Weekend Australian Graphic Novel News Coverage

Got to hand it to the Weekend Australian – comics, graphic novels and their creators have received lots of coverage lately in the arts "Review" section of the paper. In the 10-11 January 2009 alone, the paper published two articles. The first one is a reprint from The Independent – "Cartoon Carla – Fiction or Fact?", which focuses on a new French comic book about French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his controversial, fashionista wife and ex-model Carla Bruni, who is portrayed as a "strange blend of Cruella de Vil and Snow White". 

Carlo and Carlito is the rollicking narrative of how a right-wing, authoritarian, lonely president came to meet an marry a left-wing, beautiful, man-eating pop singer, human rights activist and former top model... The facts are mingled with unashamed fantasy and told through inspired imagery, such as a sequence of Disney-like frames, showing Bruni hypnotising the President with cat-like eyes, and a front-cover image showing a tall confident Carla carrying a tiny President in a baby sling.

The second article "Channeling a Master" focuses on Frank Miller's directorial debut on Will Eisner's The Spirit and the disgruntled fan murmurings and lack of confidence in the trailer, which is said to be more akin to Miller's Sin City than a faithful adaptation of the original source material. (There are pretty picture in the print version that have not been uploaded onto the website.) Good to know our comics business is getting exposure through mainstream outlets.

In the meantime, if you want to judge The Spirit trailer for yourself, there are no fewer than four variations on YouTube (several of them have the embedding disabled so you will need to check them out directly on the site. You can start with this one and then this one.)

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