Russian Olive to Red King

by Kathryn Immonen and Stuart Immonen

Of all the books I bought at TCAF this year, I think that this is the one that I will treasure the most, mostly because Kathryn and Stuart Immonen really take their time when signing a book.  Kathryn copied a number of words out of a Chekov novel to run perpendicular to the book's title on the title page, beneath which Stuart drew a lovely sketch of Olive, one of the book's protagonists.  It took a little while, but made this a unique purchase.

Russian Olive to Red King is a lovely, lovely book.  It's about a couple, Olive and Red, who live in a large city.  Red is an art writer, while Olive is a researcher.  We are given very few details of their life together, beyond meeting their dog, and learning that Red is not the most communicative of people outside of their relationship.

Olive leaves town for a while, to do some field work, but when flying into (I assume) Northern Ontario, the two-engine plane she is in goes down, and the pilot is killed.  While she is all alone in a wintry environment, Red is left all alone in their apartment, and the rest of the book charts the emotional journeys they take separately, but together.

This is a very poetic book (it was reminding me of The English Patient long before the scene with the cave), and Stuart reveals the story slowly through large, open panels showing landscape and sunset.  Towards the end of the book, the story switches into a section of prose, or prose poetry, more accurately, with sequences of abstracted drawings below them.  The connection between image and words, and how this whole section relates to the rest of the book, is not revealed until the very end.

I feel like I might have appreciated a little more clear resolution at the end, but by saying that, I also think I'm just being a little simple-minded.  This is a powerful and beautiful book.

Moving Pictures

by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen

I found this graphic novel from the Immonen's to be a big surprise.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from this book going in to it, as the creators are best known for their work in superhero comics (Patsy Walker: Hellcat and New Avengers, respectively).  Moving Pictures is a very literary book, concerning a young Canadian girl who had been studying abroad when the Second World War broke out.

Ila Gardner now works as a curator in occupied France, attempting to categorize and protect priceless works of art.  Rolf Hauptmann is with the German Military Art Commission, and he is also interested in these same works, although he is there to do the bidding of his masters in Berlin.  The two develop a conflict-ridden and largely unspoken relationship, their desire for one another smoldering beneath the constraints of their relative political and societal positions, the reality of their unequal footing, and their non-demonstrative personalities.

The story is told across two timelines, and the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions about exactly what is happening between the two, as they each pursue their own agenda.  Paris is eerily peaceful, although Ilsa regularly reports on the sudden disappearances of her neighbours.  In many ways, the book reminded me, with it's unspoken emotions and temporal confusions, of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.

Stuart Immonen takes a cartoonist's approach to the art with this book, rendering the story in minimalist figures and simple backgrounds (except for the scenes wherein works of art are discussed; in these cases, they are displayed behind the central figures).  Kathryn Immonen's writing is similarly stripped to the bone, leaving much more room than usual for the reader's imagination and musings.

I would much rather see the pair continue with works like this than their ventures at Marvel, and I appreciate the level of craft that was put into this book.