Greg RuthRezensionen

42000

On apprend l’histoire par la bouche des vainqueurs et longtemps la parole des peuples premiers est restée invisible derrière les westerns hollywoodiens. Choqué, Ethan Hawke souhaitait faire un film de cette histoire et tenter de rétablir une part de vérité… Le film n’a jamais vu le jour mais, grâce à la rencontre avec Greg Ruth, il est devenu cette bande dessinée. L’histoire de Geronimo.

Mais si l’idée est belle et séduisante, et si le rendu et les dessins monochromes sont magnifiques, l’histoire m’a semblé confuse.

Une bande dessinée avec des très belles planches et partant d’une belle intention, pour un rendu hélas un peu brouillon. Mais était-ce possible de raconter tout ça sur un seul album ?

I definitely questioned why Jack would bring his son with him that day, knowing what was to come he wouldn’t just leave a teenager at home alone or drop him off somewhere safe instead? The book does refer to Jack repeatedly as a screw up and there’s certainly examples of that throughout the story so maybe it is possible that this particular father really would have been reckless enough to bring his child in contact with all of that.

There was one instance where it seemed that dialogue was attributed to the wrong character, and a couple times I went in the wrong direction as far as which panel I was meant to read next (maybe that was reader error?), but generally I thought this was really well put together, and the art truly impressive, particularly the faces, Jack being an absolute ringer for Ethan Hawke really added to the action movie-like feel of this.

While there was the aforementioned plausibility issue and I would have preferred more closure in the end, I really did like the father-son relationship especially in the more intense emotional moments, and overall this was an entertaining and memorable page turner.

This was okay! Very much gave Netlfix movie adaptation with a quick turn-around, and felt a bit incomplete. But if you have time for a very violent coming-of-age father/son story, go for it.

Nice little fairy tale.

Wow. This book is not what I thought it was going to be. Great read. The art is amazing.

Not knowing much about Conan, other than from Arnold Schwarzenegger and a cartoon from the 1990's, I enjoyed this comic book and it's a good starting place too. Kurt Busiek is a good writer in fantasy and Cary Nord is a good artist. Looking forward to other omnibuses of Conan produced by Dark Horse.

Graphic novels straddle that fine line between story telling and imagery with one over excessive portion destroying the other and, by default, the whole story.

Indeh succeeds in equalizing both the written and the drawn word thus earmarking it as an altogether different but more profound product of the genre.

Hawke initially wanted to make a movie on the Apache warrior Geronimo but was shot down by Hollywood executives. He then reimagined it as a graphic novel albeit with some minor changes ergo Indeh .

Graphic novels due to their picturesque nature deliver quite a punch when crafted with the right dose of enigma and skill. This one however is rare because it weaves a historiographical nuance previously unseen. It wouldn't be amiss on a historian's bookshelf.

An amazing recounting.

So is this going to be a regular thing now? As with Indeh, Greg Ruth and Ethan Hawke collaborate on a graphic novel that just happens to have a character that looks a lot like Hawke and could be the storyboards for a ready-to-be-optioned B-movie.

This time Ethan plays a washed up boxer who is shambling through life as a prison guard and thousands of dollars behind on child support to his son's mother. As junior recently got expelled from school, Hawke stumbles into taking the boy to prison on the day there happens to be a prison break. In an increasingly unlikely series of events the boy keeps tagging along as Hawke digs himself further and further into loserdom. (And, hey, is that Jean Reno playing Maurice, the prison break mastermind?) But, hey, they're father and son bonding so it's deep and profound drama and not just schlocky action, right? Right?

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S MEADOWLARK ABOUT?
Things aren't going well for Cooper—a little prank leads his father to stop by his mother's house on his way to work. When his father learns that Cooper's been expelled from school, he drags him along with him to work.

Cooper's dad, Jack "Meadowlark" Jackson used to be a boxer of some local renown, but that was then. He's now a prison guard—one respected by his peers and even most prisoners. But Cooper still thinks of him largely as a hero figure. the boxer whose poster hangs on his bedroom wall.

While Jack gets to work in a prison tower, Cooper hangs out with the Warden—clearly a grandmotherly figure in his life. It seems like a pretty okay kind of day, actually. And then an alarm sounds. Several fights have broken out in various parts of the prison—the guards spread out to imposing order, and in the midst of chaos, three prisoners go missing.

It's after this that things really start to go south.

The book then focuses on Cooper and Jack trying to make their way through the ensuing bedlam while they deal with their relationship. Being the father of a teen boy brings a certain level of difficulty, especially if there's trouble between the custodial mother and the father. The violence—horrible violence—of the day creates a heightened atmosphere for their necessary (and rather touching) conversations.

WHAT ABOUT THE ART?
You can't talk about a graphic novel without focusing on the graphic part of it, right? Which is really a shame because I'm not equipped for it.

Ruth's art is exactly what this story needs—as usual, I don't know how to describe the art, but the pencil work—sort of rough and heavy—fits both the action and the characters. The sort of sepia-coloring says Texas to me—and makes the setting ring true.

I did appreciate the not-at-all-subtle use of Ethan Hawke as Jack, it added a little extra flavor.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MEADOWLARK?
This seems like the kind of story that S. A. Cosby or Jordan Harper would write—a mix of family drama and crime.

The emotions and family dynamic felt real, relatable—and was even touching. The violence and criminal behavior were just as visceral—and disturbing. You put them together with some compelling artwork and you've got yourself a winner.

I'd have liked a touch more depth—but given the medium, I'm not sure you could get too much deeper (without needing another hundred pages or so)—so I'm not holding that against it too much.

There's a lot to commend in this graphic novel, and very little to complain about. I see that Hawke and Ruth have collaborated on an earlier graphic novel and I need to track that down.

Powerful material and beautifully illustrated but didn't quite take me along.

A lot of good ideas went into this story -- good ideas that seemed familiar to me, such as the feel of the explanation for how the mythic wood worked, which seemed to have been ripped straight out of the pages of The Hollowing. A somewhat paler, or perhaps thinner, or just faded, version of Gaiman's talent for lending a magical quality to any tale helps to give this book its charm. Some of the mores and judgments intrinsic to the plot were a bit shallow and hackneyed. The art was good, if occasionally a bit confusing in that I sometimes had to go back and look at something again, after some dialog caused me to reassess what I thought was going on, just to figure out what I had seen and whether what I thought were two characters were actually two different encounters with the same character (and whenever that happened, my suspicions were borne out).

As a graphic novel sort of work, it's a very quick read, and it contains evidence of a richly imagined world, perhaps suitable to an entire line of RPG rule- and setting-books. It ends with the sense of possible sequels and, though it did not quite grab me enough to bother seeking them out, I would read the next book if it ever appears and someone gives it to me.

This is a short book about a little boy who's mom is coming home from deployment. Not many words but shows the true happiness of a parent coming home from being gone for so long. Ages 3-6 Pierce County Library

This book is about a boy who moves to a new house and finds and old tape player. The tape player takes him on strange and occasionally creepy stories. He goes into a gate which gets him lost in a strange world. The adventures the boy goes on is bizarre and very strange. I rate it 3 stars, because it was a fun story with an a e s t h e t i c as hecc art style, but I seldom found myself entertained as the story was boring for the most part, although there was parts that would make me say this book is a hidden gem. The highlights of the story definitely made the book worth reading, you just had to be dedicated enough to find them.

Well now, this was a treat. I've been on a graphic novel reading binge lately and, as much as I love a vibrant panel, the first thing that caught my eye here was the stark black and white inking. This is the story of Nate. Of his move to a new place, of finding a mysterious recorder, and of discovering that there are things out there well beyond what we can imagine. I would have thought that I'd want this story told to me in color. Honestly though? Now that I've read it I can't imagine it any other way.

The art in these panels is stunning. It's crisp, the faces are realistic, and it suits the mood of this story perfectly. While this is a little darker than most YA graphic novels out there, it places one foot firmly in the world of Fantasy. The pages are populated with all manner of both interesting and slightly unnerving characters. The world that Nate finds has quite a different type of soldier. Squirrels, rag dolls, and bugs, they are all pawns in this ongoing battle. It makes this story magical, and slightly eerie.

Highly recommended! I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Well, this just seems self-indulgent. Ethan Hawke hires a guy to draw him into a graphic novel adaptation of a screenplay Hawke was unable to get filmed. Despite promoting the book as the Apache Wars told from the perspective of the Apache, the book instead spends way to much time with Hawke's character and the other white military officers. (And, hey, didn't Jason Patric already star in this movie? Check out "Geronimo: An American Legend.") Individual pictures are nice, but the narrative flow left something to be desired. And that's probably a function of the writing, which just left me wishing I had read one of the books cited in the "Further Reading" section instead.

Every day, soldiers leave their families to protect others. The families miss them when they are gone and wait for their return. They are the heroes.

Dark Horse comics revisits Conan, this time written by Kurt Busiek, with a lot of content by Robert Howard. This volume collects 'The Legend', 'The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories' and 'The God in the Bowl and Other Stories', the last of which I'd read before but was happy to revisit. Artwork and writing are of good quality. There is a good flow between the stories and Conan's personality is quite well captured. The only story I didn't enjoy so much was 'The God in the Bowl' itself, in which Conan spends a lot of time standing around listening to a magistrate who is considering arresting him. The highlight of that tale is when Conan beheads his foppish employer after he denies having ever seen the Cimmerian.

3.5 stars. Well darn it. This is some dang awesome art. I was completely hooked -story wise- from page 1. But it was SO rushed. It felt like trying to fit a full length movie into a twenty minute episode. It desperately needs a sequel- and like 5 more of them.
I hope he has one in the making!

I loved the concept of this book, but for me it just didn't flow well. I started to get confused by the sequence and ended up putting it down. The art is beautiful and I can see this working for a more patient reader.

I like Mr. Hawke. In regards to being an actor, he has not always taken the most convenient road in the movies that he has starred in. He seems very passionate in everything that he does. Therefore, I am not surprised that this book turned into a labor of love. It showed in the storytelling as well as the graphics. Mr. Ruth did an amazing job to tell the story through his illustrations.

I am actually glad that Mr. Hawke was turned down by Hollywood to turn the story into a movie. I felt that this medium of a graphic novel was so much better than a movie could be. Which, this is a "graphic" novel in all aspects. There is nothing pretty about war. I did feel like a part of the "true" history was exposed with this book. Having not been very familiar with the Apache Wars, I am more intrigued to learn more about this history. Indeh is a tabletop book and conversation piece (in a good way).

Being a military spouse, this book was very powerful to me. A boy is waiting for his parent to get home from a deployment and the homecoming is so powerful and emotional as the reader that I got a little choked up. This book also did wonders for shutting gender roles. I don't want to give too much away, but as the reader, I was shocked at how brainwashed I was into assuming one thing over the over.

Full Disclosure: I got this book for free from a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

Second disclosure: I didn't really read the description of the book before I entered the giveaway. I saw that it was a history book, and clicked. As such, I was immensely surprised when a beautifully illustrated graphic novel showed up on my doorstep a few days later.

Indeh is a work of art. Greg Ruth's black and white images are beautifully done and arrestingly composed. There is so much detail to each panel, whether in the subtleties of expression in a character close up, or in the grim background details of a two page spread depicting a massacre. You feel yourself lingering on each page, soaking in as much as you can.

As to the story, Ethan Hawke (yes, that one. No "Gattaca" jokes, please) brings us the story of Goyahkla, later to be known as Geronimo, as the Apache people struggle to survive a war against the grinding machine of the American Army. The story is based on real events, though I am (I'm ashamed to say) unfamiliar with the Apache Wars. For those history-minded folks like me, Hawke provides a decent bibliography at the end of the book, allowing the reader to dive deeper in the story if they want. I expect I'll be reading quite a few of these books in the future. (As an aside, I love it when authors do this, even in fiction. The most recent example that comes to mind is the gloriously dark The Trench Angel by Michael Keenan Gutierrez)

The narrative of "Indeh" is told primarily from the Apache point of view, focusing primarily on the deeds of Geronimo and Naiches (son of the Apache Chief). There are occasional flips over to the point of view of the American army officers tasked with subduing and "pacifying" the Apache, but this story is meant to be a primarily Apache one. In my view, the central Apache characters are treated well by Hawke. The Apache are eminently sympathetic; after all, their land, culture, and people are being systematically crushed by an armed force that considers them nuisances and savages. But Hawke doesn't fall into the trap of resting with the "noble savage" or "spiritual warrior" trope that so many (white) authors seem to. His Apache characters are sympathetic, and they are brutal. They are heroes, and they are ruthless. In other words, they are fully, simply, human. They are not perfect, but they are doing all they can to preserve their people and way of life.

In the afterword, Hawke tells us that Indeh started as a failed screenplay. It seems that Hollywood felt that a movie about the Apache Wars, with a primarily Native American cast, would never get off the ground. From this disappointment, the book was born. I am glad this story is out there in this form. The visceral style of Ruth's illustrations paired well with the brutal realities of war, and the story, advanced through dialogue rather than exposition, is engaging. After reading "Indeh," I think there might be a market for narrative historical graphic novels (raise your hand if you'd like to see The Devil in the White City turned into a graphic novel). I also wonder if this would be a good medium for native artists to get these histories out in the public sphere. As I've said, Hawke does a wonderful job of telling this story from an Apache viewpoint, but I do wonder how an Apache author or artist would have told it.

In sum, this is a great afternoon's read (and on top of that, you'll probably learn something). If you're into history, graphic novels, or war stories, this is probably a good bet for you. Just be warned that due to the limitations of the medium, Hawke has to simplify or skip over some bits, so you'll probably find yourself moving to the bibliography afterward, looking for more.

Lost interest around page 85

Received in exchange for a review. Very good graphic novel with excellent art work. Great way to teach history