Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel

I was horrid to my mother when I was 15, and my lovely daughter was horrid to me when she was fifteen. So right away, I found this book fun when it opened with a horrid 15 year old girl jitterbugging and dissing her working mother. Her boyfriend says, mid-dance-step: ‘“Annie, your mother’s gonna kill us if she finds us,”’ and, snotty monster that she is, Annie replies, ‘“I could kill my mother.’”
From there, the tale expands into a female-centric story that turns on its head the hard-boiled male-centric noir detective genre. The plot twists and turns … mistaken identities, revenge motifs, car “chases,” jealous husbands, chance meetings of people who haven’t seen each other in 10 years … can be absurd and show more improbable but that craziness seems to be part of the noir parody. Any story weakness is overcome by Feiffer’s lovely, kinetic, frenetic art. I read this twice, so I could go back and see how Feiffer set up the story and to savor the visual layout. show less

Feiffer has created a masterfully dark comedy, wittily embracing stock characters—like a small-time criminal with a twisted heart of gold who aspires to higher crime, an evil twin, a pretty-boy narcissist, and on and on. The plot unfolds through a increasingly complicated weaving that, just as it begins to become impossibly intricate, begins to loosen, then quickly unravel in a crescendo of karmic paybacks. Everyone gets their due, including a very Some Like It Hot resolution for the only two characters who remain endearing throughout the narrative.

As some readers have criticized, you can get lost among the multiple faces of multiple characters, losing your way for pages at a time. The brown and black images are artistically superb, show more but color may have made it easier to track the personalities from one scenario to the next. And while Feiffer’s method of overlaying different events that transpire at the same point in time with stacked word balloons, I think I may have welcomed an old-fashioned meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch device to help me make the connection.

Feiffer’s illustrations are an artistic triumph, and his plot a testimony to his first-rate brain. After having read it once four years ago and again recently, I have to admit that thinking about it is more fun than reading it. It’s going to be one of those books that is worth several reads, each time finding more buried treasure. show less

Este tomo se presenta como una historia policiaca pero mi sensación es que esa trama no es más que un Macguffin para enlazar las historias de las mujeres que protagonizan el libro, todas ellas personajes muy bien caracterizados y desarrollados (Me sorprende que se haya criticado que todos los personajes parecen iguales porque yo no he tenido ningún problema para distinguirlos pero supongo que cada lector tiene su experiencia) Quizás la historia ganaría un poco desarrollando algo más alguna de las tramas, pero en general, mi sensación es que todo encaja bien tal y como está. Una cosa que hay que destacar es el espectacular dinamismo del dibujo de Feiffer que fluye de una viñeta a otra y es capaz de transmitir movimiento con unas show more pocas líneas (Recordemos que cuando publicó este libro tenía 85 años)

Un tomo brillante, con personajes muy bien construidos. show less

The first half of the novel is pretty terrific and the artwork, throughout the whole, is exceptional. But I was confused several times by who was involved with whom and why - and, after glancing back through, it felt like there were narrative leaps that were taken somewhat unnecessarily. It all added up to me not particularly caring about the characters or their circumstances and just wanting to look at the pictures. Perhaps a wordless version of the story might've been more engaging after all - but then maybe not. Still, it's marvelous to reconnect with an artist who has, after all this time, retained such an indelible stamp on my mind.

More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2014/08/04/kill-my-mother/

Kill My Mother by Jules Feiffer was one that I thought I was going to love. And I think I would have except I found the artwork confusing. There were a number of leading ladies, all were blonde and had rather pointed noses and I found that I couldn’t tell them apart. This caused me to be constantly flipping back and forth trying to figure out who was who.

This was a noir story told in two parts. The first is set in Bay City (San Francisco) in 1933. The second is set mostly in Hollywood during the 1940’s. I don’t want to give away any of the plot points, but the main characters included a very angry young lady called Annie, her smart but too nice Mom, Elsie, and a trio of blonde look alikes, There is an involved plot and gun play show more comes into the story in both decades.

Totally done in blacks, greys and whites with an almost sketch like feel to the artwork, this story is an homage to the 1940 noir movies. As I said I had trouble separating the characters, but it was a different and interesting story and definitely aimed at adults. There is nudity and violence but this is offset by some quirky humor and lots of tips of the hat to 1940’s Hollywood. show less

Este tomo se presenta como una historia policiaca pero mi sensación es que esa trama no es más que un Macguffin para enlazar las historias de las mujeres que protagonizan el libro, todas ellas personajes muy bien caracterizados y desarrollados (Me sorprende que se haya criticado que todos los personajes parecen iguales porque yo no he tenido ningún problema para distinguirlos pero supongo que cada lector tiene su experiencia) Quizás la historia ganaría un poco desarrollando algo más alguna de las tramas, pero en general, mi sensación es que todo encaja bien tal y como está. Una cosa que hay que destacar es el espectacular dinamismo del dibujo de Feiffer que fluye de una viñeta a otra y es capaz de transmitir movimiento con unas show more pocas líneas (Recordemos que cuando publicó este libro tenía 85 años)

Un tomo brillante, con personajes muy bien construidos. show less

With graphic novels I kinda know from the first pages whether I'm gonna like it or not. The plots and twists might be great, but if I don't like the artwork, it'll be harder to really get into the story itself. I'm quite black and white when it come to these matters - with a few exceptions, when I go numb.
With Kill my Mother, I hardly had time to pay any attention to any of this - in fact it was quite a delight to catch myself watching a movie instead. Stronger even, Feiffer managed to make me part of one! And not just any!
Film noir told in a graphic novel. Impressive!