Oh, we’ve really settled into these fantastic blog posts from Alan of Crow Books, as he shares with us his reasons to read. It’s definitely getting us itching to start our next read and discover another great book to add to our list! Today Alan shares another set of his favourite titles.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is told in two ways, by pictures and by words. If you unpicked the story, the word part and the pictorial part would both make credible stories in their own right. Together, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is fantastic, like two toys that join together to make an even cooler, more wondrous, toy. At first, the pictures look sort of naïve, but after a while they carry an emotion like that in the woodblock prints in Vertigo. And joined together Hugo Cabret tells the history of film-making. A book telling the story of the movies. It’s only published in hardcover and on cinematic black borders, so you feel like you’re watching an old silent movie. Magic.
Black Hole by Charles Burns is also set in dark space. Each frame is predominantly black. With Burns, though, you feel more like you’re at the drive-in than Cinema City. The setting is regular, the story is regular, but because Black Hole is starkly black the whole book twists into the weirdly normal – which, from memory, was how teenage-dom felt. Black Hole is like Happy Days gone prozac, or Jim Henson meets Bill Henson. Well maybe slightly weirder than that. Hypnotically beautiful.
In contrast, Gentlemen of Bacongo is all colour. In Africa, people have a great sense of style/celebration. The sapeurs of Brazzaville are the coolest dressed dudes on the planet – they take style out of reach! I never thought a man would look cool in pink brogues, a candy pink suit, and a red felt hat – the cherry on top – but the guy on the cover does. The ‘Democratic Republic’ of Congo has just been through one of the most vicious wars of modern history, but these sapeurs don’t let that bother them. Their exuberance and style are subversive, thumbing their nose at man’s folly. Photography by Daniele Tamagni.
You just want to be there. The only negative with this book is that it’s out of print.
Alan.
Doesn’t that last book look fantastic!? We’re looking forward to Alan’s final installment next Friday, and hope that you’ve been enjoying his intriguing posts, clever writing, and left-of-centre picks. If you missed out on his first two posts you can see them here and here.
Happy weekend all!
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