A different perspective on the Iraq war
Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite comic book writers right now. Runaways is a monthly read of mine and I collect his other titles like Y: the Last Man through trades when the individual issues are collected. Still when it was announced that he was doing a one-shot graphic novel called Pride of Baghdad based on the escape of a family of lions from the Baghdad zoo following the US invasion of Iraq I wasn't particularly interested. I mean it's about talking lions, how good could it be Kimba?
The answer surprised me because it's very good. It's not the typical standard talking animal story that we might be used to from Disney movies, nor is it the overly metaphorical animal tale where each animal stands in for something as a literal representation for something in the real world (the horse represents the working class, the pigs represent...). Rather the animals all just represent Iraqi civilians pre and post invasion, and are able to draw us into a story in a way that a comic about Iraq citizens dealing with the invasion would not be able to.
Political without being preachy or taking sides the book is both offers insight into an experiance that thankfully most of us are not familiar with, while being that most important thing an entertaining read. I mean this is a really really good comic, and a good read. It's not really the comic I'd give to my five year old to read, however it might be something that's worth reading to your children so you can talk to them about it.
I haven't mentioned the art by Niko Henrichon, which is beautiful. I really like the style of his drawings, and if he was a quick artist (I don't know what speed he works) I'd love to see him on one of my monthly reads.
