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The Great Northern Brotherhood Of Canadian Cartoonists (2011)

by Seth(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1770460535 (ISBN13: 9781770460539)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Drawn and Quarterly

review 1: What an odd book. It's sort of an alternate history, positing that there's a Canadian cartoonist's society (hence the title) that's existed for decades and has clubs and archives. There is no such organization or archive, and most of the cartoonists Seth describes as belonging to it are also fictitious, but a handful are in fact real (though he omits a great number of real ones readers might have heard of, such as Lynn Johnson), so this book very strangely blurs fact and fancy. There's no story to speak of, just a recounting of the details of the club and archive buildings, and of some of the members and of the comics (frequently ones that don't really exist)they produced. Sometimes, I found myself almost wishing I could read the comics Seth whimsically imagines for his in... morevented cartoonists. It's a non-narrative fiction about fictions that don't exist--talk about post-modern. Even moreso when you throw in its invocation of an ersatz nostalgia and then its final acknowledgement of its own constructedness. I found it fascinating, amusing, and in some respects a terribly sad commentary on the contrast between how comics fans might like their medium to be viewed and how it really is viewed, but it won't be for all tastes. Anyone who thinks a book should have a narrative with a plot and clear protagonists, etc. will probably have his or her socks bored off.
review 2: Whenever I read Seth's work I always have to remind myself to look at the pictures - the words sometimes take over, making the books like documentaries featuring long shots of static photographs with narration overtop. With another author/illustrator this might be seen as a flaw, but it works for me. He's created this elegaic little black and white world of cartoonists and cartoon collectors and I love to go there. less

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