Category Archives: Graphic novels

Aya of Yop City: written by Marguerite Abouet, drawn by Clément Oubrerie

19 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Books in translation, Fiction, Graphic novels, The reading challenge

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Translated from French by Drawn & Quarterly

The three young women in Aya of Yop City, the first in a series of graphic novels, have boys, parties, marriage and future careers on their mind. They rebel against their parents, pick unsuitable boyfriends and try to figure out their place in the world. The three friends—Aya, Adjoua and Bintou—live in Youpougon (known as Yop City in slang), a neighbourhood of Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire.

The central character, Aya, is a hard-working and ambitious young woman who wants to become a doctor. Adjoua and Bintou, on the other hand, are interested in the “three c’s”: “coiffure, couture et chasse au mari” (hairstyles, clothes and the hunt for a husband, preferably a rich one). It’s a conventional role for a woman, and something that Aya’s parents want for her too. But she has other plans and is determined to see them through.

Aya’s parents set up a meeting with Moussa, the spoiled and none-too-bright son of Aya’s father’s boss. Aya is not at all interested, but her friends are. Moussa has money to spend, and takes Bintou partying. Meanwhile, he is also seeing Adjoua. The relationship has gone beyond partying, with the inevitable outcome—she becomes pregnant.

The family is central, and the girls’ families are very much part of the story. In the first few panels, the reader is introduced to all of them. When Adjoua becomes pregnant, she goes to see Aya’s mother, Fanta, who is a healer. The mother and daughter are the core of this community—both, in their own ways, provide succour and level-headedness.

Aya of Yop City is, in many ways, a universal story, and young women (or those of us who were once young!) will identify with it. But it is also a glimpse into life in Yopougon. Young people go to the maquis, open-air restaurants that are informal and cheaper than proper restaurants. And once the maquis close, it is where lovers meet at night. At the end of the book, there is a recipe for sauce arachide, the peanut sauce that is typical of the region. And that is what is so great about this series—this mix of the familiar and the new. (An aside about the familiar: as a young woman living in my hometown, I had to put up with visits from so-called eligible bachelors living abroad who were scouting around for a nice Indian wife! So Aya’s visit to Moussa’s family resonated with me.)

The book combines humour and social critique with believable characters. I felt like I’ve met some of these people, and I want to know what happens to them.

The book is beautifully drawn by Clément Oubrerie and captures the vibrancy of both the place and characters. Although it is not autobiographical, it is based on Marguerite Abouet’s experiences growing up in the Côte d’Ivoire. Like many Africans, she was fed up of the media’s focus on the wars, famines and poverty, and wanted to present the day-to-day life of ordinary Africans. She has succeeded with this very enjoyable series.

(The series has been translated from the French into English by Drawn and Quarterly.)

V for Vendetta: written by Alan Moore, illustrated by David Lloyd

08 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Fiction, Graphic novels

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V_for_vendettaWritten in the 1980s, this graphic novel is set in another one of Alan Moore’s dystopian alternative futures. It’s the late 1990s in Britain. A war and a near-miss nuclear conflict has led to the takeover by a fascist government, with Adam Susan at its head. The government is presented by Susan as paternalistic, with a Head (represented by Susan), an Eye (CCTV), Ear (listening devices), Mouth (propaganda) and Finger (secret police). At the centre of all this is a supercomputer, Fate, whom Susan is in love with. Ironically, the Head’s weak point is his heart—as far as he has one.

As always, there is at least one thorn in the side of totalitarian governments, and in this case, that thorn happens to be V—a mysterious figure in a cape and Guy Fawkes mask who kills, bombs and causes chaos within the establishment. We first meet him as he rescues Evey Hammond, a 16-year-old factory girl out soliciting for the first time, trying to make a little extra money to survive. Unfortunately, the men she approaches are from the Finger. Arrogant because of their impunity, they threaten to rape and murder her but are killed by V who appears out of nowhere. V takes Evey to his hideout and cares for her, grooming her to eventually take his place.

V is one of Moore’s most enigmatic figures. We never see his face nor know his real name, and everything we know about him is through the novel’s other characters. When Evey finally has a chance to unmask him, she decides against it, feeling that something would be destroyed by revealing the man behind the mask (I wasn’t even sure for a while that it was a man). V seems to be everywhere and always in control, going after people linked to his past, a past we learn about halfway through the novel when the diary of one of his victims is found.

Alan Moore is very explicit that V does not want to save the country but to free it—two very different things. V wants to bring down the government, not because he can take over but because ordinary citizens can have the freedom to decide for themselves. So V destroys the structure of the establishment, and then sits back through the resulting chaos, certain that once it is over, people will forge a new and more just society. This is a struggle between fascism and anarchy. Moore’s universe is never black and white, but always a morally ambiguous grey. V is a “good guy”, but like the so-called superheroes of Watchmen, he is flawed. His history (or what we can piece together of it) suggests that he is not entirely sane. And, as in Watchmen, Moore raises the question of whether the end justifies the means, and whether killing can ever be justified for the greater good. He paints a frightening picture and doesn’t provide any answers, leaving it to us—the readers—to draw our own conclusions.

You can also read the review of Watchmen.

Watchmen: written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Graphic novels

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watchmen-bookIt is 1985, and Richard Nixon is into his fifth term as president of the United States. The superheroes (the watchmen), who have been helping the country, are outlawed. They are now in hiding, retired or secretly working for the US government. One night in October, a watchman, Edward Blake—who is better known as the Comedian and who has helped the US win the war in Vietnam—is murdered. And so begins a complicated story that is not only a murder mystery but also a political thriller.

While the Watchmen is a graphic novel set in an alternate reality, it is close enough to actual events to be believable. This is not a conventional superhero story. The watchmen in the book do not have superhuman powers (except for one). They are vigilantes in costume, and most of them are not even particularly likeable. But with their fears and insecurities, they are convincingly real. They do not battle evil from another planet—there is plenty of it on our own. And each one of them carries the demons and emotional baggage of the past. The only one who rises above messy human emotions is Dr. Manhattan, the watchman who has acquired superhuman powers when a quantum physics experiment he is working on goes badly wrong.

Dr. Manhattan is the United States’ secret weapon. But when he loses all empathy for humans and exiles himself to Mars, he leaves a void, which sets in motion a nightmare scenario.

The book itself is the meticulously kept diary of Rorschach, one of the watchmen. Rorschach is a sociopath with a troubled past and a bleak view of the world but a strong sense of justice. He is the one who brings the watchmen out of retirement to investigate the Comedian’s death. Rorschach is typical of the book’s morally grey world. On one hand, he—like the other superheroes in the book—has sworn to protect humanity. But on the other hand, just by being who he is, he destroys one of the few truly good people in this book, the prison psychiatrist Malcolm Long. You follow Long’s descent from cheerfulness to despair, and it’s heart-breaking.

The book draws you into its world. But be prepared: this world is neither safe nor even good. It is violent and nasty, the sort of world that would require the watchmen. But can you trust superheroes—who are intrinsically flawed—to do what is right? And what would happen if we really had superheroes?

The plotting is intricate and satisfyingly complex, as are the characters, who stay with you a long time after you’ve finished reading. Unlike other superheroes, who I find are entertaining but relatively flat, the watchmen grow over the course of the book. And the attention to detail, both in the storytelling and the drawing, makes it all come alive. One of the things I love about this book is that several of its minor characters, like Malcolm Long, are well-drawn and memorable.

It is not for nothing that the Watchmen has been consistently voted best graphic novel. It’s the kind of book that could have easily become a franchise, but fortunately, Alan Moore refused to write a sequel to it.

My only quibble is with the Tales of the Black Freighter—a comic book within the Watchmen—which is read by one of the characters and extracted here. I didn’t get the point of including it in the novel. It is unnecessarily gory and did not in any way add to the book.

Anyone who still thinks graphic novels are simplified picture books for children should read Watchmen. Written in the mid-1980s, it is still relevant as a political commentary. Read this book. I promise, it will give you a lot to think about.