nonfiction
the corn you froze, the squash you grew
and the kale or chard that’s out there
sweetening in the frost. — Suzi Steffen
Mostly Everything Is
Illuminated
READING COMICS: HOW GRAPHIC
NOVELS WORK AND WHAT THEY
MEAN by Douglas Wolk. DA CAPO PRESS, 2007.
HARDCOVER, $22.95.
[tÜäxçËá
`tz|v
XÅÑÉÜ|âÅ
Magic sets for
young & old
Joke &
novelty items
Instructional
DVD’s & books
Clown accessories
Qualtex balloons
Full line of magic
supplies & props
(available on request)
233 W 7th * Downtown Eugene
541-683-3059
Tues-Sat 11am-6pm
Park for Harvey’s at Olsen’s Auto
just past Hunky Dory!
We also have Gift Certificates
24 DECEMBER 13, 2007
My Farmer, Myself
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE:
A YEAR OF FOOD LIFE by Barbara
Kingsolver, with help from Camille
Kingsolver and Stephen L. Hopp.
HARPERCOLLINS, 2007. HARDCOVER, $26.95.
If you value free time, don’t read this
book. Because once you do, you’ll
become obsessed with finding local food
and stocking up for winter … Oh wait! It’s
totally safe to read over the holidays
because the farmer’s market soon closes
for the season. But early in this descrip-
tion of the Kingsolver clan’s attempt to
eat locally, Barbara talks about poring
over seed catalogues. In January. Which
is coming up kind of soon.
While I’ve always enjoyed Barbara
Kingsolver’s works of fiction (except the
second half of The Poisonwood Bible:
Editor! Please!), her essays usually con-
tain a more deft touch. That’s partly her
science training, which emerges in
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as well. She’s
a bit too scathing about the unsustain-
ability of city-dwellers (she should check
out local writer Heather C. Flores’ Food
Not Lawns for ideas about how to grow
food nigh-on everywhere), and the self-
righteous essays college-aged Camille
adds show that she’s definitely her moth-
er’s daughter, but the book provides
inspiration to those who need a little urg-
ing to pickle beets and beans, to plant
just a few more tomatoes and to spend
many Saturdays getting to know local
farmers and their offerings. Hopp,
Kingsolver’s husband, adds scientifically
solid pieces about why genetically modi-
fied food truly isn’t the answer for feed-
ing the planet, among other contribu-
tions, and of course does half of the adult
work on the farm.
Read this in tandem with Plenty: One
Man, One Woman, and A Raucous Year
of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B.
MacKinnon, and soon you’ll be growing
as much as you can, gently urging
Market of Choice or Kiva to stock a lot
more local food and perhaps dealing with
the reality of turkey from farm to holiday
table. Seasonal recipes round out each
section, recipes you can also get at the
book’s
website
(www.animalveg-
etablemiracle.com) and, now, make with
I fell into
Douglas Wolk’s
friendly,
uncommonly
accessible
book
about
graphic novels
much as I do
into a good
graphic novel:
wholeheartedly
and
quickly,
with an eye to
both the familiar and the strange, the
comforting and the disconcerting. Wolk is
an enthusiast, and his love of comics
comes through on every page, even when
he’s disparaging the lesser work out there
or looking down his nose — with a wry
smile — at some of the worst superhero
clichés. He’s not afraid to criticize or to be
a total fanboy, and it’s this realistic and
intelligent appreciation that makes his
book such a pleasure to read.
The first half of Reading Comics is
part history, part theory, and presents
Wolk’s division of the comics world: on
the one hand, superhero comics, with
their years of history and convoluted
timelines; on the other, art comics, more
concerned with expressing the perspec-
tive of the artist than with the established
characters and relationships of super-
hero books. It’s a simple line to draw, and
a useful one. He discusses the escapism
of comics, the metaphors, the psycholo-
gy, the design and art, and then, in the
book’s second half, takes what he’s
explained and applies it to a generous
selection of books. It’s not exhaustive; as
Wolk explains, it’s just a group of books,
largely falling on the art comics side of
the divide, that he finds interesting to talk
about, reaching from the precise aes-
thetic of Chris Ware to the memoir of
Alison Bechdel to the sprawling world-
building of Carla Speed O’Neill and the
groundbreaking work of Will Eisner. Even
Wolk, though, can’t make Grant
Morrison’s brilliant, dizzying The Invisibles
any less dense; reading a few sentences
from the chapter on this series out of
context is, appropriately, as confusing as
a single page from one of Morrison’s
books would be.
Reading Comics comes at a perfect
time as comics gain mainstream appeal
and admirers and as creators continue to
take their work in new directions, tackling
new topics and trying more and more
new things. Wolk is perceptive and calm,
possessed of an uncanny ability to
express why he loves what he does and
how comics work or don’t with clarity and
humor. Like an issue of a long-running
superhero series, there’s plenty here to
grab and keep the attention of a new-
comer, but under the surface, there are
additional layers for those who know the
story’s past. — Molly Templeton