Clément Oubrerie (1966–2026)

His Dark Materials is one of my favourite book series of all time, so I was totally shocked and excited to stumble upon this graphic novel adaptation during a random browse of my local library's comic book section. The story a bit more simplified than I would like to see, but it's a long and complicated book, so I'll forgive them somewhat since they get the main gist of the story. What doesn't really make this a higher rated book is that the artwork falls somewhat short. In most graphic show more novels the emphasis is on the dialogue, with the visual narration meant to fill in any descriptive elements that the book would normally contain. The style of artwork used in this book - which to me is immediately identifiable as being quite French and highly simplified without being truely minimal - doesn't really convey the full depth of Pullman's literary masterpiece. His narrative style is both subtle and rich in description, which creates a highly atmospheric text that just doesn't mesh well with this style of art. It largely left me feeling like I was reading a story for little children with no active imagination, and left me yearning for the dusky eves of Lyra's gambols around Oxford, the majesty of Lord Asrael's daemon snow leopard, and the highly tense atmosphere of Lyra's time with her mother - as originally described by Pullman. I'll read the second volume to complete the story, but I wish that a better artist would have gotten hold of the story or that they had left it alone completely. show less

Aya is a university student in 1970s Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in a working class neighborhood they call Yop City. Her two best friends, Adjoua and Bintou, are always getting into trouble in search of love. They all live with their parents and siblings, who get into almost as much trouble as they do. In volume 1, Aya is set up with her father’s boss’s son Moussa, to her chagrin. Adjoua and Bintou are newly interested in Moussa now that they know his family is wealthy, and Adjoua gets show more pregnant so she and Moussa get married. Bintou’s cousin Herve is interested in Aya, but she tells him he should find a career and date her maid Felicite instead. In volume 2, the father of Adjoua’s baby is revealed, and Herve starts a car mechanic business. Adjoua, Bintou, and Felicite enter a beauty contest, in which their frenemy Rita, just returned from Paris, is also a contestant. Things at Aya’s father’s job are not going well, and the whole family finds out when his mistress drops their two kids off at his house. In volume 3, Bintou’s father announces he’s going to take a second wife - Bintou’s rival Rita. Aya’s mother is pissed about her husband’s mistress. Herve and Adjoua go into business together, and we finally find out who Adjoua’s brother Albert has been secretly sleeping with this whole time.

I love Aya’s close-knit little neighborhood. Everyone is always in everyone else’s business, but mostly in a good way. The story isn’t really a slice-of-life, it’s heightened like a soap opera, which really highlights the changing times. Aya and her friends are smart and educated women, but their community (including themselves) sometimes struggle to break out of a more old-fashioned society where marriages are arranged by their fathers and women stay home to take care of many babies and do whatever the men tell them to. It makes for a very enjoyable read while also providing a lot to think about. The only thing missing, really, is Aya herself. She serves as an observer, helping her friends get jobs and sort out their lives and helping her mother stand up to her father, but we don’t get to see much of her own life. I’m hoping to get more in the future.

The art really suits the material, with lots of browns and yellows and greens. The backgrounds are interesting but not overwhelming. He does a great job with varying skin tones and depicting complex hairstyles. I did sometimes struggle to read the lettering (as far as I can tell, Oubrerie did all the lettering himself) but that improved over the course of the volume. show less

Disclaimer: *it's been a while since I've read this, but I saw the movie recently. Yes, go watch it!

I enjoyed this series a lot. I'm someone who enjoys overly dramatic soap operas, so this was a perfect fit for me. Things get very messy with pregnancy drama ("You're not the father"- Maury), affairs, and general dating life. There are blatant sexism and dusty men who can't keep their drawls on throughout the story as well as an emphasis on education.

Aya is focused and doesn't get into a lot show more of foolishness nor tolerate it. Despite her parents wanting to marry her off soon, she would rather study medicine. Even with all the drama in this series, we see how the lovable characters march through their days in a vibrant, colorful community. show less

I feel a bit conflicted about this book. Loved the artwork. The storylines jump around a bit, focusing on a few families, especially the teens doing things like checking out someone cute, going out or sneaking out, dating, etc. It also showed heavier issues such as the pervasive misogyny, catcalling, teen pregnancy, adultery (& children from those relationships + marital strife), boys being preferred to girls, illiteracy, homophobia, & more. So while the book was supposed to be a "fun" look show more at a time/place/group based on the author's childhood, some of the actual context doesn't come across as so rosy in hindsight, imo; I think there's even a gap of what that opinion would have been in 2007 when the book was originally published vs. now in 2021. There is a glossary, as well as some additional text that gives some historical context, social & cultural information, recipes, fabrics, etc.

While a graphic novel mostly centered on teens would not be my normal reading, I found this to be both educational & worthwhile.

P.S. In the section of additional info in the back of the book, there is a section about mental health &, essentially, it feels like the cultural norm was to shun anything like therapy, psy-anything, & might even be offensive in the manner in which it is explained, imo. Kind of like how that old boomer philosophy of pull yourselves up by the bootstraps & hide your emotions/"man up"/etc. chafes a bit in today's world. Fyi. show less