Goodbye Chunky Rice-- Craig Thompson-- Review

Goodbye Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson is a short graphic novel. It is done in an eclectic black and white style. There are a mix of cute animal characters and people. The story is not particularly violent. It has an oddball feeling to it. There are a few strange characters like a siamese twin on a boat. The main part of the story is about the freindship between Chunky Rice, a turtle, and Dandel A deer mouse.

Chunky and Dandel are freinds. They go to the beach together and camp out and build sand castles. When Chunky Rice looks at the ocean he gets an overwhelming urge to travel. In contrast, Dandel says, "My home is right here." This has a wistful memorable feeling to it.

Chunky packs a box and heads out to sea on Chuck's ship. Chuck reminds Chunky to travel light and get rid of excess baggage. He throws a number of Chunky's things in the ocean in a series of memorable cartoon panels.

The ocean is vast, seemingly endless in the narrative of the story. Dandel takes to throwing bottles with letters in them into the ocean which drift outward on the currents.

This graphic novel, (another fancy name for comic book), is about memory, freindship, and wanderlust. I really enjoyed reading it. Craig Thompson the writer has won three Ignatz awards. http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz.shtml This is a prestigious comics lit award. It is named after Krazy Kat drawn by George Heinman. He also has won two Harvey awards. The Harvey Awards are named after Harvey Kurtzman, the founder of Mad magazine, one of my favorite comics. http://harveyawards.org/

If you are looking for good choices if you are a librarian or bookseller these list very interesting and high quality titles to look at. The Ignatz Awards are more alternative press, and the Harvey Awards are much more mainstream and will include many superhero comics.

A pictureless image from Amazon:

Thoughts on Books, Missed Day

I missed a day for the first time. It was a chance to relax and recharge my batteries. I don't know if it had a bad impact for people.

Anyways, I recently chose not to read a couple books. I just could not get into the stories. I am getting more picky lately. The first book was M. John Harrison Nova Swing. I have got a bit tired of the science fiction book set in a bar. It has become too cliche. The original Spider Robinson Callahan's Crosstime Saloon was entertaining, but the opening gets a little old.

I am going to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves a grammar book which is supposed to be entertaining. It goes over the finer points of punctuation and how they can change the meaning of sentences. I just placed it on reserve for my library. I am surprised that someone came up with a suggested grammar classic for me.

I went to the library today and picked up Good-Bye Chunky Rice by Carig Thomson. It is a story of friendship set in a graphic novel. I also picked up Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi who is the author of Persepolis, another graphic novel. Persepolis was recently made into a film which is supposed to be very good about life in Iran. Marjane Satrapi says she cannot go back to Iran because she is afraid she will never be able to leave if she goes back.

There is not a whole lot to say today. I had a cold today and stayed home from work. So, I am just going on and on.