The most astonishing and touching aspect of this graphic novel is that it is based on Shigeru Mizuki’sOnward Towards Our Noble Deaths [1991] – ★★★★1/2
The most astonishing and touching aspect of this graphic novel is that it is based on Shigeru Mizuki’s own experience of being a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II, an event that affected him deeply, haunting him incessantly throughout his life and influencing his pacifist views.
Papua Guinea (New Britain), 1943. One unit of the Japanese Imperial Army finds itself cornered by the enemy, rapidly succumbing to starvation, dengue fever and hopelessness. On top of it all, the soldiers receive beatings and bullying from their superiors, and their brutal disciplinary regime is informed by one misguided chain of command and the army’s inflexible hierarchy. “New recruits are like tatami mats, the more you beat them, the better they are” – seems to be army commander’s credo. We see the perspective of one rookie soldier who is thrown in at the deep end into the new environment, and is forced to adapt quickly to the most absurdist directions from his superiors regarding the war, including orders to perform “noble suicides”. This tale of one doomed regiment is very simply drawn, including the characters, but most of the backgrounds are very detailed, perhaps further underlying the Japanese militarism’s idea of the inconsequential nature of individual lives, especially vis-à-vis the Emperor and the sense of “honour”.
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths is an unflinching look at the war in all of its dehumanising aspects, and would go well with Shōhei Ōoka’s Fires on the Plain, another harrowing anti-war book that considers the crippling war efforts of the Japanese at the end of the World War II....more
This graphic book tells the true story of the Khmer Rouge regime and its atrocities that took place in Cambodia betYear of the Rabbit [2020] – ★★★★1/2
This graphic book tells the true story of the Khmer Rouge regime and its atrocities that took place in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 through the eyes of a couple of families who strive to flee the war-torn country and their persecutors to survive. The author of the work was born just three days after the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime came into power and this is an account of his family’s struggles in 1975 as the new communist regime began to suppress all knowledge and culture in the country, later torturing, mass killing and starving some 1.5 to 2 million people. The book starts on 17 April 1975, and we see the events unfold through the eyes of doctor Khim, who, with his wife Lina and their small son, finds himself in an unreal situation with the victory of the revolutionary forces in the country. Khim and his family first flee their already occupied city Phnom Penh, but then find themselves sent to another town to get “re-educated”, facing inhumane working conditions and famine. The book finishes with the Vietnamese army’s move to free the country as Khim and his wife are forced to pose as smugglers to get to Thailand. They are later accepted as refugees and finally emigrate to France in 1985. Apart from the vivid narrative which is accompanied by detailed, colourful illustrations, some book pages also usefully show the insight into a life at that time, for example, the market value of products under the regime, Khim’s tips and tricks on how to survive when food is scarce, and the distinctive attributes of the Khmer Rouge soldiers.
The only weakness of the book is that, although the author does provide a page containing a family tree, it is possible to get confused in this story as to what family finds themselves where in the country and at what point in the story’s timeline. Overall, though, Veasna’s account is still one incredibly moving book about survival against all odds that brings powerfully to life one horrific point in the human history, paying tribute to all the innocent people caught up in the Cambodian genocide and bravely fighting for their families and justice....more
A deeply-felt work about human memories, making sense of the past and the anguish of passing years and lost hopes, a tribuClyde Fans [2019] – ★★★★1/2
A deeply-felt work about human memories, making sense of the past and the anguish of passing years and lost hopes, a tribute to one once-commercially successful and ambitious little world that is no more.
Seth (real name Gregory Gallant) is a Canadian cartoonist whose artistic style is said to remind of The New Yorker cartoons of the 1930s-40s. Inspired by a real business that was once in operation in Toronto, his graphic novel Clyde Fans follows a non-linear plot and two very different brothers (extraverted Abe and introverted Simon), whose father left them his business selling electric fans. The pair responds differently to the changing business environment, social demands and times and, in this story, we trace their lives through the life of a company that came to define them and their family, following them through their hopes and dreams, initial successes, bankruptcies, family tragedies and growing desperation fuelled by years of buried pride and reluctance to welcome the future. This reflective picture novel takes a very close look at nostalgia and asks whether there is something precious being lost every time we decide to walk with the changing times, or ahead of them. From the wisdom of the old age to “commercial” loneliness and misunderstandings faced in one’s youth, the novel asks – what is “success”, and what is “failure” in life? What is the nature of time and what it means to finally come to grips with its passage? How time changes us, or does not?
The book starts in 1997, but then events also move to 1957, 1966 and to 1975. In 1997, we follow one aging ex-salesman who goes through his daily routine and, while he does so, he talks to us about his past, his career and what it takes to succeed in a highly pressurised environment of sales and deal closures, that kind of an environment where true sincerity, friendship and human warmth are hard to come by. As he talks, we begin to understand that he, Abe Matchcard, inherited his business from his father, who, in turn, opened his shop “Clyde Fans” in 1937. Much “sales” wisdom is imparted to us, while we get to understand the loneliness of the profession and the power of habit: “A good sale is not unlike a military manoeuvre. Researched, studied, yet still spontaneous” [Seth, 2019: 92]; “It’s funny how long a man can simply keep doing what he’s always done – no matter how futile” [Seth, 2019: 63]; “The life of a salesman is a life of waiting between pitches” [Seth, 2019: 82]; and “you’ll get nothing in life if you won’t ask for it” [Seth, 2019: 91]. We learn that persistence counts in business and sales, but it so happens that it was failure to adapt that signalled Clyde Fans’ downfall. When air-conditioning started to appear, Clyde Fans missed the opportunity to stock this new technology too.
There is something of the Richard Yates-vibe to this novel, maybe because Seth wanted to portray the world of his parents and to capture some of the consequences of the Age of Anxiety world. One theme here could be the new generation’s feelings of being incapable (or fearful) of keeping up with their parents’ zeal for commerce and hard-work ethic when so much had changed in the world and it was not people’s decency, character or hard-work that began to matter or valued in the world of business anymore, but how fast can one talk, how fast can one sell, and whether future employees have the appearance of being hard-working, productive and respectable people.
The novel’s blue/dark-green images are effective in conveying a range of emotions, ideas and thoughts of the characters. How do we process memories? Why do we make certain decision in life (or, maybe, don’t make them?), and what makes “us” in the business world? Seth’s work does get quite metaphysical by the end.
☢ Clyde Fans means to say that behind every small business there are, or once were, real people with their real stories of hope, dreams of prosperity, and their share of successes and failures. Clyde Fans is a profound work full of philosophical questions about life and the meaning we attach to our daily jobs....more
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