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Heartbeasts
Love is a many splendored thing. For its capture we will lie, cheat...and kill. In Rick Boven's new eComic collection HEARTBEASTS, we painfully visit all three. Comprised of three short cartoon stories containing both out of print stories as well as never before seen work, Boven doesn't shy away from the dark nature of this universal motivator. We begin with his first ever autobiographical comic 'Pruned,' that deals with the double edged nature of both religion and morality. At this time in the young artist's life he was dealing with a potent mixture of not only the suicide attempt of his high school sweetheart, but also the resulting abandonment he felt from his circle of 'friends.' Alone, he is forced to answer the question; are love and loyalty actions, or words? We flip the coin to read 'The Price is Wrong,' which is a snapshot of a young man named Jamie who is in the perfect relationship. His girlfriend, her parents, and his life is exactly as it should be. Unfortunately, it's this very completeness that leaves him feeling incomplete. On a nostalgic drive past the pier he can't get out of his mind, he makes a simple choice that will forever complicate his life. The collection winds down with the stirring tale 'Before It Snows,' and proves the axiom that pictures are truly worth a thousand words. In fact, as we follow an unnamed young boy through his less than ideal home life and troubles in the classroom, sparse dialogue lets the emotion of the panels take center stage. Just how far will this young boy go to find a place to belong? No farther than anyone else in this haunting new comic anthology.
These are the stories that Rick Boven cut his teeth on as he developed his now signature emotive and powerful method of storytelling. Combining autobiographical work and early experiments in fiction, he rips off the rose colored glasses that so often tint our view of love. By displaying the terrible and woeful things we do for love and acceptance, he subtly acknowledges it's true power in our lives. And if we are anything like the tragic cast of characters here, we may not have heart beats within our chests at all; but rather HEARTBEASTS.
These are the stories that Rick Boven cut his teeth on as he developed his now signature emotive and powerful method of storytelling. Combining autobiographical work and early experiments in fiction, he rips off the rose colored glasses that so often tint our view of love. By displaying the terrible and woeful things we do for love and acceptance, he subtly acknowledges it's true power in our lives. And if we are anything like the tragic cast of characters here, we may not have heart beats within our chests at all; but rather HEARTBEASTS.
Nook
First published June 20, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 12, 2011
Review originally posted on my blog: http://killie-booktalk.blogspot.com/
Heartbeasts is a collection of three short stories told in graphic form that try to bring across some strong emotional points. These three stories are some of the first that Rick Boven produced and I have to admit the imagery didn't seem quite as refined as what I saw in his later book, The Last Pict which I have previously read and reviewed. Although, I actually think this has worked quite well as some of the stark imagery created does a good job at conveying the tales of heartbreak and woe that are being presented.
I won't really go into the stories themselves in any depth as I don't want to spoil it for anyone that does decide to pick up the collection. However, they do all touch on some of the darker aspects of love and relationships and therefore I felt that the stories can come across as being very angst ridden and "emo" in their style and message which may not appeal to everyone. What I did like though was the way that all three of the stories varied in relation to length and the level of usage of text and artwork to convey the story. It meant that each story felt slightly different, both in substance and style.
The minor issue I did have with this collection though was in regards to the formatting of the eBook on the Kindle. Some of the sections of the story had some very small text which forced me to really concentrate and strain my eyes so that I could actually read it. The only other option seemed to be for me to change the aspect between portrait and landscape which did increase the font size slightly but doing this was a little bit irritating. I still managed to read the story but some people may find the text is rather hard to read in sections if they are using a standard Kindle.
In summary, I do like the use of a graphic medium when creating short stories such as those present here. The limitations of low word counts are counteracted by the ability to use imagery to really convey some of the stories aspects. Personally, I have to admit that the stories felt a little bit too "emo" for me, probably due to the time in his life when Rick Boven was writing them. However, the stories are an impressive collection of graphic work and I suspect there will be plenty of teenagers out there who can relate well to some of these stories much better than I could.
Heartbeasts is a collection of three short stories told in graphic form that try to bring across some strong emotional points. These three stories are some of the first that Rick Boven produced and I have to admit the imagery didn't seem quite as refined as what I saw in his later book, The Last Pict which I have previously read and reviewed. Although, I actually think this has worked quite well as some of the stark imagery created does a good job at conveying the tales of heartbreak and woe that are being presented.
I won't really go into the stories themselves in any depth as I don't want to spoil it for anyone that does decide to pick up the collection. However, they do all touch on some of the darker aspects of love and relationships and therefore I felt that the stories can come across as being very angst ridden and "emo" in their style and message which may not appeal to everyone. What I did like though was the way that all three of the stories varied in relation to length and the level of usage of text and artwork to convey the story. It meant that each story felt slightly different, both in substance and style.
The minor issue I did have with this collection though was in regards to the formatting of the eBook on the Kindle. Some of the sections of the story had some very small text which forced me to really concentrate and strain my eyes so that I could actually read it. The only other option seemed to be for me to change the aspect between portrait and landscape which did increase the font size slightly but doing this was a little bit irritating. I still managed to read the story but some people may find the text is rather hard to read in sections if they are using a standard Kindle.
In summary, I do like the use of a graphic medium when creating short stories such as those present here. The limitations of low word counts are counteracted by the ability to use imagery to really convey some of the stories aspects. Personally, I have to admit that the stories felt a little bit too "emo" for me, probably due to the time in his life when Rick Boven was writing them. However, the stories are an impressive collection of graphic work and I suspect there will be plenty of teenagers out there who can relate well to some of these stories much better than I could.
August 1, 2011
Got this free from an ebook publisher that was at printer's ball. It's really, really bad. There's no way around it. Emo high school nonsense. Don't bother. Maybe their prose stuff is better, but I just don't even know how this gets published? The art is professional-looking, only still not very interesting at all. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt an say probably this guy wrote this stuff when he was in high school and his other comics are better? I just don't understand why you would publish them then.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews