Page 45 Review by Stephen
You might imagine I've had a better head start than most. However, Paul Gravett is as ever so enthusiastic, so eloquent and persuasive that for every review that made me nod in agreement, having shared the same experience, another pops up which made me wonder how - after forty years of reading comics and twenty years promoting them professionally - I could possibly have missed out on that particular graphic novel! Admittedly not all books covered here are in print or in English, so there's hope for me yet.
At 960 gloriously illustrated pages, this book measures over two inches thick, and on top of the reviews, Paul peppers most entries with extra nuggets of information from similar reads to original publishers, original language and awards garnered. What will relieve or frustrate certain readers is Paul's admirable discipline: no review of even the most complex graphic novel is allowed to sprawl over its half-page limit. It couldn't: this is two inches thick! If you want a more in-depth analysis of Urusawa's PLUTO, for example, well that's what our website is for: eight reviews for its eight volumes! On the other hand, however proud I may be of my review of Simone Lia's FLUFFY, Gravett manages in a few short paragraphs to nail the essence of the book better than I did with much longer, rambling ones and several lines of quoted dialogue.
Paul, don't forget, is the country's ultimate ambassador for comics who gave us GRAPHIC NOVELS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE, MANGA: 60 YEARS OF JAPANESE COMICS and, with Peter Stanbury, GREAT BRITISH COMICS and THE LEATHER NUN AND OTHER INCREDIBLY STRANGE STORIES. He's done it again: another beautiful book for us to sell which then persuades its readers to buy even more! I know my own wish list just got a whole lot longer.
The selections are arranged in order of publication date and run right up to Craig Thompson's HABIBI which only arrived on our shelves three months ago! Almost every book mentioned is an absolute winner with the sole exception that I've spotted so far of WALKING THE DOG (pretend Paul's right and I'm wrong, and please, please buy our only copy!) and although corporate superheroes are thin on the ground, I'm delighted to see my two favourites, Millar and Hitch's ULTIMATES and Vaughan and Harris' EX MACHINA, sitting proudly side by side. In fact, here's a fun little game you can play: read what Gravett wrote then fire the same title or creator into our search engine in the shopping area (you can search by either, and neither needs be exact - best search engine ever!) and compare notes. Or buy. I do wish Paul had mentioned that!
