Alice In Sunderland (original 2007; edition 2007)

A history of Sunderland that in itself involves telling of story of invasions of Britain by Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings and most brutal of all - the Normans. It lists trivia and achievements of antecedents of Mackham (people of Sunderland). By and large, this was also the place where Lewis Caroll's muse Alice Liddel lived and how story of 'Alice in Wonderland' evolved.

So far a very interesting read - it tells the truth about death of Sidney James onstage. Henry Irving ---

Graphic style is unconventional - a collage of sketches reproduced, reproduction of old photographs, newspaper clippings and four main character sketches. Three of the characters have been played by author himself and fourth is the pilgrim who is in theater 'Empire of Sunderland' watching the show.

There is lot of meta in the book - a comic in the comic. Pilgrim reading comic in the comic. I will come back when I finish reading the book and clean up this review.

This really is a difficult book to review. A graphic novel - no that's not right as it's not a novel, so perhaps... a graphic book? Part local history of Sunderland (an old industrial town in the North-East of England); part history of Lewis Carroll (in particular his associations with the town); part history of Alice Liddell (the model for the original Alice); and part history of Alice in Wonderland itself. It touches on a huge number of topics and characters along the way and is all bound together with a wonderful mixture of styles and colours of grpahic art.

I think I loved the idea of the book rather more than I loved the book itself, but I think that maybe because I read it at the wrong time and in the wrong way. It's a complex book: picking up and putting down snippets of information, only to resurrect them a hundred pages later, and I think needs to be read quite slowly and carefully, whereas I read it straight through when I was feeling I'll and I think my brain wasn't sufficiently in gear. So for me an interesting book rather than a great one. However, I'm pretty sure that I'll revisit it more slowly and I may revise my ideas. ( )

A graphic novel of the history of Sunderland, which was tied up in the history of Alice - for as nonlinear and meta as the whole thing was, it made a lot of sense. ( )

One of my top reads for the year. It's truly kismet that I picked this book up at all. This wrist-buster (324 oversized pages) isn't just a graphic novel about [Alice in Wonderland] and [[Lewis Carroll]] - it's also a history of Sunderland, in the NE of England, and it links seemingly random parts of British and world history in the most surprising ways. Mr. Talbot deserves many accolades for the story, and certainly for the amazing artwork. He combines watercolor-ish photographs, with illustrations, with mixed-media collages, and uses not just "traditional" comics-style drawings, but copies medieval-style lettering and graphics, some 90's Japanese comics, Fantasy-style - it's truly a work of art. Do yourself a favor and put a pillow in your lap and grab a bright light to read by when you pick it up - it's detailed and beautiful and you won't want to miss a thing. ( )

This is a joyous mix of myths and history, stories and meta-fiction. It is deceptively about the history of Sunderland, UK and the creation of Alice in Wonderland but really its a joyous mix of history and myth across the ages and geography; Sunderland as microcosm of the world. So from the constant invasions of Britain to the first comics, from popular culture to life altering social changes. It may connect with Sunderland but really its fascinating to all. Alongside this we dip into Alice's and other storytelling creations, from ancient myth to modern rumour.

It sounds chaotic but it hangs together so well mainly through the myriad artistic styles, so photo realism for the geographic locations, pastiches of famous comics, murals and of course Talbot's own luscious style. It really is an artistic tour de force, storytelling styles through the ages to match its eclectic topics.

I heartedly recommended this to all comics fans, as much to lovers of all odd historic titbits. ( )