Yesterday, I finally got around the reading the latest comics world sensation, the near-700-page
Habibi, by Craig Thompson. I enjoyed it, though I had some strong reservations about a number of its elements. For a much more thorough discussion of its successes and failings, see
this extensive and discursive discussion at
The Comics Journal. One area in which the book undoubtedly does succeed is in its design, all Thompson's work, and which I want to show off here (mine is the UK Faber edition, though I believe it's pretty much identical to the US Pantheon edition). Click on any image for a
much larger version.
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| Front endpapers |
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| Chapter title page |
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| A whole mess of internal page spreads |
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| Back endpapers |
I also appreciate the fact that the ISBN, barcode and blurb is on a removable slip of paper, and so don't disfigure the back cover.
3 comments:
Just went down 4 different bunny trails to different articles. WHEW. Also, I didn't realize that the protagonist is an always-naked woman? Is it like, uncomfortable naked? Personally, I'm not quite sure I'm okay with looking at a naked woman every other page...
She's naked a LOT, since almost all of her interactions with the rest of the world are sexual in nature. There's a lot of sex in the book, and almost all of it is coercive in some way or other. This is one of the things I found troublesome.
Thanks for the heads up!
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