I have to admit to never having watched Bro Town, though I have heard about it. Ant (Anthony) Sang, an Auckland-based cartoonist, was one of the creators of this animated television series. I also have to admit that I am not a big fan of graphic novels: I read this one for this year's Book Bingo and, sadly, the last graphic novel I read was for last year's Book Bingo! My idea of a good cartoon book is the original Asterix books.
The graphic novel I read last year (which has happily faded from memory) used a lot of anime techniques and I found it really hard to understand the page layout and work out which frame I was meant to be looking at in which order. There was a minimum of text with a lot of the story being told purely through the visuals. Unfortunately, the style of the drawings was such that I often couldn't understand what I was looking at; what the characters were doing. By the end of the novel I felt as bewildered as some of my student doubtless feel after reading what I consider a 'real' novel - I had a vague idea what it was about but didn't really understand it! I concluded that I was simply not in tune with graphic novels.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the style of Shaolin Burning was easy for me to follow and the artwork easy to understand and interpret. Sang used text to introduce scenes and to explain the characters' actions and motives, as well as simply for dialogue. Having been a fan of the David Carradine Kung Fu TV series as a child I was familiar with and sympathetic to the Kung Fu themes and storyline. I liked the fact that the central character was a 'kick arse' female fighter, and that she had been trained by a tough old lady kung fu nun. I read the whole book at one sitting, unlike last year's thankfully nameless graphic novel which I had to force myself to read in 10 minute bursts during silent reading times.
Overall I enjoyed Shaolin Burning and recommended it to my partner, who enjoys watching martial arts movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment