Next up in the Brinkmann Book Reading Club is Mike Mignola's Bowling with Corpses. As it happens, I read it earlier this year, but everyone else wanted to read it so I agreed. Also, it fits nicely after the last book.
I'm looking forward to reading it again.
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| The book. |
This is a bunch of short stories. I'll review each in turn.
ReplyDeleteReview one: I remembered liking this. I didn't remember LOVING it. Obviously, Mignola's art and Stewart's colors are pitch-perfect. It was like I was right there exploring the warlocks tower with the boy. The art isn't detailed - it's EVOCATIVE.
Of course, I love the fairy tale elements. Are the animals actually speaking in the fiction of the world? Or are they narrating / commenting on the story to us? It's ambiguous and wonderful.
And what a brilliant magic item!
Review two: In The Beginning. This is a SHORT short story. An origin of the world story, told in such a way that maybe it's true and maybe it's just a legend. Things that are legends here in the real world tend to be truth in fantasy realms, but Mignola injects enough ambiguity here to make me smile (and maybe think a bit). And I love how he mixes in real-world religions with his own imaginative fantasy - the whole thing sure seems like it could have happened...
ReplyDeleteJust after the first story, love this lil guy! I’ll parrot the old man, the art and the story felt VERY Mignolia. I always find myself inspired to run weird ttrpg campaigns after reading his work/seeing his art and this was no different. Interesting eclectic characters, items, and places. Everything is barely explained which makes the world feel as big as it should.
ReplyDeleteThe second story is the complete opposite, all explanation but no story. I still love the world it built, and the idea that the “gods” are beings only slightly more gifted than ourselves, another step towards the dragon in the garden, is an interesting concept. Mignolia tends towards a lot of Christian imagery in the stories I’ve read, and this garden felt similar to Eden, but I also liked the pulling in of other religions and stories such as the creator dragon motif.
ReplyDeleteReview three: The Making of the World. Even shorter than the last! Does it build on the previous creation story or contradict it? Yes! Ambiguity reigns! I love it.
ReplyDeleteAgree that I love the ambiguity, and I’d be curious to hear which contradictions you saw?
DeleteI suppose "contradictions" was too strong a word, but "clarifications" surely doesn't fit either... The raven seems to be saying "yes, but..." to the ghost. So I guess it does build on the previous story without whole-heartedly agreeing with it.
DeleteAnother even shorter exposition story. I liked that it corrected the previous story: the dragons final breath didn’t create the world, it called on the world tree to create. Makes it feel more like separate narrators and not just Mignolia speaking all of the dialogue.
ReplyDeleteThis. And, yes, using separate, perhaps not wholly reliable, narrators does indeed make it seem like a 'real' world, not just something that Mignola made up and is telling us about.
DeleteGood advice to start the 4th story! I tend to prefer stories posing a question rather than a moral, but this story did seem to propose a moral about justice and the need to right wrongs else causing further consequences. It happens I don’t hate this moral and how it can be related to reparations, but I still think it could’ve been put in a slightly more interesting way.
ReplyDeleteI'll chime in about Justice Denied here. It's interesting that you focused on the morals of the story. They were definitely there, and ostensibly the whole point, but I loved the world-building. So many little details dropped in casually makes the world seem large and real. This sort of thing, done well, always reminds me of Star Wars when there was just one movie and everything was hinted at and then left up to the viewer's imagination. Evocative, rather than explanatory. Again, I love it.
DeleteImmortality is dust: a pretty classic story, regretting immortality. This one literally poses a question at the end, but at least in my opinion it pretty clearly answers it.
ReplyDeleteAnd also regretting "forbidden" knowledge! I was really struck reading this one how interesting the panel layouts are.
DeleteThe old soldier and the king: it makes these stories are moralistic, being based on folklore. This story started very cliche but I liked the take of the man telling the story having nothing to show for it now and not being entirely believed. I think this gave it depth, even if I came to a similar moral conclusion from it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I noticed a moral in this story. I do like the "did it really happen" bit. The old man having nothing to show of his riches seemed just a bit Conan (or maybe Elric), and very DnD, to me.
DeleteThe whole thing reminded me of a (darker) Hobbit. Which is high praise indeed.
Also, this:
"I like cheese."
"Who doesn't? Nobody I'd want to know."
Una(both parts): love a little revenge story, and following a horror origin story is the perfect way to put it!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this one. Maybe almost as much as the first one with Spoon and his magic corpse arm.
DeleteIn addition to the non-chronologically told main story, we got another layer to the creation myth and a Devil who is just one of many players in the occult world. I also especially liked how Mignola handled transformations here. They mostly happened between panels - as if one moment you're talking to a cat and the next she's a person (or a devil and a bat, or..).
Also, this:
"It's so late, it's early." Kinda sums up much of my young adulthood (even if I wasn't a vampire).
Lands unknown: a great ending/recap. Mignolia set up different civilizations in this world as analogs to the real world, which I’m not sure I love. That being said, the raven definitely made me interested in seeing more! Leave that guy to dust! Overall loved this book, once I accepted it being folklore instead of other genres I’m used to it worked really well.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I love how the little overview really leaves me wanting more (and it seems the next book is on the way early next year!). And though she didn't mention it, I bet Jo is even more excited for the raccoon's turn narrating than I am.
DeleteI'll agree that one has to be careful making fantasy versions of real world cultures, but they can be a useful shorthand without having to describe every detail of your foreign land. Authors have been doing this for years (see Mr. Robert E. Howard's stories for the earliest example I can think of off the top of my head). I think Mignola does (or will do, most of these were one-panel mentions) a good job of being evocative without being derivative (or, worse, straight out racist).
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I likes me some folkloric / fairy tale-ish stories. So, yes, this book was right in my wheelhouse.