t’s about to get -a little- magical, it’s time for “So You Want To Read Comics”, a weekly feature where we take a look at a single topic, then offer up a pair of comic book recommendations, perfect for new readers, based on that topic. This week we’re looking at comics for people who love magical realism.
Magical realism is the often overlooked genre of fiction where magical elements are often subtle and observed as mundane and a part of everyday life. While there is some debate about which things actually deserve the label, it’s generally agreed upon that the point of magical realism is to emphasize elements of reality by introducing magical elements. For example, to really show that a person is confused, they might suddenly find themselves in an impossibly large maze while nothing else in the story suggests the supernatural exists. Some names associated with the genre include Haruki Murakami, Mikhail Bulgakov (do yourself a favor and look up all the covers to his book Master & Margarita), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tim Burton, and Wes Anderson. Now, it might be argued that a majority of comic books are magical realism, but there are a few that do it just a bit better than most.
Like these:
Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets)
Writer: Gilbert Hernandez
Artist: Gilbert Hernandez
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Amazon.com: Heartbreak Soup (Love & Rockets): 9781560977834: Hernandez, Gilbert: Books
Love & Rockets is an influential title originating in the 80s from a trio of brothers, Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez. Each brother would write his own, separate story and they would combine them into a sort of anthology. For the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on Gilbert’s contribution, but the others are absolutely worth a read. Gilbert based his stories in a fictional village named Palomar. Here, his characters go through the turmoils of life, but things aren’t quite what they seem. The stories of this large cast of characters goes from typical love triangles, to jealousies, to misconceptions, but then you throw in things like children disappearing during eclipses, ghosts, and strange faces hiding in nature, and your perception of reality there in Palomar starts to shift. Featuring some unique black and white art, this is a testament to a special time in comic book history as well as a proper addition to the Latin American tradition of magical realism. Now, I should warn you that there is some pretty rough language here as well as some terms that would be considered slurs nowadays. So keep that in mind when you dive into this one.
Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Novel
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Sas Milledge
Publisher: DC Comics
If you’re not aware, Dick Grayson was the first Robin, the sidekick to Batman and he comes from a family of circus acrobats. That’s about all the backstory you need for this one. Here we find Dick, no longer thrilled to be spending his summers performing for the circus, pulled towards a new attraction in town called The Lost Carnival. Also, he meets a mysterious young woman named Luciana. This is ultimately a coming of age story dealing with young romance, family ties, and changing times. But it’s the packaging where we get a lot of the magical elements. This is similar to something like the movie Big Fish, where there aren’t many overtly magical things happening, but there’s just enough exaggeration to things and a bit of creative interpretation to make things -look- magical. Toss in some good old fashioned comic book danger into the mix as well and you have yourself a pretty fun story that hits all the right magical notes.
What did you think of these suggestions? Do you have any of your own? Let us know in the comments section below.