What's immediately striking in Sarah Glidden's work of graphic journalism How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less is Glidden's light, bright illustration style. Ethereal watercolors on top of simple ink drawings dominate the work's artistic makeup. Sometimes this entails sweeping vistas, richly colored and flowing behind the gutter and between panels:
Other times, this takes the form of a simple, pale wash of color as background to the dialogue:
Throughout the work, this style invokes a sense of comfort, tranquility, and ease, despite the tumultuous nature of both Israel's situation and the author-protagonist's state of mind. Even the design of the characters adds to this feeling of comfort; soft and round, the depictions sit somewhere between real people and big ol' pillows. This subversion of what would be expected from a book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to me to parallel the way the Birthright trip's presentation of the situation in the region: cozy and easy to digest, but hinting ever so slightly at something more complex behind the bright, gentle veneer. This parallel, whether intended or not, allows readers to become more deeply involved and invested in Sarah's emotional journey, as we walk through it too, trying to pull back the curtain alongside her.
Similar to the graphic novels medium itself, style can be used to mask a comic’s more sinister themes and even draw in audiences that wouldn’t normally be attracted to such serious or tragic stories. To most uninitiated people comics are about brightly colored super humans in spandex saving the day from the villain of the month. Sarah Glidden takes advantage of this and writes a story detailing her personal experiences with Israel and the complex history of its politics and conflict. She leaves everything on the table and writes about her ideas and understanding of the country as well as controversial and at times mildly racist thoughts on the matter. When faced with such a different product than what is expected it makes the mature content stand out even more. The work makes great use of its status and aesthetics to enhance the content and messages it has to offer. In some ways its similar to Maus in how it revolutionized the medium by being the one of the first comics to show truly horrid imagery in a way that allowed it to become so popular. But I would argue How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less has more in common with cult classic manga and anime Madoka Magica. Madoka advertised itself as another cutesy kids story about little girls saving the world with magical powers even to the extent of adopting character designs and an art style mirroring that of popular kids shows at the time. It was not until a quarter of the way through the series that it showed it true fangs by gruesomely killing off one its main characters and taking up a tragic and oppressive atmosphere. By the end of the story they had killed off nearly the entire cast and introduced a philosophical aspect to the story in which it questioned the very meaning of existence all the while cementing itself as one of the top 50 most popular manga to date. Overall How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less uses a similar approach if not as direct to entice and interest readers that would not typically find themselves reading this kind of material.
-Cameron Longfellow, Gunnar Bergmann, and Adric Mosher
1 comment:
Your post gets around to some global insights into Glidden's comic, though the focus early on is on individual elements. Divide up your account into more narrowly focused paragraphs to avoid large blocks of text and to help keep your reader on track. The manga reference is a fascinating one, but bring the discussion back to Glidden so it doesn't seem like a digression.
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