Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203080287
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Certainly the most ambitious of the bunch is Will Eisner's "To the Heart of the Storm" (Kitchen Sink Press. $14.95). Eisner, one of the deans of American comic art, is telling a thinly fictionalized graphic autobiography here.
The protagonist is Willie, a boy growing up in New York in the 1920s and '30s. But the story begins in 1942, as the young draftee boards a train heading to an unknown destination. That journey provides the frame for a tale of immigrants, anti- Semitism, politics and economic hard times. As he leaves, Willie remembers his father's early career in pre-World War I Vienna, his mother's troubled family and his parents' difficult marriage.
Neighbors, friends, rivals and bullies loom large in Willie's life. Eisner tells it wonderfully. His style is a fascinating mix of naturalism and expressionism. Realistic details and characterizations flow across backgrounds that range from blank white to pure, thick black. The focus shifts clearly from present to past and back.
As an artist/writer, Eisner is in complete command of his medium. And that medium is well-suited to this serious material. As Raymond Chandler said of "The Maltese Falcon," any form that is capable of producing "To the Heart of the Storm" is not, by hypothesis, incapable of anything.
Eisner analyzes that form in "Comics and Sequential Art" (Poorhouse Press. $18.95). First published in 1985 and expanded in 1990, the book is a delightful introduction to the subject. Beginning with Oriental pictographs and lettering, he shows how words and pictures can be woven together to create something that's more than either. His restaging of Hamlet's soliloquy on a ghetto rooftop is a fine example.
Eisner explains the mechanics of graphic fiction - panels, pages, imagery, timing, suspense, settings, characters, etc. Even those who aren't specifically interested in graphic storytelling should take a look at this book. The same techniques are used in films and on television to sell us everything from pretzels to presidents. If we learn how these words and images are used to manipulate our emotions and intellect, then perhaps we'll recognize it when we're being manipulated.
The shorter works of crime novelist Andrew Vachss have been translated to graphic form in "Hard Looks" (Dark Horse Comics. $2.50). The four stories in the first issue range from "pure" illustration to "pure" fiction. "Dumping Ground" is told virtually without words or explanation, while "Statute of Limitations" is a short story with one illustration. The other two are more conventional. All four are pure Vachss; terse, fast-paced, grim and surprising with a sharp sense of irony.
Pulitizer-prize winning editorial cartoonist Tom Toles' newest collection is "At Least Our Bombs Are Getting Smarter" (Prometheus Books. $9.95). He uses a carefully simplified style to comment on a host of complicated issues: the budget, the Gulf War, space program, lawn chemicals. Though he is definitely a populist and no fan of Ronald Reagan or George Bush, Toles knows that the blame comes back to each of us. And our own finger-pointing denial - finding new "enemies" from Japan to South America - is a large part of our problem.
At his best, Toles manages to be pointed, perceptive and critical in the right sense. At his worst, he's just funny.
by CNB