Dash Shaw

During the Civil War, many Quakers were caught between their fervent support of abolition, a desire to preserve the Union, and their long-standing commitment to pacifism. When Charles Cox, a young Quaker from Indiana, slips out early one morning to enlist in the Union Army, he scandalizes his family and his community.

Discipline is told largely through the letters exchanged between the Cox siblings—incorporating material from actual Quaker and soldier journals of the era—and drawn in a show more style that combines modern graphic storytelling with the Civil War–era battlefield illustrations of the likes of Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer. The result is a powerful consideration of faith, justice, and violence, and an American comics masterpiece.

The graphic storytelling is also sparse, simple, and "silent" illustrating the ideals of Quaker spirituality quite literally.

A marvelous feat of storytelling. show less

A nifty little murder mystery with an Agatha Christie vibe based on the characters from the classic board game -- which I have never played. Thankfully, Tim Hodler provides an article after the story explaining the history of the game and its appeal.

Alternative artist Dash Shaw was a surprising but inspired pick to create this media tie-in. He has fun with the art and plays around with the expectations of graphic novels and murder mysteries, even dropping in a few activities and puzzles show more along the way.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Candlestick / Dash Shaw, story and art -- On Murder Considered as a Recreational Activity / Tim Hodler, writer -- [Cover Gallery] / Dash Shaw, Jed McGowan, Sophie Franz, and Kevin Huizenga, illustrators -- Shaw in the Studio with the Candlestick / Suzette show less

The book starts s-l-o-w-l-y, but stay with it, because in part 2 what began with isolated pieces weaves a compelling picture of how families fragment and regather. By the end, both the reader and the characters have experienced alchemical changes. Much of the book’s charm is in that slowness as it documents the daily, forgettable dialog that cements relationships.
10 days after I put down the book I got the joke of the title. Self-indulgent metafictional navel-gazing with literal show more interstitial exploration. Did I include enough buzzwords? And it works. At least it worked for this reader, partly because of the slow burn it ignited in the back of my brain.
I read this book after having seen Dash Shaw’s vibrant animated film, “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5538568/?ref_=nv_sr_2 show less

A 17-year-old Quaker boy from Indiana forsakes the pacifism of his religion to enlist in the Union Army and take up arms against the South as part of Sherman's March. In this historical fiction, he and his sister exchange boring letters full of angst and religious claptrap with an excess of -eths, thees, dosts, and thous lifted from actual letters from real people written during the war. Much of the story is told in pantomime around the blobs of cursive text, often contrasting or unrelated show more to the words, but sometimes supplementing.

And I found all of it quite boring, having seen much the same stuff in Glory and other Civil War dramas. The manner of presentation and opaqueness of the characters do little to make the Quaker angle significant or interesting.

The art consists of minimalist sketches that the back cover dares compare to Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer. Copywriters apparently do not look at art very much. show less