A review by rebus
The Graphic Canon, Volume 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons by Russ Kick
2.5
I'd always found Kick's work and intellect to be mediocre, even if I enjoyed some of the material in his Disinformation series.
He's a bit pretentious in his literary tastes, as I found the Book of Esther, the work of Lucretius, and the Apu Ollantay in particular to be bad literature (as we most in this volume that was presented merely as images without words). The adaptation of the Divine Comedy was just poor. I also personally don't care at all for Shakespeare, even in modern language, which Kick joins the chorus of saying is the greatest writer ever (a bland and pedestrian take for someone so opposed to mainstream culture). Many of these were simply cheap marketing, excerpts from unabridged graphic novel adaptations, and not a single one made me want to seek out the full length versions. The Tale of Genji is also a bit too primitive for me to join the chorus that considers it the first novel, and I would hardly consider it still the crowning work of Japanese culture in an era that has given us the sophisticated works of Kobo Abe and Haruki Murakami.
The previews by Kick were largely unnecessary and often told too much of the tales (though many were so poorly told that it WAS needed). These too served as crass marketing for the creators.
I did very much enjoy many pieces, such as the lovely adaptation of the Wife of Bath, Gulliver's Travels, and the work by Rick Geary, Will Eisner, and Robert Crumb, and I also was forced to recall one of the great lessons about literature that I'd somewhat forgotten: much of the great literature throughout history was written by criminals, from Voltaire to Genet, and the reason world literature has largely stunk for the last 40 years is that it's all done by precious MFA students from the wealthy elites or upper middle class.
He's a bit pretentious in his literary tastes, as I found the Book of Esther, the work of Lucretius, and the Apu Ollantay in particular to be bad literature (as we most in this volume that was presented merely as images without words). The adaptation of the Divine Comedy was just poor. I also personally don't care at all for Shakespeare, even in modern language, which Kick joins the chorus of saying is the greatest writer ever (a bland and pedestrian take for someone so opposed to mainstream culture). Many of these were simply cheap marketing, excerpts from unabridged graphic novel adaptations, and not a single one made me want to seek out the full length versions. The Tale of Genji is also a bit too primitive for me to join the chorus that considers it the first novel, and I would hardly consider it still the crowning work of Japanese culture in an era that has given us the sophisticated works of Kobo Abe and Haruki Murakami.
The previews by Kick were largely unnecessary and often told too much of the tales (though many were so poorly told that it WAS needed). These too served as crass marketing for the creators.
I did very much enjoy many pieces, such as the lovely adaptation of the Wife of Bath, Gulliver's Travels, and the work by Rick Geary, Will Eisner, and Robert Crumb, and I also was forced to recall one of the great lessons about literature that I'd somewhat forgotten: much of the great literature throughout history was written by criminals, from Voltaire to Genet, and the reason world literature has largely stunk for the last 40 years is that it's all done by precious MFA students from the wealthy elites or upper middle class.