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One Soul (2011)

by Ray Fawkes(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1934964662 (ISBN13: 9781934964668)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Oni Press

review 1: Brilliant, mesmerising and entirely original. It’s the first 3-D comic: not in the red and blue cardboard glasses way, but, intriguingly, in the way that the stories drill their way through the book. And there are constant resonances across the pages between the parallel lives too: in the words (the same thoughts and words) the (themes, violence, anger, love,death) and images.The stark simple black and white graphics mirror each other, often with bilateral symmetry or, from a slight distance, forming a pattern that cuts across the panels. And graphic motifs merge: a church cross, becomes a model airplane seen from a bed- a simple line becomes a thread of silk,drops becomes tears. This is a book of immense and satisfying complexity that rewards each rereading.Its very ... morewell written too- sometimes, I must admit, it gets a little too poetic for me but thankfully it never quite crosses the line into pretension. And no faulting the art which is excellent.But what for me is most interesting is how the book very intelligently explores the unique qualities of comics as an artform- in particular the way that comics connectedness story and images across and between pages and the stimulating freedom they give the reader to read the story and images in multiple dimensions and find connections that are literal, visual, and metaphorical.Of course choosing 18 stories to represent the full extent of history tends to some distortion and I do wish that Fawkes had thought a little more about the evidence of past lives. The stories disproportionately represent people who are rich and from distinct defined ‘civilisations’ or from the North American history (slave, revolutionary, pioneer, suburbanite). Almost all deaths are violent which ignores the reality for the vast majority of people of scraping a living from a bit of soil and dying of rotten teeth or famine. But this is carping- it’s a major piece of creative comics. Maybe not for someone who likes a straightforward story, but it should be on the shelf of anyone who values comics as an original artform.
review 2: This is a very different sort of graphic novel. If you try to read it like a normal one, you'll quickly be lost. Each of the 18 panels in every two page spread represent a moment in one of 18 different lives, each (it's implied) being one incarnation of the same soul. The best way, maybe the only way, to read it is to go through the book eighteen times, reading (for example) the top far right panel on every double page, then turning back to the front and starting over in the next panel. There's quite a range of lives here. Men and women, lives long and short, mostly happy and tragic. There's a priestess of Artemis, a plague doctor, and a World War I pilot. And many others. Some of the stories are quite effective, others not so much. It's an interesting experiment with the form, and worth reading for at least that much. I'm glad I tackled it. less

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