War in the Neighborhood

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Summary: OK: what they mean when they talk about "comics' potential"-
Review: --is the searingly dramatic, emotional, sensitive black and white and tonal artwork in the black and white but increasingly nuanced world of Seth Tobocman's Lower East Side. While this book is much funnier than most chronicles of passion might give themselves room to be, it's Seth's take-no-prisoners honesty about his own as well as others' blindspots that gives it that humor, not the fact that it's "cartoons." These are not "funnies," but intense graphic art. The story and pictures are a perfect unity--note where the black and white are starkest, where the tones are subtle. No, the LES was not just an '80s art boom or a '90s real estate boom: the real neighborhood and its people, their poverty, myriad cultures, drugs, sex, art and their struggles for a better way of life, struggles sometimes so creative as to stray pretty far beyond what anyone expects, are presented here so truthfully you can smell them.

Rating:
Summary: MUST READ THIS BOOK
Review: this book was wonderful! it brought tears to my eyes. it is a harsh world, and this graphic novel tells no lies...