Black and White and Read All Over

I wasn’t sure what it was about Persepolis that didn’t reach me, or affect me, the way that Epileptic did.

At first I thought that I was put off by the visual in Persepolis because, while it was similar to Epileptic, it couldn’t touch it in its complexity, vividness, and beauty.

To turn to any single page in Epileptic and than compare it to one of the more visually adventurous pages in Persepolis, the stark contrast was still apparent.

Both books are black and white, but just by looking at the book, David B. does more with black and white than I think Satrapi does. His images are full while flat, while Satrapi’s just seem flat to me. David B. experiments more with perspective than Satrapi, as well as with picture angle, and framing. In Epileptic we fall with Jean-Cristophe as he has an epileptic fit at the dinner table (pg.40). We watch from up above as the family sits around the table to eat (pg 50). David B.’s dad is an effective frame to one of the frames on pg. 56, while the family is out gathering plants for a microbiotic dinner. On pg. 312 David B. draws himself as irreconcilably huge as he walks down the Paris streets.

In Persepolis, we see routinely framed pictures, with the point of view coming almost exclusively from a frontal angle.

I’m trying to find the distinction in these two comics when it comes to their visual nature. I don’t think it’s enough or fair to say that David. B is a better drawer than Satrapi and I don’t want to equate “better” drawing with a better book. But there is something about David. B’s style that throws you for a loop in a way that Satrapi’s don’t; whether you think that makes the drawings better or worse, is a personal decision.

I don’t think either of the author’s drawings are agreeable, as defined by Kant. They don’t gratify any specific desires or tastes. They aren’t “typical” comics with busty women and beefy guys.

I can’t really say that Satrapi’s art is good either. It doesn’t give pleasure because it refers to something outside itself we find valuable and laudable. I think we may call David. B’s drawing good. I think many can say beyond it’s surface qualities, David. B’s artwork does an enticing job of portraying an illness that few have encountered. While we may not find the illness itself laudable, his portrayal of it is.

Are these drawings beautiful? Do they give pleasure in consideration of the thing itself, without reference to something else? Would everyone think these drawings are beautiful just as you do? I would argue no for Satrapi and no for David. B. B’s work is something but beautiful, I don’t think, aptly describes it.

And finally we come to the sublime. In the world of comic drawings I would say that David B’s work is sublime. It gives pleasure as it instills a type of terror in us. Kant writes, “The sublime is that by comparison with which all else is small,” (Wolk, 56). Comparing the visual in Epileptic to Persepolis, Epileptic looms mightily over Persepolis.

But, like I said earlier, I don’t want to equate better drawing with a better book. I believe Epileptic needed that grandiose style and drawings to get its message and story across. Persepolis did not need it. It’s more simple style also got its story across as well.

Persepolis’ visual style suits the story well. All the stylized drawings would have muddled Satrapi’s story I believe. However, it is the story and the storyline, and particularly the amount of text that I believe gets in its own way. Persepolis, just flipping through the pages, is a rather text heavy book.

Both Persepolises put together constitutes a book of equal size to that of Epileptic, but there was much more wordage in Satrapi’s books. I understand the necessity of telling a story completely, which is hard to do in the comic book medium where your space is limited for text. But I felt as though Satrapi crammed a lot of text. The pages that were less dense, flowed better for me, and told the story just as effectively. Similarly in Epileptic, the pages that were full of text explaining different beliefs his family ascribed too kind of messed up the flow of the book for me.

It might be the difference in the nature of the story they were each trying to tell, and it may be that Epileptic just stands as the chefs-d’oeuvre of the graphic novel genre, but after reading Epileptic, Persepolis fell a little flat for me.