The Black Order Brigade
Bilal, Enki and Pierre Christin. The Black Order Brigade. Humanoids Publishing, Geneva Switzerland. Original French 1994, English Translation by Justin Kelly 2000.
Yes, it's a graphic novel. After the flack at DPL (as noted in my other non-award-winning blog, ingléspañol) (and yes, that's another shameless plug . . . I do that quite frequently, I've noticed) I became interested in the "graphic novel" as a genre. I tried to look up fotonovelas at my local library, but there are damned few Spanish literary anything up here in the Outer Hebrides, so I had to settle for The Black Order Brigade.
However, it turned out to be a completely engaging story - a group of far-left terrorists from the Spanish Civil War/World War II days are called back into action 40 years later to fight a group of far-right terrorists from the same era, who have regrouped in order to cause havoc in Europe. The trip leads them across Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain.
It's a rollicking little story, replete with these octogenarians complaining about rheumatism, arthritis, cramps, and various aches and pains. It's about growing old, it's about fighting for a cause, even when the cause has been forgotten, it's about feeling young again, it's all about what it means to be alive. All this, wrapped in a spy novel in a double historical setting (late 70's Europe recalling late-'30's Europe.)
I understand that many of my American readers will probably wonder about how graphic this graphic novel is, and if it should be in plain view for the tender-eyed younger readers (who, by the way, have grown up on a healthy diet of Mortal Kombat and all its various offspring) and I must say that, yes, it IS graphic - there are colourful depictions of bullet wounds to heads and chests, and one scene of an old man groping a naked Rubenesque chambermaid. But in all honesty, I found that the overall story superceded any questionable moral choices of the format.
Let's face it: I would rather have a teenager read this graphic novel and possibly become interested in researching more on WW2 or Franco's Spain than have the same teenager simply plugged into his GameBoy idly blowing away zombies in games like House of the Dead.
So, with that, I open my arms to any and all comments, and if you wish to start a discussion on morals/ethics/what we should "let" our kids read/etc. then by all means, please do.
But go to your local libary and check out the Black Order Brigade first. Trust me, you'll like it!
VG
Yes, it's a graphic novel. After the flack at DPL (as noted in my other non-award-winning blog, ingléspañol) (and yes, that's another shameless plug . . . I do that quite frequently, I've noticed) I became interested in the "graphic novel" as a genre. I tried to look up fotonovelas at my local library, but there are damned few Spanish literary anything up here in the Outer Hebrides, so I had to settle for The Black Order Brigade.
However, it turned out to be a completely engaging story - a group of far-left terrorists from the Spanish Civil War/World War II days are called back into action 40 years later to fight a group of far-right terrorists from the same era, who have regrouped in order to cause havoc in Europe. The trip leads them across Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain.
It's a rollicking little story, replete with these octogenarians complaining about rheumatism, arthritis, cramps, and various aches and pains. It's about growing old, it's about fighting for a cause, even when the cause has been forgotten, it's about feeling young again, it's all about what it means to be alive. All this, wrapped in a spy novel in a double historical setting (late 70's Europe recalling late-'30's Europe.)
I understand that many of my American readers will probably wonder about how graphic this graphic novel is, and if it should be in plain view for the tender-eyed younger readers (who, by the way, have grown up on a healthy diet of Mortal Kombat and all its various offspring) and I must say that, yes, it IS graphic - there are colourful depictions of bullet wounds to heads and chests, and one scene of an old man groping a naked Rubenesque chambermaid. But in all honesty, I found that the overall story superceded any questionable moral choices of the format.
Let's face it: I would rather have a teenager read this graphic novel and possibly become interested in researching more on WW2 or Franco's Spain than have the same teenager simply plugged into his GameBoy idly blowing away zombies in games like House of the Dead.
So, with that, I open my arms to any and all comments, and if you wish to start a discussion on morals/ethics/what we should "let" our kids read/etc. then by all means, please do.
But go to your local libary and check out the Black Order Brigade first. Trust me, you'll like it!
VG
posted by Verble Gherulous | 5:37 AM
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