Netsuke

This week I read the comic book Netsuke written and Illustrated by George Pratt. A friend had suggested that I read it and I was immediately interested in it because of the illustrations.

When I started reading the comic book I was so fascinated in the images because of the beautiful line quality and the expressive painterly style it was hard for me to follow the story. The illustrations evoked many feelings and there was a constant since of motion through the frames. The colors and the drawings were just captivating and I found it very interesting to look at. The illustrations in the comic were like nothing I have seen before in a comic.

I had trouble interpreting the story clearly and i'm still not positive that I know what it was about exactly. What I got was the main character had traveled back to Japan for one reason or another I think it may have been to reconnect with his past. It seemed like his lover had died and he was talking to her the whole time. Throughout the comic it goes back and forth from him walking around and talking with the dead to flashbacks of him when he was in a war. It never says anything about how she died but many others that were close to him die in the war but he lives. I got the feeling that he couldn't die but he almost wishes he could.

I really enjoyed looking through this comic book but didn't so much enjoy reading it. The images were so captivating I feel like it may have been just as effective to look through this book without text so you can interpret it yourself. To me it feels like the illustrations are the important part and the words and just something to hold it together as a book. I would suggest this to someone who was interested in amazing illustrations but I don't feel the story is nearly as powerful as the images.