DISCIPLINE

DISCIPLINE BY DASH SHAW

Dash Shaw’s tour de force of a comic book Discipline tells the compelling story of Charles Cox, a fictional Quaker teenager who runs away from his pacifist Indiana home to fight for the Union Army. From the first chapter I was entranced: I haven’t sped through a book this fast in years. The black-and-white illustrations are austere and fierce, conveying most of the action and setting the pace of the book. The writing, consisting mostly of dialogue, private thoughts, and letters between family members, fluctuates between lyrical and sparse, giving insight into Quaker society in the Civil War era and Shaw’s characters..

The Quaker faith lends a riveting cultural backdrop to the book. Shaw, himself raised as a Quaker, interrogates the faith and the culture surrounding it throughout. His hero Cox grapples with his teenage desire to fit into mainstream Indiana society and his faith that denies “the vain fashions of this world” like singing, dancing, and fighting. His dialect and inexperience set him apart from the other soldiers but he quickly learns to conform by playing cards, suppressing his “doth”s and “thee”s, and fighting in several battles. Neither Shaw nor Cox shy away from the horrors of war.

Shaw spent six years scouring through libraries to write Discipline, and it shows. He incorporates passages from “actual letters and diaries of Civil War-era Quakers and soldiers” into his text. His characters’ letters don’t just feel authentic—in many cases, they are. Part meticulously researched war story, part coming-of-age graphic novel, Discipline immerses the reader into Cox’s battles with his wartime enemies, his loving family, and his divided mind.

New York Review Comics.

—Review by Ali Hintz

TONO MONOGATARI

TONO MONOGATARI BY SHIGERU MIZUKI TRANS. ZACK DAVISSON

Critically acclaimed mangaka Shigeru Mizuki’s collection, Tono Monogatari, has been skillfully translated from Japanese by Zack Davisson. The book, which is a beautiful display of gathered oral stories and folklore, demonstrates the importance of handing down stories from generation to generation. What began with the community of Tono telling stories amongst themselves became in 1910 a joint project between Kunio Yanagita and Kizen Sakasi as they attempted to write those stories down to preserve them during a time when folklore was being forgotten. Because of their work, and now the work of Mizuki and Davisson, we are able to remember, learn from, and enjoy the classic stories of yokai.

Brilliant illustrations—both black and white and color—intertwine with folklore, history, and tradition in this collection. The book opens with a brief history of Tono Monogatari and the people involved in making the book a reality. Then, we are taken on a journey with an animated Mizuki as our guide as he narrates the yokai for us. Interspersed between stories are bits of Japanese history that exemplify how these stories have shaped Japanese culture and continue to have an impact today. For example, after reading stories of evil spirits that roam the mountains near Tono, we learn that “travelers today never use the mountain pass called Fuefuki-Toge” because of its reputation. Instead, they will use the newer route, even though it is longer. These bits of cultural and historical information are what make this collection so special. Mizuki puts folklore into context which enhances its meaning. We are able to see the impact that storytelling has, the power with which it shapes life and our understanding of the world around us. Like Mizuki writes, “Whatever the truth may be, it is long lost to time. All that remains are legends.”

Tono Monogatari opens the door to a new way of experiencing Japan’s history and culture. Pick up a copy of this collection, read it, and share with others like the book itself requests: “May the legends continue to be told.”

Drawn & Quarterly.

—Review by Sam Campbell

JUSTINE

JUSTINE BY FORSYTH HARMON

Justine, an illustrated novel written and drawn by Forsyth Harmon, is an intimate, little thing meant to be swallowed whole. We meet Ali just as she falls into the cavern that is Justine, the girl behind the counter at the Stop & Shop. Throughout Justine, Ali intensely studies the titular character’s embodied chaos through the lens of longing, and while this is the engine of the book, it is a quiet one, because this isn’t just a story about the sexuality of a teenage girl: it is about all the forces leaning in on her, bending her toward self-destruction.

Though Justine seems to envelop this story, it is Ali who we know intimately, whose supremely adolescent existence burns quietly on the page, while Justine remains something akin to a spiteful phantom, thrashing around and breaking things, but doing little to prove her existence. For Ali, though, the slightest contact with Justine leaves a deep impression, evidenced by a rapidly-developing eating disorder and a newfound penchant for shoplifting.

Forsyth Harmon’s sweet illustrations lend a strangely immediate nostalgia to the experience of reading—as though we’re looking through the scrapbook of a life, simple objects and small moments gleaming with importance. It is fitting, then, how defined this book is by its era, the 90’s serving as just as much a setting as Long Island for these teens.

I’ll forgive Harmon the rude punch that ends the book (no spoilers) for the charm that emanates from its pages and for my satisfaction with the way it is cut off right at the moment where many storytellers would lean in. Harmon is not concerned with punchy plot points, sentimentality, or wise commentary. The result is a book so intimate it feels wrong to read—something deeply honest, and painfully relatable.

Tin House.

—Review by Lucy Shapiro

THE CONTRADICTIONS

THE CONTRADICTIONS BY Sophie Yanow

Sophie Yanow’s Eisner-winning graphic novel, The Contradictions, is a revelatory exploration of hitchhiking across Europe, living other people’s journeys, and finding out that anarchism isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Politics, poverty, loneliness, parenting, the law—all are fraught with contradictions.

Yanow does her own black and white illustration providing the thin lines of the world, and the people in it, space to breath and exist. Whether it is finding out that the promised zen does not appear from a road trip or from motorcycle maintenance or from brushing off a badass museum, Sophie, Yanow’s self-protagonist stand-in, learns that living someone else’s story by fitting in will cost more than anticipated.

 All good coming of age stories deal with pushing back against rules and expectations; Yanow’s contradictions show her own self-acceptance. To use a term like autofiction wouldn’t be quite right, but it gets at what Yanow does so earnestly and sincerely—telling a story about learning who you really are and what boundaries are needed to preserve that self, and of course there is the always fun lesson of how to use wikis to find the right French gas stations to hitchhike a ride away from Paris.

The humor in this book shines at its brightest in the myriad of characters which offer to give rides to Sophie and her anarchist vegan friend Zena: Greeks speaking Turkish, a famous Belgian photographer who walked from Amsterdam to Istanbul, and two stoners speaking English in a wonderfully crafted French accent.

 Yanow’s art is breathtakingly understated and masterfully weighted. Yanow, when asked about the difference between comics in France and America, said that in France, all comic artists are trained as fine artists, and Yanow’s emotive, thin lines do more work developing character and theme than most fiction does with entire plotlines. Sophie Yanow is a revelation.

Drawn & Quarterly

—Review by Scot Langland