Hawking

Hawking is a graphic biography of U. K. physicist Stephen Hawking.  The biography covers his life from his birth to his death. As most people are aware, Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative neuromuscular disease while he was in his early 20s. While the disease weakened his muscles and limited his ability to move and speak, it did not limit his mind. Hawking is known for his groundbreaking research in cosmology and physics and lived to reach his 60s. Though he used a wheelchair, he traveled all over the world to summer schools, conferences and sabbaticals.

As a person with a disability, I was quite surprised to read about all the traveling that he did. It is well known in the disability community that airlines lose most of the wheelchairs that are checked by passengers. It was surprising to read that he never lost his. It is also surprising that he was allowed to fly at all while he was beginning his career. Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, wheelchair users were not permitted on airplanes.While Hawking was flying to and from the U. K., he would have had to transfer to American planes for some of his trips. It is pretty amazing to me that as his disabilities got worse, he always found a way to continue working and that Cambridge University, his employer, never tried to prevent him from working. If he was an American, this would not have happened. Hawking received many accommodations for his disabilities. Not everyone received this assistance, particularly before the year 2000. Hawking was lucky.

The book gives plenty of details about his research and how he arrived at his conclusions. Mathematical equations fill the pages. They went right over my head but I was amazed at how the comic book format made them look simple. The book has been written and illustrated in comic book panels with bright colors illustrating the drawings. At 290 pages, Hawking's life has been presented in full and I don't see that the graphic novel format affected the completeness of this biography. 

I am anxious to re-read the book but before I get started I am rating it at 5 out of 5 stars. This is a must read.

Primer

Oh my goodness! What a fabulous story.  I read this 130 page comic twice in one day and a third time the next day. I just love it.  The vibrant colored illustrations are what initially attracted me to the book but it has a creative plot that will keep you reading.  

Ashley Rayburn is an upbeat girl with a downbeat past.  Her father is in jail and once used her to help him evade justice. However, someone got killed and he is incarcerated in a federal prison.  In the meantime, Ashley has bounced from foster home to foster home and is a challenge for her social workers.  Her latest set of foster parents are Kitch and Yuka Nolan. Kitch, like Ashley, is an artist and he has a groovy sixties vibe.  Yuka is a geneticist who works for a tech company with a government contract. Yuka's top secret project has her concerned and she brings the project home so that her superiors can't get ahold of it.  It is a set of body paints that when applied to the skin grants the wearer a wide range of special powers.  When Ashley comes home from school, she sees the set of paints and thinks that it is a surprise birthday present for her.  Ashley soon realizes that she has stumbled upon something dangerous but she decides that she can use the paints for good and appoints herself a superhero with a new name, Primer.

I am the type of artist called a colorist.  That means I use an excessive amount of color and do not follow color theory.  Primer had me swooning with its colorful illustrations. It inspired me to get back to work after falling behind for a few days.

The characters all had very different but strong personalities. Ashley is a comedian who can't stop cracking jokes. She always has a positive attitude even though life has dealt her an awful hand. Her friend Luke is also quite positive even though he is an outcast at school. Ashley is an outcast too and that is why she and Luke get along so well. The Nolans are a modern couple.  Kitch is a professional artist and works out of the home. Wife Yuka is the breadwinner. Although Primer is a comic, these characters are fully fleshed out.

I wish that this was the start of a new comic series but I believe that it is a stand-alone novel for young adults.  5 out of 5 stars. 

Shadow Life

Shadow Life was published in March 2020 by First Second. It is a graphic novel written by Hiromi Goto and illustrated by Ann Xu and is about Kumiko, a 76 year old woman. Kumiko's middle aged adult daughters place her in an assisted living home against her wishes. However, she agrees to give it a try. Kumiko does not like living there, runs away and finds herself a cozy bachelorette pad. She keeps her location a secret from her daughters, even while they are talking on the phone. Kumiko loves decorating as she pleases, eating whatever she wants and swimming in the community pool. Something has followed her though from the assisted living place - death's shadow.  

I enjoyed this story. It is pretty cool that a bisexual senior Japanese Canadian lady is the protagonist in a comic and it shows what many seniors go through with their adult children. For some reason they always want to lock seniors up in a facility. Kumiko screams to the universe that she is not ready to die. The story has a supernatural element in that Kumiko sees and fights what she believes is death's shadow. The shadow is seen in the illustrations as spiders that are trying to consume her. The theme of autonomy is a real world problem for seniors. This theme is explored in Kumiko's fight for control of her life decisions from her daughters. I found the daughters quite bossy but realistic in their attempts to take over their mother's life decisions.

The black and white illustrations match the gloominess of the story and the drawings of Kumiko's body, particularly the naked ones, were spot on. She has rolls of fat allover and they have drooped with the aging process. Her leaking bladder is also realistic for older women. It interesting that this fiftysomething writer knows so much about being a senior and can write from a senior's point of view. Hiromi Goto has done a great job with this comic.

5 out of 5 stars!

Women Discoverers

This small comic book contains the biographies of 30 female scientists. A few of these biographies are merely written in paragraphs while five are done in 20+ page comic strip panels.  The ladies that are featured in the book are:

• Marie Curie (Poland, France) Physics/Chemistry
• Francoise Barre Sinoussee (France) Biology
• Donna Theo Strickland (Canada) Physics
• Dorothy Vaughn (USA) Mathematics/Computing
• Ada Lovelace (Britain) Mathematics/Computing
• Emilei du Chatelet (France) Mathematics
• Emmy Noether (Germany) Mathematics
• Grace Adele-Williams (Niger) Mathematics
• Hedy Lamaar (Hungary/USA) Engineering
• Katherine Johnson (USA) Mathematics
• Marthe Gaetier (France) Pediatrics
• Maryam Mirzakhani (Iran/USA) Mathematics
• Rosalind Franklin (UK) Physics/Biology
• Sophie Germain (France) Mathematics/Physics
• Irene Joliot-Currie (France) Physics/Chemistry
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (UK) Astrophysics
• Mae Jemison (USA) Medicine/Space Exploration
• Stephanie Kwolek (USA) Chemistry
• Grace Murray Hopper (USA) Computing
• Xie Ye (China) Chemistry

I found the book informative.  Many of these ladies I had not heard of before. Rosalind Franklin stood out in my mind as there is a medical school in my city that bears her name.  I thought Hedy Lamar was an actress.  While she did begin her career in acting she moved into science during WWII. Also, I was not aware that Marie Curie was born in Poland.  She moved to France to study at the Sorbonne and stayed there both as a teacher and a researcher.  

To say that the book will be inspiring for young girls is a given.  Most of these women grew up in societies that did not allow women to work, let alone get an education and a job.  Their trials when they were young can only give hope to today's young girls, who also have personal or family objections to overcome.

A great read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Freiheit

Freiheit! The White Rose graphic novel takes place in Germany during WWII. It is a true story about a group of young German students who questioned the authority of the Nazis and paid for their actions with their lives.  It was published last month.  I received an advanced review copy from the Librarything Early Reviewer's Program. This book is the graphic version of  a book by the same name.

Most of the members of The White Rose were Munich University students. The name of the group was selected by them from the title of a poem by a famous German poet. It was formed in 1942 and was active through 1943.  The group opposed Hitler on ethical and religious grounds.  They tried to get the German people to passively resist the Nazi Party and distributed six leaflets before they were caught.  The initial six members who were arrested were found guilty four days later and immediately guillotined. A copy of the leaflets in both German and English are at the back of the book.

This is a compelling story and I would like to know more about the White Rose movement.  These students were incredibly brave. If I didn't know it was true story I would be tempted to say it is farfetched. Who in their right mind opposed Hitler? You knew you would die if you did so. However, it is nice to be reminded that there have been many people in past centuries who stood up for what they believed in and did not follow the crowd.

The artwork was colored in dark tones to fit the mood of the story. The illustrator did not use the typical comic strip format, which made the graphics meet the seriousness of the topic. The fonts used were typical of the 1930s and 1940s so the reader can tell which era this happened in. 

The word "freiheit" means both liberty and political freedom in German. The White Rose frequently used it in their leaflets. It's perfect for this graphic biography.

5 out of 5 stars. 

The Grand Odalisque

Carole and Alex are childhood friends who become partners in crime.  They specialize in art thefts and have been working as a team for nine years.  The story begins with them successfully pulling off the theft of a painting at the Musee D'orsay in Paris. After a deserved vacation, they receive a request to steal a painting from the highly secured Louvre Museum. The Grand Odalisque is a painting done by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Odalisque means concubine and that is the subject matter of this artwork and, hence, the title of the comic.  The mission is quite daring because it must be done during daytime. Knowing that they will need a third assistant to pull off this assignment, they hire a third person for their team as well as a diplomat's son who also happens to be an arms dealer.  

The relationship between Carole and Alex is just as prominent as the heist itself. The two women have different personalities and strengths but also recognize this difference. They are able to rely on each other's strengths in order to get the job done. Some times it becomes problematic. For instance, when the heist at the Musee D'orsay is occurring, Alex is not able to help Carole because her boyfriend is dumping her via a text message. The two authors of this comic are men. Would a female writer allow this to happen?  

This is a fun, short book of 125 pages and brightly colored illustrations. Bastien Veves illustrated the comic. 5 out of 5 stars.