Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Written by Paul Dini
Art by Eduardo Risso

A number of years ago, Paul Dini, who at the time was a writer on the Batman animated series (where he created Harley Quinn), was attacked one night, mugged, and beaten viciously.  Dark Night: A True Batman Story tells the story of what happened that night, and how Dini came back from the depression and self-loathing that event plunged him into.

The book starts with a quick biography, showing us how Dini always related to fictional, cartoon, and comic book characters, with Batman and his rogues gallery playing a very special role in his life.  As a boy, the shy and reserved Dini liked to imagine his favourite characters interacting with him, and this continued into adulthood.

When the beating happened, Dini was not in the happiest of places.  His career was going great, and he was very happy with the outer trappings of his life, but he was lonely.  The girl he thought he was dating let him know that she didn't see him as more than a friend, and he was constantly living in denial of how unhappy he was (even though, we learn later, he had engaged in a strange episode of self-harm not that long before).

After he was beaten, Dini's face was a mess.  He required surgery to repair his skull, and as he recovered, he spiralled into depression and drinking, skipping work, and frequently arguing with the fictional characters in his mind.

This is a stunningly honest book, told from the perspective of years of reflection and a better mental state.  Dini lays himself bare,  and along the way, questions the value of the superhero genre as role models.

Eduardo Risso is surprisingly reserved in his illustrations, reining in his usual penchant for experimentation in layout and perspective.  I've never seen him portray a story this way, and it works exceptionally well with the type of story he is telling.  His work here is gorgeous.

This is a good book to give someone who might be recovering from a similar situation, or who suffers a more general anxiety.  Dini makes it clear that people can recover from any number of bad events in their life, but that it takes a positive support network and a little clarity about a person's situation and feelings.  It's a very good, very unique book.

Charley's War Vol. 1: 2 June 1916 - 1 August 1916

Written by Pat Mills
Art by Joe Colquhoun

I have been wanting to dive into Charley's War, which ran in four-page instalments in British weeklies starting in 1979, for a while now.  I've always been interested in the First World War, and had always heard good things about this comic.  I've had a number of the hardcovers for a while now, but didn't have the first one, and wanted to wait and read them in order.

Charley Bourne is a sixteen year old boy who lies about his age to be able to go off and fight in the Great War, arriving at the Western Front in June 1916.  He's not the brightest of lads, which he knows, but he makes up for it in heart and courage.

He is stationed near the Somme, and his unit becomes involved in that great slaughter.  Pat Mills researched this title meticulously, and has Charley exposed to many of the depravities of war, including chemical gas attacks.  He does not spare any time in making the war feel patriotic or justified - it's a terrible thing, and while Charley knows it, he does his best to make it through with the help of his friend Ginger and various other soldiers we get to know through the course of the book.

Mills uses Charley's letters home, and his family's letters to him, to help provide a lot of the exposition, which is a very effective way to get to know the characters better.  He also shows the effects that the war has on the morale and mental well being of the soldiers.  As well, we see the last cavalry charge, probably of all time, and recognize how slow the people in charge of the war were to adapt to new technology and circumstances.

Joe Colquhoun's art in this book is frequently stunning, while remaining rather cramped.  He conveys a lot of information on each page, and gives a realistic portrayal of life in the trenches.

This is a very good book, although owing to the episodic nature of the original strip, it leaves the reader hanging, which is a problem as I don't own the next volume yet.  It's time to start hunting that down...

Colville

by Steven Gilbert

Colville is a surprisingly dark graphic novel by local cartoonist Steven Gilbert.  It's set in a fictional bedroom community where kids get themselves into trouble early, and chafe at their mundane surroundings.

David is a kid in his last year of high school, who already has a criminal record for some breaking and entering.  He's basically become persona non grata in his school and community, except in the eyes of his girlfriend Tracy, who he's a little dismissive of.  Van, the guy that got him in trouble in the first place, wants his help for a theft, and although David is reluctant, the thought of a thousand dollars (in early 1990s money) is too tempting.

The job?  Stealing a BMX bike from the son of a local drug dealer with biker affiliations.  David doesn't really know how this is going to turn out, but can't help fighting the bad feeling he has and going ahead with it anyway.

Oh, and famous serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka are running around in this community doing their thing - kidnapping and drugging teens.  That was the part that kind of threw me, as they represent a level of evil I didn't expect to come across here.

Gilbert lets the story play out in a manner that has it circling back on itself in a few places, revealing more information about the characters as it goes.  It's an interesting book, and I especially enjoy the large establishing shots that show us what the town looks like and provides a lot of atmosphere to the book.

I picked up the rest of Gilbert's work at TCAF this year, and am looking forward to reading it even more now.

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984

by Riad Sattouf

The Arab of the Future, Riad Sattouf's memoir of growing up a mixed-race French-Syrian child in late 70s and early 80s Lebanon and Syria, with interludes in France, has been a huge sensation in the French comics world.  This English translation is engaging and insightful, but I'm not all that sure I understand the extent of the hype surrounding it.

Sattouf's father, Abdul-Razak, was a Syrian studying in France when he met Sattouf's mother, Clementine.  He pursued and married her, and then Riad came along.  He was a beautiful child, with long blonde hair.  His father secured a professorship in Khadafi's Libya, and so the family moved there at a point when the government had outlawed personal property, and so families couldn't leave their home for fear that someone else would move in.

After a while, the family moved back to France, and then to Syria, where Abdul-Rezak got another professorship that allowed him to live in his family's village.  Sattouf either has incredible recall of his early childhood or has done a great job of reconstructing things, as this book shows a lot of detail, although many of them make sense as coming through a child's understanding of the world, hence his focus on how much everyone smelled of sweat.

Sattouf's father is a huge presence in this book.  He's portrayed as naive, vindictive, and loving, although quick to anger.  He's not an abusive character, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't give a lot of thought to how his career choices put his family in bad situations.  Clementine bothers me in this book.  She seems to just drift along in her husband's wake, appearing okay to be relegated to a secondary role, and being left in rooms with women she can't communicate with.

Sattouf shows us both the dysfunction of life under these dictatorships, and the realities of growing up under-supervised in rural villages where his appearance and lack of Arabic make him a target for bullying cousins.

In the final analysis, I enjoyed this book, and see it working alongside most of Guy Delisle's memoirs, but still don't see why this book, and its subsequent volumes, are such a sensation.