Reviews

Insomnia Cafe by M.K. Perker

bfmermer's review

4.0

Hikaye umduğumdan daha güzel çıktı, mutluyum. İki sıkıntım var sadece. İlk olarak bana kalırsa elindeki malzemeyi daha iyi kullanabilirmiş Perker. Karakterler daha da derinleştirilse, hikaye biraz daha dallanıp budaklansa daha uzun ve doyurucu bir çizgi roman olabilirdi. En azından fikir ve karakterlerin buna imkan sağlayacağını düşünüyorum. Bir de siyah beyaz çizgi romanları oldum olası sevmem, hani bazı durumlarda esere gerçekten yakıştığını kabul etmek gerekiyor ancak bana göre İnsomnia Cafe bu eserlerden değil. Renklendirilseydi daha güzel olabilirdi. Sonuç olarak bir oturuşta rahatlıkla bitecek güzel bir hikaye ve iyi çizimler görmek istiyorsanız İnsomnia Cafe doğru tercih olur. Umarım ileride bir şekilde sinemaya uyarlandığını görebiliriz, beyazperdede izlemenin de çok eğlenceli olacağına eminim.

verkisto's review

2.0

I’ve been on a bit of a graphic novel kick lately (in part because I’m trying to work my way through Perdido Street Station), and this one caught my attention because it features a library of books that are copies of books as they are being written by their authors. Once the books are complete, they disappear from the library, but you can always come back later to see what else that author is working on. It reminded me a little bit of the library in Sandman, and I was curious to see where this story would take that idea.

Unfortunately, the library isn’t the central part of this story. It’s an aside, really, but to consider something as grandiose as that library an “aside” should give you a little bit of an idea as to where this story takes you. It’s about a man with insomnia who’s mixed up in the black market for rare books, and during one of his bouts of sleeplessness, he stumbles across a café that stays open late at night. It is, of course, the Insomnia Café, and it’s there that he meets a woman who introduces him to the library.

From there, the story stumbles into a surreal sort of sequence of events that I’m still not sure I understand, and there is where I think the story fails. The author attempts a sort of twist at the end of the story where you’re supposed to be asking whether or not the events really happened, or whether they were just a figment of the person’s imagination, and to be honest, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think. There are no clues anywhere in the story that suggest one interpretation over another, and that’s frustrating to me. If you can lead me up to that twist and then spring it on me in such a way as to where I can think back on the entire story and find the clues that would support that interpretation, then you’ve accomplished a great thing. Shirley Jackson did a remarkable job of that in “The Lottery,” but M.K. Perker just throws a few things together and expects that to wrap up the story.

The sad thing of it all is that there was a lot of potential in this story that didn’t really go anywhere. The story is one that will stick with you for a while, and some of the imagery lingers, but the end result felt like something was missing. In fact, it felt like a large part of the story was missing. Was it the editorial process? Was it the result of a first-time graphic novelist not getting it completely right? I don’t know, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. I just wish the author had taken more time to develop the characterization in the story.

cgntvdssnc's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

patrick_114's review

2.0

Lopsided. Great beginning and middle but the end was light weight. Great art and idea, though.

rebus's review

4.0

A wonderfully paranoid little neo-noir that is themed around books--and a mystical library--that has beautiful and detailed line work. 

secrethistory's review

2.0

Insomnia Cafe is decent. The tale, not very well fleshed out, concerns a lonely insomniac named Kolinsky who is caught up in something magical and dangerous--the Archives, as shown to him by the barista at the Insomnia Cafe, Angela. The Archives have books in the process of being written, and not yet published. Meanwhile, Oblomov, a man who Kolinksy once greatly displeased during his time as a rare book expert, is out to ruin his life.

The story is too short. Nothing is fleshed out quite enough to make me really care, the way I do when reading a book with characters I have gotten to know and love. Kolinksy is the only character with more than one or two traits, and even he could use a little work. The dialogue is sometimes unnatural, too. Instead of showing the characters doing things in the artwork, it's told in the dialogue. This is pretty rarely done, and not horribly noticeable.

The artwork is very unique for a graphic novel--it seems more comic strip or New Yorker than graphic novel. M.K. Perker, author and artist, has done work for the New Yorker and Mad, which prints strips,explaining the style. I think it works very nicely, and is often quite impressive. Faces especially are very detailed and emotive.

In short: the story is good, but left me wanting much more. The black and white artwork is different from that of most graphic novels and shows a lot of talent on the part of the artist. The ending, without any spoilers, seemed like a bit of a cop-out and nearly a cliche, but it wasn't horrible. I'd recommend Insomnia Cafe to people who like quick mysteries and graphic novels.