Goliath

Cinque stelle mi sembravano eccessive, ma quattro mi sembran poche.
Cos'è Goliath? E' il retelling di Davide e Golia, visto dal punto di vista di Golia.
Golia è un povero impiegato, alto alto, riservato e forse un po' strambo. Ma Golia potrebbe anche fare paura al nemico, per cui "vince" una promozione, viene armato di tutto punto, munito di scudiero e mandato al confine nella speranza di spaventare il nemico.

Questa storia, Tom Gauld ce la racconta in un racconto illustrato, quasi un silento book, di poche pagine, che riesce però ad avere una forza evocativa pazzesca.

Il tratto di Tom Gauld è minimale qui, e tramite questo minimalismo riesce a tirare fuori un sacco di cose: parla di pregiudizi, di bullismo, di guerra e ci fa show more empatizzare con Golia, uscendo da quello che è il mito raccontato nella bibbia. La Bibbia è una scusa per parlare di altro. E per farlo con pochi tratti, in pochissime pagine: uno spunto di riflessione con una ironia dolce e amara che gli riconosco anche nelle strisce.

Felicissima di averlo voluto recuperare, nonostante in italiano non sia stato tradotto.

P.S: Ma che personaggio delizioso è lo scudiero?!?!?!? show less

Yes, Goliath is a big strapping dude. He is also shy, reticent and prefers admin work over anything physical or warlike. One day he is told to don his armor and head out to the Valley of Elah and deliver a challenge to the Israelites.
This is a smart, crafty, retelling of a biblical tale, but from the reverse angle. It is poignant, bittersweet and thought-provoking. The illustrations seem to be spare and simple but actually pack a nice punch. Once again, this proves how effective and invaluable GNs can be. Highly recommended.

What is that saying about the number of truths about an event is equal to the number of people who witnessed it? Gentle admin-loving Goliath really gets a raw deal in Tom Gauld's retelling of the David and Goliath story. And as is often the case, the decisions of military leaders often create an inescapable weight that falls on the unlucky people who must follow their orders.

Tom Gauld retells the ancient Biblical story of Davy bringing down Goliath from a compelling viewpoint--that of Goliath. He brings empathy and compassion to a character who for centuries has represented the malicious unbeatable foe. What if Goliath just wanted to stick to administrative duty in the Philistine Army?

As a giant dude who mainly does admin, this speaks to me. Ended up hoping for a twist ending where Goliath's end would mirror that of the bear but no. A well-executed comic tragedy in a very concise package.

Great insight into the biblical story. Goliath as an empathizing admin worker. The panels that really got me were the zoom outs, when the characters were reduced to primitive stick drawings reminiscent of cave men. Goliath has a lot of heart.

For such a short book, Tom Gauld paints a story that will give you pause for a short time and consider other stories that you've read and whether or not their ending is different than what's been relayed. We often here that history is written by the winner and in no place is that more evident that David vs. Goliath. David is painted as a hero and Goliath as a villain seeking to do evil. But what do we really know about Goliath? And that's the story that Tom explores in this book. I won't say much more because it would give things away, but it paints a completely different story than what we've heard before.

Tom's artwork relies heavily on a dichromatic color scheme, brown and black, to create simple, almost childish figures that inhabit show more the story. The characters have little detail to them, but convey the dignity of the characters. The style works really well for the story as anything with more detail would feel overwrought and overbalance the simplicity of what we're seeing and reading. show less