The Birth of Kitaro
Mizuki Shigeru
Reviewed for SOLRAD Magazine
Charming Macabre:
Mizuki’s depictions of yōkai are suitably scary for a children’s book and Kitarō’s foil, Nezumi Otoko, is a comically greedy ne’er-do-well who balances the tone of the series. Kitarō’s character is flexible enough to be comedic when necessary, and unflappably cool at all other times.
The yōkai in Kitarō are based on folklore and filtered through Mizuki’s imagination, to suit the needs of his tales. Some yōkai are conceptually terrifying, given that this is a manga for kids, and in cases like Nopperabō the face-stealer who eats human souls, Mizuki tempers the fear with loose, cartoony linework (and the souls are deep fried in tempura batter). To ground the more fantastical yōkai, like Nozuchi, an enormous snake-like being that vacuums up life energy, Mizuki draws them in a realist mode.
Continued at: https://solrad.co/charming-macabre-deshan-tennekoon-reviews-the-birth-of-kitaro-by-mizuki-shigeru
Yotsuba &! (vols. 1-7)
Azuma Kiyohiko
Reviewed for SOLRAD Magazine
Later I’ll Make Yanda Cry:
“We easily forget what being a child is like. We retain the gist of it, sure, and we recall with crystalline clarity the moments that shaped us, but most of us don’t really remember the day-to-day.
Adults also have a tendency to dismiss the intense emotions they felt as children, or to feel faintly embarrassed by them. This makes writing about childhood a risky choice and doubly so if you want to portray a happy childhood. With Yotsuba &! mangaka Azuma Kiyohiko manages not only to create a happy childhood for his protagonist but to celebrate the everyday.”
Continued at: https://solrad.co/later-ill-make-yanda-cry-deshan-tennekoon-reviews-yotsuba-by-azuma-kiyohiko
Alone
Christophe Chabouté
Reviewed for SOLRAD Magazine
Self-made Prisons and Other Traps:
‘Alone’ by Christophe Chabouté is an empathic work that concerns itself with solitude, imagination and how these can shape a life. The protagonist of the mostly wordless story was born on and has never left the lighthouse he calls home. No one knows his name, they just call him ‘Alone’. His parents died but before his passing, Alone’s father gives his life savings to a surly but honest fisherman and extracts a promise from the grizzled sailor to deliver food to his boy once a week.
Continued at: https://solrad.co/self-made-prisons-and-other-traps-deshan-tennekoon-reviews-alone-by-christophe-chaboute
Vanni: A Family’s Struggle Through The Sri Lankan Conflict
Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock
Reviewed for The Caravan
The war between the state and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which spanned three decades, resulted in casualties in the tens of thousands on all sides. The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 killed over 35,000 Sri Lankans and left millions displaced. Vanni follows the characters as they coped with the ever-encroaching war, the devastation of the tsunami and their constant displacement from one refugee camp to another as the war drew a noose around them.
Continued at: https://caravanmagazine.in/culture/vanni-graphic-novel-sri-lanka-benjamin-dix-lindsay-pollock-deshan-tennekoon
Children of The Sea
Igarashi Daisuke
Reviewed for Panel x Panel Magazine
A strange tale, well told: Children of The Sea —
A song about an auspicious birth winds its way through human history but may not have been written by humans. A shadowy foundation that ‘rescued’ the boys from the sea has been experimenting on them for years and collecting others like them. Most of the adults connected to the teens seem to have a hidden agenda. And Sora might be more in control than he’s letting on.
Continued at: https://panelxpanel.gumroad.com/l/PXPNO43?layout=profile