*Gray Horses — Recommended
- Posted by Johanna on March 26, 2006 at 9:27 pm
- Category: Graphic Novel Reviews
- CREDITS: by Hope Larson
- PUBLISHER: Oni Press; $14.95 US
The point of Hope Larson’s comics is never the destination but the journey. Raina Telgemeier calls them “visual poetry”, just the right description.
Gray Horses opens with travel, as French exchange student Noémie reaches her new city, taking the subway from the airport to her rooming house. While she adjusts to her foreign surroundings, she dreams of a girl named Marcy riding a wild talking horse.
In the daytime, she makes friends with a neighbor, a girl who’s in her art history class and lives at the bakery across the street. As the book progresses, we learn more about what happened before Noémie came to the US, her discoveries within the city, and how various symbolic elements echo themselves in her life. It’s a coming-of-age tale about acceptance and discovery, gloriously and uniquely told.
The art consists of fluid lines contained within borderless panels unrestricted and shaped far more organically than the usual squares and rectangles. The balloon tails similarly twist and curl, showing how speech carries through air on waves, while sound effects and background smells and actions are indicated by small cursive words. Noémie’s thoughts are in French, simultaneously translated for us in text that wraps around the edges of the scene. The entirety is welcoming and dare I say it, feminine in its use of curves.
The tan color used for backgrounds and other various elements has a peachy sepia tone that gives the whole thing a feeling of memory. Against it, the white figures and foreground elements immediately draw the eye. Larson’s techniques demonstrate her thorough knowledge of the comic medium; they couldn’t be done as elegantly anywhere else. They don’t draw attention unless you’re already looking to see how she accomplishes her stunning effects.
Given her fondness for the arcing line, Larson’s drawings of Marcy riding the horse are lovely, appropriately dreamlike and flowing. They have a childlike simplicity to them that I’m sure took much practice and skill.
Noémie’s city, although an analogue of Chicago, is called Onion City, and much like that namesake, this book reveals itself in layers over time. It’s immediately rereadable and will continue to reward the reader, who will find new meaning in it every time.
David Welsh and Mark Fossen have also reviewed Gray Horses. David concentrates on the necessity of the reader to engage with the text, bringing themselves to the meaning, while Mark finds parallels between his journey as a reader and Noémie’s as a character. Larson’s previous book was Salamander Dream.
March 28, 2006 at 7:10 PM
[...] Lots of Gray Horses love out there this week, actually. The indefatigable Johanna Draper Carlson weighs in over at Comics Worth Reading, and also points to reviews of Larson’s sophomore effort by David Welsh and Mark Fossen. A quick Technorati scan reveals that the book has also been reviewed recently by Dylan Abbot, the SFist, Johnny Bacardi, and Publisher’s Weekly (a starred review). [...]
June 2, 2006 at 10:25 AM
[...] Hope Larson (GrayHorses, Salamander Dream) was mentioned at Publishers Weekly for signing a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster’s young adult imprint. [...]
October 15, 2006 at 11:58 AM
[...] Promising New Talent Hope Larson, Salamander Dream (AdHouse Books), Gray Horses (Oni Press) [...]
November 24, 2006 at 11:13 PM
[...] Big Time Attic mimics the look of an old romance comic with a bizarre re-imagining of Pygmalion, only with a post-war car designer instead of a sculptor. Hope Larson’s (Gray Horses) colorful story of college romance takes a more modern approach, told in part through instant messages. Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri parody comics of the 1970s with their Dr. Id, who solves a case of sexual frigidity caused by guilt. [...]
August 1, 2007 at 7:57 AM
[...] deserving wider recognition, and rightly so. I was very much impressed by the earnestness of her Gray Horses, and it’s very good to see that she’s continuing on that expressive wavy line that [...]
November 20, 2007 at 12:39 PM
[...] to Chapel Hill to make for a long day trip. Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and Hope Larson (Gray Horses, Salamander Dream) will be signing at Chapel Hill Comics on Saturday, December 1, from 2-4 PM. [...]
November 28, 2007 at 5:34 PM
[...] Gray Horses review by Johanna Draper Carlson: http://comicsworthreading.com/2006/03/26/gray-horses/ [...]
April 6, 2008 at 11:27 AM
[...] reminded of the details.) Chiggers combines the best of Larson’s previous books — from Gray Horses, discovering friendship in a new place, and from Salamander Dream, growing up in a natural [...]
March 19, 2009 at 6:36 AM
[...] talk more about her influences. When she uses a brush, I’m reminded of Craig Thompson or Hope Larson. Pen? More Jen Sorensen. Occasionally a little Alison Bechdel. There’s probably many more [...]
April 13, 2010 at 4:03 PM
[...] Hope Larson’s books is more accomplished than the one before, from Salamander Dream (2005) to Gray Horses (2006) to 2008’s Chiggers and now Mercury. [...]