Graphic novel book club selections May-August 2011

Yes, graphic novel aficionados, the library plans just this far ahead. It's time to choose some graphic novels for the upcoming trimester of 2011. Feel free to suggest some yourself or weigh in on these options.



Revolver by Matt Kindt
A story involving duality, a young journalist lives in two universes at once. One is a violent dystopia where he is a hero and the other is a dull place where his job is awful and his life's activities are suddenly mundane.





Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel
A story of a young scientist whose father was a pastor, Creature Tech very tastefully explores the age-long argument of religion versus science. The protagonist is attacked by a parasite that gives him super powers and a new philosophy. Also, there are space eels.





Almost Silent by Jason
A collection of Jason's early work, I'll let Amazon describe each story, as I have not read this particular graphic novel. "You Can’t Get There From Here...tells the tale of a love triangle involving Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Monster’s Bride...Tell Me Something is a brisk (271 panels), near-totally-silent (just a few intertitles) graphic novelette about love lost and found again, told with a tricky mixture of forward- and back-flashing narrative...The Living and the Dead is a hilariously deadpan (and gory) take on the traditional Romero-style zombie thriller."





Transmetropolitan series by Warren Ellis
A 90s series that follows Spider Jerusalem, a vulgar journalist who lives in an overpopulated and dirty futuristic city. Over the course of the series, he uncovers a government plot involving aliens. Or does he?





Blankets by Craig Thompson
Blankets is an autobiographical black and white epic of Craig Thompson's first love. This graphic novel is chock full of humor and is truly compelling and critically acclaimed.




American Vampire by Snyder and Stephen King
We're always talking about Stephen King in the book club anyway, why not read a Stephen King graphic novel? This original story involves vampires and the wild west, how could you go wrong?




Tricked by Alex Robertson
I have not read this graphic novel, either. Go Amazon! "A creatively blocked rock star, a signature--forging memorabilia-shop clerk, a teenager seeking the father she has never known, a functional schizophrenic not taking his meds, a waitress suffering from her latest breakup, and a pretty Latina doing temp work eventually converge for a violent climax...Inspired plotwise, it seems, by The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the twenty-fifth anniversary of John Lennon's murder, Robinson excels at less-than-transparent personae whose adventures he skips among in chapters presented in a countdown, 49 to 1, that bolsters the story's inherent suspense."

Traditionally, the graphic novel book club has taken a break in July for recuperating and reading things that are not comic-related, so let me know if you all would like a break. Either is fine with me. I also acknowledge that the superhero and manga side of the graphic novel world is a bit under-represented here due to a lack of knowledge on my part. If you have any suggestions or recommendations for these genres (preferably a 80+ page standalone or short series that was recently published) let me know. In any case, I'd like some feedback on what you all would like to read and/or what you would NOT like to read. Thanks!

Something something webcomics: Achewood!

Deadlines are for chumps. Nick and I arrived at this conclusion independently, and decided that the Webcomics column here needed a better name. And by "better" I mean "one flexible enough to accommodate long periods of slacking and forgetting to update it."

We've been hard at work trying to come up with a hilarious and boldly original new name for this column, but in the meantime I'm calling it "Webcomics Whenever."

So this week we're talking about Achewood. The best webcomic.



Achewood is a comic about some anthropomorphic animals. They're pretty normal dudes, which means that their conversations range from yuppie erudite to truck stop vulgar. (remember how last week I was like, "if you're easily offended, don't go clicking things on the internet?" Same thing applies here).

Achewood's creator Chris Onstad is a Stanford graduate with a passion for gourmet cooking, and like South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Onstad understands that the best humor works the corner of Evil Intelligent and Endearingly Dumb:



Achewood's two central characters are Ray and his childhood friend Roast Beef. Ray is an impossibly wealthy media mogul, who does things like buying the helicopter from "Airwolf" and the jarred head of The Who drummer Keith Moon on eBay:



Roast Beef is a down-on-his-luck computer guy, whose insecurities manifest themselves in his actions and the fact that his dialog is 2 points smaller than everyone else's:



I love this comic. If you're not going to get mad at me about some occasional bad language and some vague drawings of male parts (I mean, it's got nothing on Watchmen), you should read it from the beginning.

And then buy an Achewood t-shirt and wear it to a senior-level "Mass Media and Politics" class, which is totally how I met my wife.

Next Whenever: Law Enforcement and Sharp Objects!

Flight Volume One - Sunday December 19th

Flight is a graphic novel anthology edited by Kazu Kibuishi, who went on to create the successful Amulet series. The anthology is meant as a vehicle to promote young and upcoming talented artists. Each artist was given only "flight" as a theme, and as a result we get a story about a young girl who grows wings, a dirigible, a boy and his dog who build an airplane, and a short story about jet lag, among others. Like many anthologies, some stories are hit and some are miss. Questions for this one were a little difficult, so if anyone has any they'd like to submit, feel free.

1. What was your favorite story? Least favorite? Best and worst art?

It was a solid consensus that the scrapbook-feeling free-association story "Dummy Brother" was intolerable both visually and story-wise. We all thoroughly enjoyed "The Bowl" by Chiang for its clever storytelling and vivid art. We also enjoyed the cuteness of "Outside My Window."

2. The theme of the book is only flight. Did this restrict the graphic artists too much? Too little?

It seemed that "write something about flight" was the prompt for each of the artists. Since this theme is pretty nebulous and even romantic, it provided a good clear canvas for artists to work with.

3. As any anthology, Flight is schizophrenic age wise and content-wise. What demographic is it marketed to? What demographic is it meant for?


We did discuss this a bit. Especially since Flight: Explorer was specifically aimed towards children, stories like Copper seemed kid-like and out of place when compared to some of the uninterpretable and strange adult-oriented stories later in this book. I think this can serve as an example that comics creators really don't know who their primary audience consists of. Perhaps its mostly male twenty somethings, maybe they are all twelve year olds, or a mix of many populations.

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of telling a story in just a few pages and panels?

Part of the problem with many of these stories is they seemed to just be teasers for a more fully realized story. Or, they abruptly or ambiguously ended in an unsatisfying manner. A few of the stories, like "The Bowl," managed to tell an interesting and satisfying story in just a few panels, but it proved a challenge to many of the other authors. Part of the problem/solution could be that some stories are continued in Flight: Volume Two.

5. In "I Wish" by Vera Bergosol, what happens at the end? (p. 48). What was her decision?

In the final panels, we see two figures, then one, then none. It could be argued that the girl went for a casual flight and took her friend along, but then why would only one figure remain after she supposedly took flight? It could also be interpreted that she took flight, then he left to go back home. In a macabre person's point of view (like mine), then it's possible that she couldn't fly at all with those wings, and both of them jumped to their deaths.

6. How did the anime drawing style come through in a few of these works?

I especially found it strange in the third story, "Hugo Earheart," in which Hugo looks suspiciously like Astro Boy and befriends a very anime-looking elf girl. Many of the authors were Asian in origin, so perhaps they are simply drawing upon Eastern influences. Or, judging from Scott McCloud's afterword, perhaps manga and japanese style art is the wave of the future.

7. What are your thoughts on the current "steampunk" trend in comics and fiction? (As seen in "Hugo Earhart," "Formidable," and Appelhans' story?)


Steampunk is an interesting trend that consists of an alternate universe in which steam power is the only means of technology. As a result, goggles, top hats, and flying machines are prevalent. Steampunk was interesting in these stories, but it seems a medium can only go so far with a certain trend. (Hear that, zombies?!)

8. What commentary is "The Bowl" (p. 179) making on historians and museums? What happened to the man/god inside of it?

Perhaps none, but the message that I was getting was the misinterpretation of history. This man's entire life was changed by a bowl, but the museum writing only speaks of calcium left over and what the bowl could have been used for. It shows that we really know nothing about the past or history, we can only blindly draw conclusions from fleeting evidence.

9. Why was flight of all themes chosen for this anthology? What makes it important or special to so many people?

As previously mentioned, flight is just universal and romantic enough that it can be an inspiration to many different types of people. From the first poem in this anthology that romanticized the act of taking off itself to the mundane problems like jet lag, the authors in Flight found their own way to interpret the theme.

10. How did "Outside My Window" (p. 79) fit in with the theme and the rest of the stories?

I have no idea. Any takers?

11. Many of these stories had no POWs or SMACKs to illustrate sounds and all of them completely lack thought or narration bubbles. Is this the new trend in comics? Why is this important?

Hearkening back to last month's selection, V for Vendetta, I think the lack of illustrated onomatopoeias is the indicator of a "grown up" or "serious" graphic novel, aka no superheroes. While these stories were by no means all serious, these sounds have been parodied and overused to the extent that they've fallen out of popularity along with thought balloons.

12. In his afterword, Scott McCloud predicts that manga and anime will become more serious, abandoning the guys with giant swords and Japanese schoolgirls. What do you think?

There have already been a few serious manga series', including McCloud's own Zot! and a favorite of mine, Planetes. However, the less classy school girls and dudes with giant swords are still selling by the pile, so I wouldn't count them out yet. Maybe we can count on awful Shakespeare and James Patterson adaptations of manga being on their way out, though.

Webcomics Wednesdays!

So Nick came up with the idea of linking to a different webcomic each Wednesday as a way of promoting an aspect of graphic literature that libraries tend to overlook. (It's not so much that we don't like them, it's that we can't really take credit for people reading comics on the internet. Dirty library secret!)

Anyways, when I heard the word "webcomics," I was like, "oh! Me! Got it! I'm writing that!"

So now that's what I'm doing I guess.

For this inaugural edition, here's a classic. It pretty well captures the creative freedom of webcomics. Freedom, that is, to use the exact same drawings every time.

That's right, it's Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics:



The obvious beauty of Dinosaur Comics is that the drawings are awesome. Microsoft Paint dinosaurs have never looked better (unless the girl who writes Hyperbole and a Half did a drawing of dinosaurs at some point.)

So if you're a guy who just happened to make the best MS Paint drawings of dinosaurs ever, what do you do? Well first of all you never draw anything else ever again. And then you keep re-using those images until the internet has memorized every pixel.



Basically, these are the only characters. T-Rex shouts things in declarative sentences, Dromiceiomimus kind of plays along, and Utahraptor points out the flaws in T-Rex's aforementioned declarative sentences. Sometimes God talks to them (as indicated by boldfaced text and a word bubble leading off-panel). The predictability of the format forces North to script these things pretty creatively, though.



Basically, it's one of the best things on the internet.

(Quick Warning: as with most things on the internet, there's some content that's inappropriate for younger audiences. View at your own risk!)

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North

Next week: other best things on the internet!

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

V for Vendetta was brought into most people's consciousness, including mine, from the 2006 film adaptation done by the Wachowski brothers. It seems to be a reactionary and angry graphic novel inspired by the extreme conservatism of Thatcherian politics of the 1980s. V for Vendetta features our hero V who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and has a penchant for theatrics. He meets a young lady named Evey who has experienced dystopian Britain's oppressive government for too long. V takes her under his wing and explosions, murder, and anarchy ensue.

Here are the discussion questions and answers. SPOILERS BELOW!

1. Alan Moore is all about his superhero deconstruction. Is V a "superhero" in the comic sense?

V is in some ways a superhero. He is only an idea, it doesn't matter who is behind the mask, only his ideals. So in this way he is much like say Spider-Man or Batman. Their identities are secret, but it is known that they stand for honor and goodness and such. He is also like other superheroes in that his morals are questioned. In some of the better Batman stories, the writer asks the reader if his actions are truly justifiable. Many of these moral dilemmas are peppered throughout V for Vendetta as well.

2. V for Vendetta is set in a post-apocalyptic and/or dystopian future. Is this a believable setting given the circumstances of the 1980s England that Alan Moore lived in?

George Orwell, Alan Moore, and a host of 1950s science fiction authors always make the mistake of setting a dystopian future in the very near future. Sure Margaret Thatcher said some scary things, not discluding what she apparently jokingly said about putting homosexuals in concentration camps. However, V for Vendetta is a worst-case scenario kind of paranoid theory that could only come out of Alan Moore's crazy hermit head.

3. David Lloyd draws Evey differently in each book of V for Vendetta. Why? What do each of these physical likenesses represent?

There are a few Eveys. The innocent and naive Evey, the grotesque and wrinkly bald Evey, the inexplicably 50s styled Evey with short curly hair, and Evey as V. David Lloyd drew Evey very grotesquely during her transformation to show that she was suffering and that her transformation did not come easily. The other likenesses, I'm not sure if they had any significance. Thoughts?

4. What is the significance of the smile on V's mask and the resulting unchanging exterior?

V always has that coy smile no matter what he says or feels. This mask shows confidence all the time; it adds to the mystique that V uses to become more than a man, to become an idea. There's the great panel near the end where Evey has a very V-like smile when she finally understands V's point of view and has become "freed."


5. What is the importance of flowers? Dominoes?

The flowers represent a better time, before the nuclear war and fascism caused rationing and extinction. If you want to get really high school English on the subject, flowers bloom and it could be said that V wants England to bloom, to rise above the totalitarian leadership they are currently under. The dominoes reminded me of the Domino Effect, a term used to describe the spread of communism. If one country fell to communism, then so would the rest. Perhaps the dominoes were like a backwards version of that. If V's carefully placed plans went through, he could knock the totalitarian government down all at once.

6. V for Vendetta is heavily based on British politics. Does the political message still make it through despite cultural and generational differences?

The Wachowski brothers film tried to address this issue, making V for Vendetta a Bush-era political satire. Personally, it didn't come through for me. I think Moore's political message makes it through the comic, it is just not as personal here in the United States. For example, there are not nearly as many security cameras on the streets here in the U.S. as there are in England.

7. What are the similarities and differences between V and Rorschach from Watchmen?

V's mask and Rorschach's mask both represent their worldviews. Rorschach's black and white mask represents absolutes; in his mind a person is either good (on his side) or evil (preparing to die by his hands). V's mask represents Guy Fawkes and has a coy little smile all the time. This represents his aversion to the British government, his love for theatrics, and the smile is his feeling towards it all: happy but destructive. The difference? Rorschach is driven by darker forces, his awful upbringing, his masochistic need to kill while V is driven by hope, he truly wants his actions to bring forth a better England.

8. In the technical sense, V is a terrorist. Is terrorism a legitimate way to overthrow an oppressive government? Is it the only way? Were the fatalities likely caused by V's explosions worth the ultimate result?

This is quite a debate here. V's plan to overthrow the government was essentially to take down each part of the regime (ear, eye, nose, mouth, fingers) to instill fear and uncertainty both in the general public and in the government. However, he also caused quite a few explosions that could very well have caused some innocent casualties. Were these innocent deaths worth the end result? Were the citizens of dystopian Britain really "living" in the totalitarian regime? I'm just raising more questions here. I'd love to hear some feedback on this one.

9. V seems to have an obsession with theatrics. Why? How does this play into his persona or philosophy?

V's obsession with theatrics is what makes him such a great "character." (Only a character in the technical sense. Yes, he's an idea.) V is constantly quoting Shakespeare and popular songs while he gleefully murders members of the government. This is never really explained and I never got an idea as to why V chooses to act this way. Perhaps it plays into the coy smile that is plastered on his face? He happily conducts while the Parliament building explodes, perhaps this is just his way.

10. The citizens of dystopian England were under constant watch by cameras. How does this effect people? How do people act when they are on camera? How did this voyeurism effect the men and women who watched the monitors?

Clearly, the population of England in this graphic novel have been beaten down into lives that constantly feel the burden of an oppressive government. People cannot do anything "illegal" as decided by the government, so these people are shells. As soon as the cameras turn off, a school girl graffitis a nearby wall. People need to act on instinct and sometimes do deviant things, it is a part of human nature. The voyeurism on the other side deeply effected the leader, who fell in love with Fate the computer perhaps because it was the only thing in the world that could tell him what to do or had more power than him.

11. What is the importance of V's mask? Could he have done the same things to England if he had been unmasked?

V's mask is important obviously in hiding his identity since he's an enemy of the state, but it is also so he can become more than a man. The mask represents V's ideals, if he had just been a man people would have been less likely to listen.


12. What's the significance of the motto "strength through purity, purity through faith?"


Elena helped us work backwards on this one. Faith is believing in something, and purity is cleansing one's self to in theory become a better person. So this statement says having the strength to believe in something that may not make sense(fascist government) makes you a better person. Totalitarianism personified.

13. Why did V kick Evey out of the Shadow Gallery initially?

Evey was not ready; she was questioning who V was, thinking that he was her father. V needed to kick her out so she could experience the real world again and realize that it does not matter who V is, the only thing that matters is what he represents, what he stands for.

14. Why does V let Finch shoot him in the subway tunnel?

V had finished his work. He set up the dominoes and let them fall; every dangerous member of the government had been killed. He needed to allow Evey to carry the torch.

15. What are the differences between old V and the new V? What are each of their responsibilities?

Old V was destructive, he tore fascist England's government apart so new V could rebuild and create a new England.


16. Was Evey brainwashed by V or did she truly embrace V's ideals?

This was a big debate at the book club. Part of the problem is Evey's lack of characterization. It seemed to me that after her "cleansing" by V's hands, she just all of a sudden took on his ideas and ideals without much explanation or thinking for herself. Her speech at the end as V seems robotic and planned. On the other hand, V inspired Finch to become a different person and view England in a different way, so perhaps the same happened to Evey.

17. In the end, is England better off for what V did for them? Will the people be able to run their own government?

Questionable. Governments often run in cycles, so it's possible that England could go from the oppressive regime to a more democratic and freeing government. However, I do not have confidence in Evey's skills of "creating" and showing England how to live. It could be argued that her work is done with her rejuvinating speech at the end, but I think her help would be much more needed in the future.

EXTRA CREDIT from Josh: Why is Natalie Portman in so many comic book/fantasy roles (in Star Wars, in "V for Vendetta," in the upcoming "Thor" movie, in the upcoming "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"), and yet she's still cool and not typecast yet? What makes her so fitting to be in these roles?

Jeremiah says she has a good agent. Zing! I always assumed that Natalie Portman was just a secret nerd who enjoyed all of these non-traditional film roles. Being in pompous queen and British poppycock films like The Duchess and Pride and Prejudice Without Zombies provide an interesting and stark contrast to upcoming film roles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Thor.

The Walking Dead pilot

For the uninitiated, AMC premiered The Walking Dead last night, a new TV series based off of Robert Kirkman's graphic novels of the same name. We did a book club back in August of 2009 for The Walking Dead, so I figured this is kind of appropriate. One of our gracious book clubbers offered to have a viewing party at her house, but sickness, scheduling problems, and children unfortunately got in the way. However, I'm willing to bet more than a few of us watched it last night, so I'd like to hear some of your thoughts.

Here are some of mine, spoiler-free:

-It feels slow-paced, or methodical you could call it. The first five pages of the first Walking Dead trade is covered in a half hour. I read in an interview with director Frank Darabont that he prefers this approach, and making a TV show allows for this. Judging from other AMC shows such as Breaking Bad and Mad Men, it seems this slow methodical approach is their m. o. I think of all TV shows, The Walking Dead could have benefited from a no-frills, fast-paced, this-dude-is-now-dead-even-though-we-just-met-him approach.

-The zombie effects are great. Maybe some of the other effects, like blood and the pretty obviously computer generated car-filled highway during Rick's lone horseman scene are TV-quality, but the zombies look amazing. The "I'm sorry this happened to you" legless zombie especially was horrifying in the best possible way.

-The dialogue isn't terribly clever. This is a problem in Kirkman's graphic novels, too, but whenever characters have to converse casually, it's painful. Shane and Rick's conversation about durn women who can't turn off the lights would make masters of conversational dialogue like Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith cringe.

-Will it follow the graphic novel exactly? The pilot felt pretty safe while Kirkman's graphic novel pulled no punches in any way, which was much of its appeal. Especially in later story arcs like with the Hunters or the Governor, I'm not seeing how AMC could pull those off in the same vein as the graphic novel. According to the previously mentioned interview, Darabont plans to use Kirkman's ideas as a framework, then go in a different direction, but the pilot's strict adherence to the first Walking Dead trade makes me wonder.

Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan

Pride of Baghdad is a one-shot graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan, one of my favorite comics authors partially due to his fine work on Y the Last Man. The graphic novel is based on a true story of a pride of lions who escaped a Baghdad zoo in 2003. Vaughan takes on the challenge of depicting animals like humans while still trying to convey animal thought with varying degrees of success. Pride of Baghdad seems to be a love it or hate it type of graphic novel judging from reviews I've read, so I will most likely be fielding some complaints at this upcoming book club at Koelbel Library on Sunday the 24th at 2:00 p.m. Here are some questions to chew on until then.

1. Many of the one-shot graphic novels we've read lately such as Orbiter, Eternals, and now Pride of Baghdad have ambiguous or abrupt endings. Is this tendency unavoidable due to the nature of a one-shot graphic novel?

Personally, I think this could be the case. As Gaiman mentioned in the afterword for Eternals, he had to add a few issues to the end to get the whole story in and even then the graphic novel felt rushed in my opinion. I'm sure there are some one-shot graphic novels out there that do not have ambiguous or abrupt endings, but this is a hurdle that many authors face.

1a. As Jeremiah has noted in past meetings, Vaughan tends to write abrupt,
ambiguous, or even "gearshift" endings in which he leads one direction then ends on a completely different note. Is this a weakness as a writer or could it be construed as a purposeful style?

Vaughan knows that his m. o. is writing abrupt and striking endings. He clearly has an anti-war stance and it seems likely that wanted to use his style of endings to have one with maximum impact. As Jeremiah noted, Brian K. Vaughan has said himself that he hates happy endings, so this is clearly a purposeful style. I would argue, however, that if he continues to write every story with predictable "unhappy" endings, this could be interpreted as a weakness.

2. There's no avoiding noticing the visual similarities between Hendrichson's art and Disney's The Lion King. Should Hendrichson have avoided the cartoony style? Does the style work for this story?

Some of us were instantly reminded of The Lion King, others like Richard were not at all. It was argued that the style could have purposely been used, again for maximum impact. The comparison between a peaceful life in the wild depicted in the Disney feature versus Vaughan's war-torn desert environment would pull on the old heart strings for sure.

3. Why were the faces of the U.S. soldiers obscured?

Throughout the whole story, there were no human faces. Perhaps this was because it was supposed to be an animal-focused story. The faces of the soldiers were also not important, they are almost a faceless malevolent force to the pride of lions instead of individual humans. Finally, the focus seemed to be on the American flags on their uniforms rather than their faces, so it seemed more important to depict their American origins.

4. Let's say the lions did not come across the herd of white horses in the streets of Baghdad. Should the lions have eaten the dead "keeper" despite the fact that humans were the ones who fed them?

We didn't get to this one during the club. Any thoughts on this? Perhaps eating the "keeper" would have been a turning point. When the lions enter the wild, their previous misconceptions, tendencies, and survival instincts should be completely changed. However, Noor still did not eat the gazelle back in the zoo, so perhaps the pride would have held on to their domesticated survival tendencies.

5. What do the white horses represent?

Nature in a war torn environment. Going the cliche route, they could represent hope. In context, the pride saw that food was indeed available outside of their zoo cages even though they did not end up eating the horses.

6. What is the significance of the horizon? Why haven't the lions seen the horizon?

The horizon was something that the older lions saw when they grew up in the savannah, but haven't seen since in their cages since they are in a cove in the ground. The horizon could have abstractly represented the freedom that the lions were seeking in the first place. The male lion never gets to answer whether it was "worth it" or not, but perhaps escaping the zoo and experiencing the wild and the beauty of nature made the tragedy it led to worth it.

7. The pride of lions opted to leave the zoo once their cage was destroyed. Should they have left despite the fact that leaving caused their eventual end? Would they have met a similar end if they'd stayed?

Clearly can’t continue to live there, they can stay and hope that another bomb doesn’t fall in the same place or travel elsewhere to potential safety. They had no way of knowing that leaving would have caused their deaths, the logical choice was to leave.

8. Noor tries to convince the antelope that predator and prey can live and work together in safety. Is this plausible for animals held in captivity?

The lion’s word was good, they did not eat the antelope. Perhaps this could represent various warring groups in Iraq such as the Kurds and the possibility of living in peace and uniting. Animals held in captivity do likely forget their survival instincts since they do not have to hunt for food. Predator and prey living in peace could happen.

9. The back of the book calls Pride of Baghdad "provocative" and "politically nuanced." Do you agree? What, if any, political message did you take away from the graphic novel?

There was a pretty hamfisted political message in Pride of Baghdad. It clearly has an anti-war and anti-violence agenda. I would not go so far as to say it was nuanced, but some of the underlying messages and symbols were thought provoking.

10. Pride of Baghdad's detractors cite overt sexism between the male and female lions. Did you sense this? If it is accurate in the wild, should anthropomorphized lions be depicted this way?

It could be interpreted as symbolism of a culture, Iraq is a male-dominated culture. Lion prides also have strict gender roles, with males as the leaders and females as hunters. Pride of Baghdad was heavy on portraying female lions as sex-starved, but otherwise most of the gender roles were accurate.

11. Has Disney ruined the possibility of media ever depicting "serious" talking animals? Should animals be depicted with the ability to show human thought and reasoning? Were the animals in Pride of Baghdad too human? What could be done to combat this?

I would argue that the story almost could have been pulled off without any dialogue whatsoever. The dialogue did not serve much at all in the story. One of my biggest criticisms of the book was that the characters did not develop throughout, so what is the point of having dialogue? The tragic ending and some of the symbolism could have been much more interesting and nuanced. Animal Farm was the only film in recent history to be able to pull off talking animals with any seriousness, but in most other situations, it's impossible.


12. The palace in which the bear is found is likely supposed to be Saddam Hussein's. Why is this included?

The bear represents the hopeless and nihilistic thought that would occur in such a bad situation. Bear shows just how awful you can be in this situation. Main male lion was complacent, so this fight forced him to get up and fight. The horses, palace, everything represents the decadence and money. Perhaps because the huge gap between poor and rich caused the problems in the society that we have seen in the story.

13. Some forms of media are criticized for being praised just because of having a tragic ending. Is this the case in Pride of Baghdad?

Considering the love it or hate it nature of the book, I think this is possible. When someone is emotionally touched by a form of media, this may inflate their overall opinion of it. This is similar to critics giving ambiguous or confusing works of art high praise because they do not understand it, so it must be good.

14. Could Pride of Baghdad have ended any other way? To paraphrase the back of the book, can freedom be given or does it have to be earned?

The death of the lions was pretty inevitable. In a best case scenario, the lions could have been rescued and shipped off to another zoo, but this seems unlikely considering the disaster that's was going on in Iraq at the time. Venturing off from the cage represented freedom that they had not experienced at all or in a very long time, but led to their eventual demise. Freedom cannot be given or earned, it must be appreciated. As mentioned in question six, freedom is an abstract concept for everyone. No one can truly feel "free" until their parameters for freedom have been filled. In this case, I think the lions did earn freedom. They endured many hardships to witness the beauty of nature in a manmade war-torn environment.