Mezzo

Dupont and Mezzo may have hit on the best way to tell Robert Johnson’s story. Part of what makes him “Robert Johnson” is the vague boundaries that drift around the facts of his life. I’d even be a bit disappointed to find that somewhere, somehow there were a definitive factual biography. The facts would be untrue to the Robert Johnson we conjure in talking about the history of the blues.

The book is as much visual art as textual story, as a graphic treatment should be. The story is show more told in words against a visual background that lends the words a kind of just-right slipperiness they wouldn’t have on their own. The art work is striking, heavy black and white. The depiction of Johnson’s pinstripe suit jumps out of the pages, contributing to that not quite real effect.

Dupont, the author of the text, wrote the story around the pivot of religion, Johnson’s mythological choice to ally with the devil. But he doesn’t just treat it, like I’ve seen elsewhere, as a personal bargain with the devil for supernatural guitar skills. It’s a framework for the whole story — Johnson’s divorce from the church-infused side of the blues and of black culture during his time. He plays on the other side, in the other places, and hangs out with the other people. It’s where his music flourishes, and it’s where he meets his quick ending. And again, you see it in the artwork behind the story as it’s told.

It might only take a half hour to read the book — it goes by quickly, kind of like Johnson’s life. But the art is so good, and the text so haunting that I know I’ll dip back into it now and then just for a quick hit.

Lyrics for Johnson’s better known songs are included at the back of the book, along with an illustration for each. The illustrations are, like all the illustrations in the book, not literal. They evoke the mood of the songs. Really good. show less

Holy cow, I don't think I've ever started a graphic novel and been as blase about it, only to get to the end and wonder what the hell I was thinking, to have discounted it so quickly. This was one of the moodier GN's I've read in the past year, and by far one of the strangest. It's spooky, how similar it is to Charles Burns' "X'ed Out" in both the mood, pacing, and even size of the book. The gist of the story is that there's a druggy brat of a teenager who likes to have sex and mess with show more people's minds, including his own. Add into that a cast of motley characters--an alcoholic father who daydreams about having sex with his daughter's friend (a la Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty"); a gun-toting bully who looks like a fat Charles Bronson; a young vixen who has sex with our hero just as her boyfriend is hit by a car; and so on. I have to admit, it's not your typical fare for graphic novels, but I'm looking forward to the second volume. show less

Violent, lots of sex, reminds me of Charles Burns who I stumbled across as a kid and really liked. Not for the weak of heart, but a engaging story of a teenager / coming of age type story with violence, ennui, and some pathos.

L'ennui adolescent entre Ken Park et Black Hole de Charles Burns.