The Best Graphic Novel of the Year Is Here
New Sci-Fi Show Is Spooky, Enigmatic, and Very Compelling; Most Visually Clever Movie in the Series; Plus More
My article about Winning Time kicked up a lot of dust in the sports and entertainment worlds this week, so I’m ready to relax this weekend with some new movies, books, comics, music, and TV. The best of them I’ll recommend to you next weekend.
For this weekend, I’m excited to recommend the best graphic novel of the year—so far. I’m also inviting you to watch a new sci-fi series that has an X-Files vibe that I didn’t realize how much I missed until watching this show.
There’s also a fun movie, a celebratory album, and a suspensefunovel—all of which will bring you hours of pleasure. What more can you ask from a weekend?
READ (graphic novel)
Pearl
Created by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Michael Gaydos (artist).
I usually start the Weekend Boost with a movie, but this week I’m starting with a graphic novel because I think it’s the best one I’ve read so far this year—and one of the best I’ve read in a long time.
For twenty years, I’ve been urging people to read the Alias series about Jessica Jones, which is one of the best noir mysteries in fiction—novel, graphic novel, or otherwise. Bendis and Gaydos, the creators of that series, are back with a new character and story that are just as amazing. Except this one is isn’t just great noir, it’s also great art.
The plot involves a young albino Asian American woman in San Francisco who’s a phenomenal tattoo artist with ties to the American Yakuza. That’s all you need to know about the plot because the real heart of the book is its rich characterization, smart dialogue, and gorgeous art. The drawing, coloring, inking are all exceptional—among the best I’ve seen.
That’s appropriate because the story is as much about how art articulates who we are as it is about the crimes and criminals we encounter. I found myself just staring at the art sometimes, not just for its graphic power, but for how the panels were so innovatively laid out. Sometimes, they let the art tell the story without imposing dialogue. But when the characters do speak, they speak with such nuance, wit, and heart that they are not just moving, but also compelling.
There will be blood. But there will also be a haunting story of a young woman on a journey of self-discovery that includes art, romance, family, and violence.
[Technically, this is a reprint by Dark Horse of the series which originally was published in 2018. Dark Horse is continuing the series with new issues coming in May.]
Get book here.