Neil Young's Greendale by Joshua Dysart, Cliff Chiang and Dave Stewart
| Neil Young's Greendale by Joshua Dysart, Cliff Chiang and Dave Stewart | |
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| Category: Graphic Novels | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: A colourful look at a mystical family, the women of which go missing every generation or so. Based on a Neil Young CD, of all things, this is well worth a look for a strongly written young woman protagonist, and a charming design. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 160 | Date: August 2010 |
| Publisher: Titan Books Ltd | |
| ISBN: 978-1848567863 | |
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It's 2003. Alaska is about to get raped, and Iraqis killed, for the sake of providing power for the USA. Which is ironic, as only before this is Sun Green a powerless young woman, and after it - well, she might have a very different kind of power. A mystical sort of girl, with a great affinity to nature, the teenaged Sun has to first solve many blank spaces in her family tree, and work out her nightmares - which might include the strange man new to town.
I liked his design a lot. One third Michael Jackson, one third Wolverine, one third Freddy Krueger, he's proof the makers of this graphic novel have their handle on their material very successfully. By showing us gory nightmares, contrasted with dazzling scenes of communing with nature, this is a graphic novel because it had to be in this format, and not for some materialistic or commercial reasons.
Also superlative is the look of the whole thing. There's a hard-to-define aged, faded pastel sort of colouring to it until the very end, a lack of vivid crispness that makes this stand out strongly at the slightest flick through. Allied with a strong black inking and you're always sure of character, expression, mood.
I'm not completely sure of the plot and story, however. I didn't dislike it at all - just for my tastes it seemed to hark back to an age I never gelled with. Power comes through nature, the elements - being free to sleep amongst the trees, pop one's cherry in the back of a VW campervan. It's all a powerful metaphor, as the dream sequences only help convey. This family has so many missing spirits, and Sun is afraid of quite how and how far she could express her rage at the wars and eco-destruction in the news all around her, especially as she doesn't know what happened to those spirits, nor what the strange man is capable of.
But this story - bouncing along from concept album, through stage show and movie to these delightful pages - is definitely to me flawed somewhat by being, well, a little retro. It's Neil Young's baby, and full power to him, but his generation, his politics, his experiences and world have leant this a little bit too much towards the hippyish way of thinking for my personal liking.
That is not to deny the way the story wraps you up. Generations of mystery, copious missing Green women, strong cameos from both the idealist and the completely embittered - young and old alike - and of course the visitor - all help make this an eye-catching and powerful graphic novel.
I must thank the kind people at Titan Books for sending me a copy.
It looks completely different, but Demo by Brian Wood has more teens discovering their own powers in a very much real life setting.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Neil Young's Greendale by Joshua Dysart, Cliff Chiang and Dave Stewart at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Neil Young's Greendale by Joshua Dysart, Cliff Chiang and Dave Stewart at Amazon.com.
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