One Soul by Ray Fawkes - Revision history

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Sue at 10:24, 6 March 2012

2012-03-06T10:24:04Z

Sue: Created page with "{{infobox |title=One Soul |author=Ray Fawkes |reviewer=John Lloyd |genre=Graphic Novels |rating=4.5 |buy=Yes |borrow=Yes |isbn=9781934964668 |paperback= |hardback=1934964662 ..."

2012-03-06T10:23:25Z

Created page with "{{infobox |title=One Soul |author=Ray Fawkes |reviewer=John Lloyd |genre=Graphic Novels |rating=4.5 |buy=Yes |borrow=Yes |isbn=9781934964668 |paperback= |hardback=1934964662 ..."

New review

{{infobox
|title=One Soul
|author=Ray Fawkes
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Graphic Novels
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781934964668
|paperback=
|hardback=1934964662
|audiobook=
|ebook=
|pages=176
|publisher=Oni Press
|date=July 2011
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662 </amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1934964662 </amazonus>
|website=
|video=
|summary=A richly complex and strongly formatted graphic novel with a compelling spiritual heart.
}}
When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories. With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death. However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA.

This is a brilliant graphic novel, most noted for its intelligence, successfully met ambtitions, scope and humanity. The characters range from an Athenian temple maid to a defender in the Crusades and beyond. A shepherd out of a fable meets a miner direct from ''There Will be Blood''. Who knew that the tale of a modern day junkie could answer back to that of a prehistoric hunter-warrior so well?! All are woven into the wider picture, which uses a very poetic, slightly surreal stance, in combining each one. There can be times when it becomes a little too difficult to follow them all, and some of the stories do get lost in the general mix - for me it was the wronged highwayman and the wronged slave mostly. But beyond reading and exploring the over-arching tale we can then return to peruse eighteen little flipbooks, all of which are five minutes' duration, to get their tales alone.

But it is the way Fawkes has stuck to his measured, strict, rule, and provided us with such a spiritual book that strikes the reader. There are several obvious connections - black water, a thunderous encounter, but there is still so much that is understated for the reader to explore. His very clear, black-and-white-and-nothing-in-between, ligne claire, style contrasts with his prose being very low in punctuation, and in stacatto little bursts that can link up with anything said elsewhere on the spread, or just before or just beyond. So this is not the most easy to read graphic novel, but it is definitely one of the most genre-breaching, thought-provoking and memorable ones I've ever met.

This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories. Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].

{{amazontext|amazon=1934964662 }} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8546607}}

{{commenthead}}

[[Category:Short Stories]]

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 This is a brilliant graphic novel, most noted for its intelligence, successfully met ambtitions, scope and humanity.  The characters range from an Athenian temple maid to a defender in the Crusades and beyond.  A shepherd out of a fable meets a miner direct from ''There Will be Blood''.  Who knew that the tale of a modern day junkie could answer back to that of a prehistoric hunter-warrior so well?!  All are woven into the wider picture, which uses a very poetic, slightly surreal stance, in combining each one.  There can be times when it becomes a little too difficult to follow them all, and some of the stories do get lost in the general mix - for me it was the wronged highwayman and the wronged slave mostly.  But beyond reading and exploring the over-arching tale we can then return to peruse eighteen little flipbooks, all of which are five minutes' duration, to get their tales alone.
-But it is the way Fawkes has stuck to his measured, strict, rule, and provided us with such a spiritual book that strikes the reader.  There are several obvious connections - black water, a thunderous encounter, but there is still so much that is understated for the reader to explore.  His very clear, black-and-white-and-nothing-in-between, ligne claire, style contrasts with his prose being very low in punctuation, and in staccato little bursts that can link up with anything said elsewhere on the spread, or just before or just beyond.  So this is not the easiest to read graphic novel, but it is definitely one of the most genre-breaching, thought-provoking and memorable ones I've ever met.
+But it is the way Fawkes has stuck to his measured, strict, rule, and provided us with such a spiritual book that strikes the reader.  There are several obvious connections - black water, a thunderous encounter, but there is still so much that is understated for the reader to explore.  His very clear, black-and-white-and-nothing-in-between, ligne claire, style contrasts with his prose being very low in punctuation, and in staccato little bursts that can link up with anything said elsewhere on the spread, or just before or just beyond.  So this is not the easiest-to-read graphic novel, but it is definitely one of the most genre-breaching, thought-provoking and memorable ones I've ever met.
-This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].  You might appreciate [[Dreams and Everyday Life by Aviv Ratzin]] but we had our reservations
+This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].  You might appreciate [[Dreams and Everyday Life by Aviv Ratzin]] but we had our reservations.  We do have a review of Fawkes' [[The People Inside by Ray Fawkes|The People Inside]].
 {{amazontext|amazon=1934964662}}

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 This is a brilliant graphic novel, most noted for its intelligence, successfully met ambtitions, scope and humanity.  The characters range from an Athenian temple maid to a defender in the Crusades and beyond.  A shepherd out of a fable meets a miner direct from ''There Will be Blood''.  Who knew that the tale of a modern day junkie could answer back to that of a prehistoric hunter-warrior so well?!  All are woven into the wider picture, which uses a very poetic, slightly surreal stance, in combining each one.  There can be times when it becomes a little too difficult to follow them all, and some of the stories do get lost in the general mix - for me it was the wronged highwayman and the wronged slave mostly.  But beyond reading and exploring the over-arching tale we can then return to peruse eighteen little flipbooks, all of which are five minutes' duration, to get their tales alone.
-But it is the way Fawkes has stuck to his measured, strict, rule, and provided us with such a spiritual book that strikes the reader.  There are several obvious connections - black water, a thunderous encounter, but there is still so much that is understated for the reader to explore.  His very clear, black-and-white-and-nothing-in-between, ligne claire, style contrasts with his prose being very low in punctuation, and in stacatto little bursts that can link up with anything said elsewhere on the spread, or just before or just beyond.  So this is not the most easy to read graphic novel, but it is definitely one of the most genre-breaching, thought-provoking and memorable ones I've ever met.
+But it is the way Fawkes has stuck to his measured, strict, rule, and provided us with such a spiritual book that strikes the reader.  There are several obvious connections - black water, a thunderous encounter, but there is still so much that is understated for the reader to explore.  His very clear, black-and-white-and-nothing-in-between, ligne claire, style contrasts with his prose being very low in punctuation, and in staccato little bursts that can link up with anything said elsewhere on the spread, or just before or just beyond.  So this is not the easiest to read graphic novel, but it is definitely one of the most genre-breaching, thought-provoking and memorable ones I've ever met.
-This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].
+This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].  You might appreciate [[Dreams and Everyday Life by Aviv Ratzin]] but we had our reservations
 {{amazontext|amazon=1934964662}}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{infobox
+{{infobox1
 |title=One Soul
 |author=Ray Fawkes
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 |publisher=Oni Press
 |date=July 2011
 |summary=A richly complex and strongly formatted graphic novel with a compelling spiritual heart.
 }}
 When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories.  With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death.  However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 |borrow=Yes
 |isbn=9781934964668
 |pages=176
 |publisher=Oni Press
@@ Line 29: / Line 25: @@
 This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].
-{{amazontext|amazon=1934964662}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8546607}}
+{{amazontext|amazon=1934964662}}
 {{commenthead}}
 [[Category:Short Stories]]

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 |publisher=Oni Press
 |date=July 2011
-|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662 </amazonuk>
+|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662</amazonuk>
-|amazonus=<amazonus>1934964662 </amazonus>
+|amazonus=<amazonus>1934964662</amazonus>
 |website=
 |video=
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 This will forever stand as proof the graphic novel format is not restricted to superhero stories.  Another collection of black and white short stories, however, that knows that heritage and plays with it completely successfully, is [[Demo: v. 1 by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan]].
-{{amazontext|amazon=1934964662 }} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8546607}}
+{{amazontext|amazon=1934964662}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8546607}}
 {{commenthead}}
 [[Category:Short Stories]]