BOOKS @ home
Bix By Scott Chantler Simon and Schuster/Gallery 13; 256 pages; $39.99
In Canada, we’re accustomed to seeing beautiful work by award-winning cartoonist Scott Chantler, but this book is particularly special.
“Bix” is a graphic biography of Bix Beiderbecke, and like the jazz great himself, it doesn’t say much. There’s minimal dialogue, and its expressive, silent art, all oriented horizontally, tells the story.
A book of this length with just a few dozen words shouldn’t work, because comics rely on carefully paced dialogue, so each page holds the reader’s eye for a time. Chantler, however, varies the number of panels per page, the page layouts and the content of each panel, to pull off the trick perfectly.
And it reflects the mood of the story. Frenetic scenes of dancing through the jazz age are crowded, while sad moments, including Beiderbecke’s death at 28, are in sparse, measured arrangements. This book’s a gem, and so is Chantler.
Little Russia By Francis Desharnais Pow Pow Press; 180 pages; $24.95
One of the dozens of graphic novels due to launch at last week’s cancelled Toronto Comic Arts Festival, “Little Russia” is the first publication in English of a book that already drew enthusiasm in its original French.
It describes one family’s links to a northern Quebec community. It may sound like many of Canada’s pastoral tales, but this village is different: it’s run on co-operative principles. Its name is Guyenne, but people call it Little Russia, because everybody works together and saves 50 per cent of their income for the greater good.
In an appealing cartooning style, Desharnais tells his grandparents’ story of struggles and optimism during tough times for rural areas and the co-operative movement. It’s full of intriguing ideas and presents hardships and injustices alongside the successes, and it’s a story of settlers and aspirational, imperfect humanity. Everyone should read it.
Sports Is Hell By Ben Passmore Koyama Press; 60 pages; $15
Ben Passmore has given us another compelling satire of North American life and culture, with help from Canadian indie publisher Koyama Press, specialist in making quirky books available here.
In “Sports Is Hell,” society breaks down against the backdrop of a Super Bowl, and we’re treated to violent revolution, simple violence, ridiculous protesters and the political controversies of football. This book has a lot to say about the factionalism in American life, along with race, gender, religion and more.
Passmore, a talented cartoonist who deserves far more attention than he gets, says it all in a downright hilarious way. There’s slapstick in the tragedy and an art style that reflects the best underground comix. It’s gross while also being subtle, and I snorted with laughter quite a lot.
There’s a story in it, too. This is great work, and worth a look.
Familiar Face By Michael DeForge Drawn & Quarterly; 176 pages; $24.95
The prolific Michael DeForge, who never seems to stop finding new ways to make city life look ever more bizarre, is back with another tense book straight out of left field.
Prophetically published just as the pandemic started to hit, “Familiar Face” is about a city that never stops changing. The streets, buildings and rooms twist and morph overnight, along with the bodies of the residents, who look at old photographs and can’t even decide if they’re in them.
It’s the story of an unnamed narrator who has a job reading anonymized complaints made to the government, although it’s never clear if the complaints are addressed. It’s a bleak, paranoid existence in a pointless bureaucracy all depicted, as usual, in DeForge’s colourful, creative style.
And, as usual, it’ll leave you pondering its meaning — and your own life — long after you finish reading.