Monday, March 17, 2014

Barefoot Serpent by Scott Morse 2003




            I found Barefoot Serpent to be a pleasant surprise. The simplistic and cute style of drawing leaves the reader unprepared for the richness and depth of the storyline. There were also some darker elements and themes of death, which surprised me as well. I did find the blending of the two stories to be a bit strange. I’m not sure it bothered me but I also don’t think I drew any immediate of significant connections between them. I found the biographical information on Akira Kurosawa to be very interesting as well. I have seen a couple of his films but like with most directors I never really found out who he was. Barefoot Serpent gave a lot of pertinent insight into the background of this very influential artist. While this short graphic biography was interesting, the real treasure is Morse’s story. That’s where the real depth is. The elements are presented so nonchalantly that you could almost overlook their subtle connection to all the different parts of the plot. I highly recommend this quick read. On one final note, I also noticed the format to be different from what I am used to seeing in comics and graphic novels. Each page had no more than 3 panels, each one spanning the width of the page; almost like a widescreen movie format. This simplifying of information on each page made the reading flow smoothly throughout the book.

No comments:

Post a Comment