A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson

I was really excited when I first read that this book was coming out. I enjoyed the graphic novels I've previously read--especially the young adult ones in my college courses--and I thought this seemed like a fun classic to reconstruct. I also have extremely fond memories of my seventh grade teacher reading Madeline L'Engle's book out loud to our class. Her standing at the board illustrating the concept of a wrinkle in time is something I may never forget. 

But for all the fondness I feel for it, the graphic book didn't do much for me. I picked up the book and read it in an hour: the illustrated format and sparse text (well, I mean, less than the original novel, and less than the last graphic book I read, Watchmen) kind of let me get as into it as I wanted. And at 11 pm on some Sunday night, it would appear that I did not want to think too hard. 

I'd forgotten most of the characters, but not all. I remembered the controlling brain character, the dad, and the two siblings. The others were new again. The problem was that I didn't feel like I really established a connection with the characters. So nothing seemed that important to me.

 Two siblings. Missing dad. Weird boy at school. Instant best friends. Fairy godmother like beings. Other worlds. No surprise. Conquer all. Save the world. Blah blah blah. 

It seemed to easy for a story with such a potentially powerful moral. Then again, it's a YA book, so maybe that's okay. Maybe that's how the original was, too. Oh, the original, which I now, of course, want to reread and reassess. Just another book on the to do list, which is moving at about the pace of George R. R. Martin writing his Song of Fire and Ice books--painfully and annoying slow. 

Illustrating the wrinkle in time.

Watchmen (1986-87)

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

A graphic novel originally published in 12 comic book issues, it is also a movie I saw (and hated) at the midnight premiere my senior year of college. Basically all I remembered was an awkward and seemingly pointless sex scene in a weird machine.

Well, that was in this, too, unfortunately. I just didn't hate it as much this time.

Two close friends of mine said I absolutely had to read this--not only because it's a great book, but also because it's exactly where I should start a dive into comic books and graphic novels.

I hadn't read a graphic novel since my adolescent lit class, and this one was definitely a different experience than even those. There was just so much going on. At some points three stories were happening at once: one in the captions, one in the images, and one in the secondary captions. (Obviously, I lack the proper terminology to discuss this in a scholarly manner.) But I did like it. And although I didn't try to critically read the novel--my film/game/super hero/comic genius friend had all kinds of smart things to tell me about it--I did snag a few bits I really enjoyed.

Love this song reflected in the ad

"The dusk reeks of fornication and bad consciences."

"I like electronic music. That's a very superhero-y thing to like, I suppose, isn't it? [...] Oh, and I've heard some interesting new music from Jamaica... a sort of hybrid between electronic music and reggae. It's a fascinating study in the new musical forms generated when a largely pre-technological culture is given access to modern recording techniques without the technological preconceptions that we've allowed to accumulate, limiting our vision. It's called dub music. You'd like it, I'm sure."

"If somebody wants to call me the world's best-groomed man, then hey, that's okay too."

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes."
[who watches the watchmen.]