Girl in Dior

Writer and artist: Annie Goetzinger
Publisher: NBM

What's it about?
This book tells the story of the Dior fashion house through the eyes of a fictional journalist turned model. We meet Dior's four 'darlings' - the seamstress, secretary, muse, and fashion socialite (my terms). We are shown Dior's first show, the public's reaction, how Dior worked to develop his designs and how the rest of the house worked. We end with Dior's death in 1957. The back of the book is a lovely little mine of information. It lists his 22 collections, gives a brief description of his entourage (Humphrey Bogart! Lauren Bacall! Marlene Dietrich!), has a short glossary of job roles in the fashion industry, fabrics and accessories, and gives a bibliography.

Interview with Helen Bate, author of Peter in Peril

My last review here was Peter in Peril, a story about a Jewish boy living in Budapest during World War Two.  I was sent a copy of the book by the publishers and asked if I wanted to interview the author, well I enjoyed the book so of course I said yes.

You can read the review of the book here but as a brief reminder, it's told from the point of view of Peter and is suitable for ages 8 up.  Here go the questions:

Q1.  I understand that Peter in Peril is your first book and that you used to be an architect.  How did you get into comics and did being an architect have any influence on how you approached constructing the comic pages?

I gave up my architectural career after 10 years to do a degree in illustration and I initially illustrated some children’s books for Frances Lincoln and Harper Collins. The Peter story was done as a student project initially but in a very different form. I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to work with Janetta Otter-Barry to produce it in a way that would suit 8-10 year old children and the graphic story form seemed to be the one that best suited the complexity of the subject and the age range. I used more text than other graphic stories, as I wanted to allow the book to be read to a child. I also felt it was important with the subject matter to adequately explain to children what was happening in more detail.

I think my architectural background has quite an influence on my drawing style - drawing with a black line is a very big part of architectural drawing and I always tend to gravitate to that way of drawing… even though I’d quite like to have a looser style … but drawing is pretty much like your handwriting - it’s very personal to the individual. 

Peter in Peril: Courage and Hope in World War Two

Writer and artist: Helen Bate
Publisher: Otter-Barry Books

What's it about?
Peter is a boy living in Budapest in the 1930s. His family is Jewish and they fall victim to the anti-Semitic laws of those decades. It's told from Peter's point of view and he documents their lives through the war and in the years following. Peter and his family are real and the events shown in the story are true.

Northlanders: Sven the Returned

written by Brian Wood
illustrated by Davide Gianfelice
colours by Dave McCaig
letters by Travis Lanham
published by Vertigo 

What's It About?

It is 980 A.D. and the Norseman Sven has returned home to the Orkneys from Constantinople to claim his inheritance. His father is dead but as he enters Grimness Settlement he discovers that his ruthless uncle Gorm has claimed the inheritance for his own.

An outsider and a stranger Sven finds himself alone, fighting a one-man war to reclaim what is rightfully his and return to Constantinople with its warm, wealth and exotic women before the past he escaped long ago kills him. 

Gonzo. A Graphic Biography Of Hunter S. Thompson

written by Will Bingley
illustrated by Anthony Hope-Smith
foreword by Alan Rinzler
Publisher: SelfMadeHero

What's It About​?
“Over the course of Hunter S. Thompson's extraordinary life he was publicly branded a bum, a vandal, a liar, an addict, a freak and a psychopath. Only some of which are true,” so states the blurb of this book, a graphic retelling of the life of the infamous “gonzo” journalist from his earliest brush with the law at the age of nine to the time of his death in 2005. On the way he covers the 1972 American Presidential election, Watergate, the Fall of Saigon and the 1970 Kentucky Derby.

DC: The New Frontier, Volumes One and Two

DC: The New Frontier Volumes 1 and 2

Darwyn Cooke, Writer and Illustrator

Dave Stewart, Colorist

Jared K. Fletchter, Letterist

What's It About?
In a nutshell, DC: The New Frontier is a re-imagining of how the Justice League of America came to be.  Or, it is the 1950's re-imagined with modern-day sensibilities and social mores.  The reader follows the stories of dozens of DC heroes from the Silver Age of comic books during the mid-1950's, when superhero comics were losing popularity as they cope with both a changing world and a world-changing threat.

The book is a period piece, is heavy on the nostalgia and is set in the 1950's, just before the Silver Age when Golden Age (original) heroes were revamped and updated into the superheroes we know today.  In DC: The New Frontier, you'll see some characters before they became superheroes (such as the Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern) or when they were just starting out (such as The Flash.)  In all, this is Darwyn Cooke's starry-eyed homage to the heyday of the Justice League.

X-Men: Magneto - Testament

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colours: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterers: Artmonkeys' Dave Lanphear and Natalie Lanphear
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
The life of a Jewish boy and his family, living in Germany from 1934 (or thereabouts) to 1948.  At the start of the story young Max Eisenhardt is at school experiencing discrimination from his teachers, and at the end he has survived Auschwitz.

It's about the lies that the Nazis put forward, the degradation of the Jews and the Roma and the ways in which the persecuted groups within Nazi Germany survived, or didn't.  It is very much focused on the experiences of the victims, not the authorities.  It's about the methods and ways in which the Jews were sidelined and pushed out of society, resulting in their murder by millions in the camps.

Laika

Writer and artist: Nick Abadzis
Publisher: First Second
 
What's it about?
This is the story of the Russian fight to win the space race and the little dog they sent into orbit, Laika.  All events are centred around Laika, but it is not told from the perspective of Laika, or Kudryavka as she is named by various carers.  It's part fiction, part fact.

The story is narrated chiefly by three people, Korolev, Chief Designer of the space rockets, Yelena, dog handler for the programme, and fictionalised families that have cared for Kudryavka in her early years.

By using these different viewpoints Abadzis walks us through many aspects of Soviet life and we bear witness to the diffiuclties and contradictions facing everyday people, as well as the joys.  We learn about the cruelty of the ruling party, the ambition of your average Soviet citizen, the transition from Stalin's regime to Khruschev's, and we get an inkling of the effect that life in the gulags had on those poor souls sent there.

Incognegro

Incognegro

Writer: Mat Johnson
Artist: Warren Pleece
Publisher: Vertigo

What’s It About?
It’s the early twentieth century and Zane Pinchback is a reporter for the New Holland Herald, an African-American newspaper operating out of New York. Born with skin pale enough to pass as white, he works undercover to infiltrate lynchings and under the pen name Incognegro he works to expose the murderers who commit them.

His brother, his significantly darker-skinned brother, has been accused of murder. The murder of a white woman and in Mississippi, no less. The evidence is slight but the mob is ready and Zane knows its only a matter of time.