So at the beginning of the semester I picked up a graphic novel called "Tricked", by Alex Robinson. It followed six random people living in New York and showed how their lives intersected, merged, and finally exploded together in the finale. I really loved the art and I reallllly loved the characters, so I recently picked up another graphic novel by Alex Robinson, "Box Office Poison".
"Box Office Poison" is a mammoth, 600-page series of comic anecdotes about a large cast of characters--in a similar style to "Tricked", it follows a wide range of people, some connected, some not, who enter into relationships and make important decisions in New York. They have to deal with insecurity and break-ups and career dead ends.
Am I making this sound boring? It's not boring. Alex Robinson excels at developing likable, believable, varied characters. The relationships he builds are realistic and heartbreaking, at times. The art style is interesting and clean (all black and white, sharp lines, et cetera). He develops the story-lines in surprising and satisfying ways.
It was quite a read, though--600 pages ain't no joke. For that reason, I wouldn't recommend it to non-comic readers. But it still deserves at least 4 out of 5 stars.
2 comments:
I'm a little confused. . . What a surprise. . . So you've got 600 pages, and a "large cast of characters" but how does it work? I mean, is it set up like a broad sitcom? Today we visit Jan & Rick who oddly meet Vinny in a coffee shop. This same Vinny we address in the next expisode. Or does it meander? We follow Jan & Rick up to the point where they meet Vinny. In other words we go into the coffee shop with Jan & Rick but we leave with Vinny, and stay with Vinny untill he meets Silvia. At which point we launch into a flash back into Silvia's dramatic past as a traveling dog claw nailpolish & ear/tail ribbon salewoman.
No no no. It's split into anecdotes, and basically every character's life is a completely separate TV show. So there are several different TV shows going around and sometimes the casts overlap. We follow Sherman and Dorothy around for a while, for a beginning-middle-end, and then we jump somewhere totally different and follow Eddie for another beginning-middle-end. I'm making it sound confusing but it's not. Maybe you should read it, Andrew John!
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