Post by lucy on Mar 11, 2013 17:25:58 GMT -5
MSCSI has now been reviewed on the blog by Colin Smith, a writer for Q Magazine:
toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/on-my-so-called-secret-identity.html
Not just principled, smart and promising, but repeatedly downright enjoyable. Brooker's work is typically brightly structured and touching.
The panel-to-panel storytelling in the book is by Suze Shore, whose work is lively, empathetic and discerning...Shore entirely sidesteps the uber-masculine in favour of the winning specifics of emotion and setting.
Cleverly interwoven into My So-Called Secret Identity are several pages from Sarah Zaidan, whose lively digital pages suggest a smart-minded fusion of exceptional skill, found objects and unconventional materials. Her exuberant, double-sided representation of Cat's desk - all maps, scraps of notes and newspaper articles - is a joy, and as such, is well in keeping with the spirit of the project as a whole. For this is a tale which expresses both a love of the possibilities of the superhero as well as a respect for the storytelling fundamentals of comics themselves. Similarly, there's an exhilarating expression of deeply-held convictions on display here, and yet they sit perfectly well with the very best traditions of the sub-genre as entertainment. As such, this isn't a feminist critique of the super-book itself. Instead, it's a determined counter to the way in which superhero comics have tended to be dominated by a misogynist approach. Not a lecture but an adventure then, and not an alternative so much as the real-deal. It should reward all but the most irredeemably blokeish of readers. To suggest, as many generously have, that it's a comic for women who'd more often than not be alienated by the sub-genre would undoubtedly be true. Yet there's an awful lot of blokes who've been worn through by the same unrelenting bigotry-posing-as-cheesecake too.
To suggest that My So-Called Secret Identity is worth reading because of its ideological convictions would be to patronise its creators while seriously diminishing their achievement. Yes, there are moments where the storytelling wobbles a touch, but this isan undeniably intriguing and enjoyable superhero comic. If the point ever did need establishing again, then this proves once more that there needs be nothing of the ultra-conservative about the heirs of Princess Diana and Kal-El. Unashamed of the sub-genre even as it despairs of how poorly it's so often been used, My So-Called Secret Identity reads like the glimpse of a far more decent-hearted and interesting future.
--Colin Smith, Q Magazine's comics reviewer & blogger at Too Busy Thinking About My Comics.
toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/on-my-so-called-secret-identity.html
Not just principled, smart and promising, but repeatedly downright enjoyable. Brooker's work is typically brightly structured and touching.
The panel-to-panel storytelling in the book is by Suze Shore, whose work is lively, empathetic and discerning...Shore entirely sidesteps the uber-masculine in favour of the winning specifics of emotion and setting.
Cleverly interwoven into My So-Called Secret Identity are several pages from Sarah Zaidan, whose lively digital pages suggest a smart-minded fusion of exceptional skill, found objects and unconventional materials. Her exuberant, double-sided representation of Cat's desk - all maps, scraps of notes and newspaper articles - is a joy, and as such, is well in keeping with the spirit of the project as a whole. For this is a tale which expresses both a love of the possibilities of the superhero as well as a respect for the storytelling fundamentals of comics themselves. Similarly, there's an exhilarating expression of deeply-held convictions on display here, and yet they sit perfectly well with the very best traditions of the sub-genre as entertainment. As such, this isn't a feminist critique of the super-book itself. Instead, it's a determined counter to the way in which superhero comics have tended to be dominated by a misogynist approach. Not a lecture but an adventure then, and not an alternative so much as the real-deal. It should reward all but the most irredeemably blokeish of readers. To suggest, as many generously have, that it's a comic for women who'd more often than not be alienated by the sub-genre would undoubtedly be true. Yet there's an awful lot of blokes who've been worn through by the same unrelenting bigotry-posing-as-cheesecake too.
To suggest that My So-Called Secret Identity is worth reading because of its ideological convictions would be to patronise its creators while seriously diminishing their achievement. Yes, there are moments where the storytelling wobbles a touch, but this isan undeniably intriguing and enjoyable superhero comic. If the point ever did need establishing again, then this proves once more that there needs be nothing of the ultra-conservative about the heirs of Princess Diana and Kal-El. Unashamed of the sub-genre even as it despairs of how poorly it's so often been used, My So-Called Secret Identity reads like the glimpse of a far more decent-hearted and interesting future.
--Colin Smith, Q Magazine's comics reviewer & blogger at Too Busy Thinking About My Comics.