“The Listener” Graphic Novel Gets Some Press!
We told you it was coming. We told you it’d be good. After all, it’s by the same author as The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism! But in case you doubted its awesomeness (even though we told you!): we’ve just gotten word that David Lester’s new graphic novel The Listener (from Arbeiter Ring Publishing, distributed in the US by AK Press) is reviewed in this week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian!
Here’s just a bit of what they had to say (you can read the full review here):
“The Listener is a shadowy morality play cloaked in the mantle of German Expressionism. The black guilt that weighs heavily within Louise and the German couple seeps across each page like a Rorschach blot. Each bleak frame is a single painting, rendered in messily urgent layers of gray…”
And they’re not the only ones who have noticed this book, nope, not at all! Vancouver’s Straight says:
“Lester’s monochrome panels are lovely, bringing an emotional payload to all that heavy subject matter—quite powerfully in a couple of places … this affecting and thoughtful debut belongs on any grown-up comic bookshelf that also includes, say, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and Alan Moore and Joyce Brabner’s Iran-Contra history, Brought to Light.”
Paul Buhle, writing for ZEEK: A Jewish Journal of Thought & Culture, says:
“Speaking as a reviewer of comic art since 1970 and historian of comic art, in some way, for the last thirty years, I can say that no one has captured better this dilemma of the politically-inspired artist.”
That, right there, is some pretty high praise! It’s probably enough to make you want to pick up a copy of the book, eh? If you are still in need of convincing, you can see a full list of reviews here.