“The Sculptor,” the new graphic novel by Scott McCloud, published by First Second Books, has an appeal linked to the author’s passion for his subject. Let’s say you’re a struggling artist. You moved to New York City and vowed to make it big. Once there, you learn that merit alone is no guarantee of success. Like Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” where an idealistic young man must come to terms with real world politics, another Mr. Smith, in this case David Smith, in McCloud’s story, must come to terms with not only the machinations of the real art world, but with just about everything else to boot! This, dear friends, is a true coming-of-age tale in the best sense of the word, full of questions, magic, and wonder.
For those who appreciate the details that go into creating a work such as this, an involved comics saga that you usually find in the pages of manga, this is quite an achievement. McCloud brings his A game to this ambitious work. You’ll find an impressive attention to detail in characters, backgrounds and compositions. It’s all condensed into a most pleasing style. We get a nice clean three rows of panels per page as a base from which to detour from. Lots of fun use of bleeded panels and interplay with screens. McCloud makes many interesting choices with fading out backgrounds and text in order to underscore various elements. And McCloud is no doubt sensitive to pacing and, at times, you’ll find panels taking on the tempo of animation.
Layer upon layer of immersive storytelling reveals a compelling relationship between our hero, David, and a young woman, Meg, who stumbles upon his path. But first, before the girl, there’s the deal that David makes that he probably could never truly regret since it’s his main reason for existence. He makes a deal with Death to gain, what he believes to be, his rightful place in art history. He’s obsessed with making his mark on the world and nothing else matters more than that. McCloud has a great time with the Faustian fable. David is doomed right from the start. He gets 200 days with the power to create all the sculptures he’s ever dreamed of creating. After that, it’s curtains for David. Whether or not David was ever cut out for immortality is sort of besides the point. His wish has been heard and granted. He never expected to meet someone like Meg so that complicates matters. The story that unfolds finds us on a journey with a young man still discovering the meaning of life while already with the power to achieve his wildest dreams.
A healthy distrust for the contemporary art world and the story of an idealistic young artist are certainly things that Frank Capra would have agreed with. That’s not the whole picture to what McCloud has to say even though it is easy to see him just rooting for honest forthright artists like his main character. It turns out to be more complicated than that. McCloud also sees one very mixed up kid in his main character. It all adds up to a satisfying read. It has a sentimental quality that’s appealing in its own right.
“The Sculptor” is a 496-page trade paperback available as of February 3, 2015. It is published by First Second Books and you can visit them here. You can find “The Sculptor” at Amazon here.
Book Review: ‘To Marry Medusa’ by Theodore Sturgeon
“To Marry Medusa” takes us further into the ideas explored in Theodore Sturgeon’s landmark novel from 1953, “More Than Human.” I reviewed that recently and you can read that here. Five years later, in 1958, “To Marry Medusa” finds us with one unconventional character, Dan Gurlick, instead of an ensemble of damaged misfits. The main idea is that we all have worth. Even Gurlick who, as his very name suggests, is quite an unsavory figure. This is a completely different and separate story from “More Than Human” but carries on that same humanist spirit.
Gurlick is as far down the heap as you can go: a illiterate homeless alcoholic with the thinnest grasp on reality. But, as Sturgeon would be happy to point out, he is still a member of the human race. Yes, …but. He’s human but he behaves more like an animal and pushes to the limits anyone’s tolerance for him.
And when an extraterrestrial being emerges, in pursuit of a human host, it is Gurlick who it stumbles upon and places the fate of humanity in his hands. As far as this entity, “the Medusa,” is concerned, Gurlick is as good as any other human to achieve its goals. Without a second thought, Medusa simply needs to plug into Gurlick and use him to plug into the rest of the humans and take over Earth. It really should be as simple as that, once a few details are carried out.
Medusa is a hive mind and has always been able to conquer other beings, once converted into hive minds. Why would humans be any different? The first mistake Medusa makes is attaching itself to Gurlick. In turn, Medusa finds humans to be a most unpredictable species. They are smarter than given credit for. They are more resilient than first believed to be. And they are more capable of fighting back than ever expected.
In a beautiful fable-like story, Sturgeon evokes human activity across the globe with vignettes of various characters. We see them at a bit of distance, never get too close to them other than to get a sense of their dreams and struggles. For a good part of the novel, we alternate between a profile from somewhere on Earth, whether it’s within an African tribe, or an Italian village, to the latest phase in the odd pairing between Medusa and Gurlick.
Sturgeon has such a seemingly effortless style. Every description and dialogue follows what appears a seamless path. Highly readable, Sturgeon’s work grapples with incredibly complex notions. He clearly loves his characters and it’s Gurlick who he loves the most. The guy can barely form a thought. He’s so limited and primitive as to be more suitable to another place and time other than a contemporary American city. When he’s out attempting to do Medusa’s bidding, he sounds insane, more so than usual. Medusa and Gurlick, no doubt, make for a delicious coupling of high an low.
We are given every indication that humanity will survive. However, it may not be as planned. For one thing, the hive mind perspective proves to be enlightening beyond measure. In fact, humans find that they can accomplish far more as a group than they ever could as individuals. Does that sound familiar? Well, sure, it’s us today on the Web, isn’t it? As Gurlick demonstrates, maybe we’ll always only be as strong as our weakest link. And Sturgeon never even once mentions a computer.
You can find “To Marry Medusa” over at Amazon right here.
Share this:
Like this:
10 Comments
Filed under Book Reviews, Books, Hive Mind, Sci-Fi, science fiction, Theodore Sturgeon
Tagged as Book Reviews, Books, Entertainment, Hive Mind, Internet, Media, Pop Culture, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Social Commentary, society, Theodore Sturgeon