's edition's, which is exactly (at least I have been told that) the same as the original, except the images are bigger, and each title has an additional 20 pages of bonus material, which is quite interesting.

Down below is a documentary on Hergé and his invention TinTin.


"TinTin & I Documentary Part 1


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 2


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 3


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 4


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 5