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Sparks: An Urban Fairytale
Dislillusioned by the drabness and difficulty of her life, Jo builds "the perfect man" out of old car parts. When this junk-man magically comes to life, it's up to Jo to teach him about the world. Sparks is the story of a girl trying to fit in and, with the help of a man made of junk, find her own identity.
424 pages, Paperback
First published August 8, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 4, 2016
What It Means to Be Human
This is the story of Jo, a young car mechanic who has experienced nothing but neglect and abuse for as long as she can remember, yet still holds on to her romantic ideals. After a particularly long and sad day at work, she decides to take drastic measures and build herself a "knight in shining armor" from scraps and junk. And since this is a fairy tale, a bolt of lightning magically animates her junk-man, allowing for an unusual relationship to develop - one that ultimately teaches our protagonist what it really means to be human.
At first, the story did not do much for me at all: the concept seemed all too familiar, the characters rather one-dimensional. Not unlike the above-mentioned pile of junk, however, the characters gradually came to life, and the plot started to take unexpected turns. Marvit's drawing style grew on me as well, as I became more appreciative of its simple elegance and economy of detail. Granted, the ending feels a bit far-fetched, but hey, we're talking about a magically animated junk-man here - it's not meant to be realistic. And who doesn't enjoy a fairy tale with a happy ending every once in a while? Or with a bittersweet ending, at least...
This is the story of Jo, a young car mechanic who has experienced nothing but neglect and abuse for as long as she can remember, yet still holds on to her romantic ideals. After a particularly long and sad day at work, she decides to take drastic measures and build herself a "knight in shining armor" from scraps and junk. And since this is a fairy tale, a bolt of lightning magically animates her junk-man, allowing for an unusual relationship to develop - one that ultimately teaches our protagonist what it really means to be human.
At first, the story did not do much for me at all: the concept seemed all too familiar, the characters rather one-dimensional. Not unlike the above-mentioned pile of junk, however, the characters gradually came to life, and the plot started to take unexpected turns. Marvit's drawing style grew on me as well, as I became more appreciative of its simple elegance and economy of detail. Granted, the ending feels a bit far-fetched, but hey, we're talking about a magically animated junk-man here - it's not meant to be realistic. And who doesn't enjoy a fairy tale with a happy ending every once in a while? Or with a bittersweet ending, at least...
March 23, 2015
Once upon a time in the deep, dark forest drab, filthy city, a princess young woman was held captive by an ogre her father. Our unhappy Cinderella Jo longed to be popular and refined like all the other girls, but she also wanted to follow her own heart, repairing machinery and learning about the heavens.
This is a dark and absorbing fairy tale where not all princesses wear gowns and Prince Charming may not be handsome, or even human. And though the ending is bittersweet rather than happily ever after, it does offer a more promising reality for our urban princess.
This is a dark and absorbing fairy tale where not all princesses wear gowns and Prince Charming may not be handsome, or even human. And though the ending is bittersweet rather than happily ever after, it does offer a more promising reality for our urban princess.
August 20, 2008
Marvit's Sparks received an award from Friends of Lulu in 2000 for, I imagine, its portrayal of a quality female role. And whatever the specifics of the award, I'm sure Sparks merited it.
It never ceases to amaze me how little recognized the book is. The so-called urban faery-tale remains among that elite and fabled coalition of five-star comics—despite the fact that no one's ever heard of it. I've been singing its praises for seven years now and every last person who's read it on my recommendation has loved it. In that kind of tragic way it demands.
Sparks is heart-rending, all at once tragic and joyous and freeing and responsible. Lawrence Marvit's captivating and all-too-believable-except-for-the-robot-coming-to-life-bit tale of love, death, life, and astronomy is bound to make any who don't have the shell of a cockroach growing over his heart feel deeply for its characters.
Set in a once-upon-a-time kingdom resembling New York/Chicago/etc., Marvit develops a likable princess (with whom anyone who's ever felt lost can relate) with occasionally wicked parents and a knight of true nobility to attend her needs. Next to Jimmy Corrigan and Mister Blank, Sparks inhabits an Olympus of only the elite of comicdom. As gods among men, books like these are either those to which all the others aspire or else villainous reminders of how far from adequate the rest of comicdom truly is.
Josephine, the book's protagonist/damsel in distress, is utterly human. She's sad and tragic and naive and wobegotten. And entirely likable. Every time she is snubbed, mocked, ignored, or abused, I am almost compelled to reach for the nearest Sharpie (always good to keep many at hand at all times) and either draw devil horns and mustachio upon the offender or scratch their countenance from the book altogether. Sanity always draws me back with the recognition that without those other human faces, Josephine's story will not ring as true the next time I pick it up.
Josephine is one of those characters that you get to watch grow. She begins as timid wallflower and ultimate geek-girl (she's an auto-hound) and slowly musters courage at the prompting of some dubious friendships. But courage needs to be earned and her initial attempts at freedom from her fears are only as successful as any halfhearted endeavor can be. And so, she needs to grow through the experience of pain and love and rejection and abandonment and love and death and terror and love. And love. And it's wonderful and I rejoice in her character and its victories.
Of course, not everyone is going to adore Marvit's work. In looking for other reviews of the work awhile back, I ran across a review by someone who must be a bitter old sea hag (like the one from Popeye). Either that or someone with her own opinion. But I prefer to believe her the former—as I don't see how anyone operating anywhere on the legal-to-drive side of her seventh bottle of gin could reasonably come to like conclusions as she.
______________________
Oh, now that I remember it. Sparks did have some minor problems that editing didn't catch—a repeated line here, a grammatical mistake there—all entirely forgivable because of the wealth of Story!
It never ceases to amaze me how little recognized the book is. The so-called urban faery-tale remains among that elite and fabled coalition of five-star comics—despite the fact that no one's ever heard of it. I've been singing its praises for seven years now and every last person who's read it on my recommendation has loved it. In that kind of tragic way it demands.
Sparks is heart-rending, all at once tragic and joyous and freeing and responsible. Lawrence Marvit's captivating and all-too-believable-except-for-the-robot-coming-to-life-bit tale of love, death, life, and astronomy is bound to make any who don't have the shell of a cockroach growing over his heart feel deeply for its characters.
Set in a once-upon-a-time kingdom resembling New York/Chicago/etc., Marvit develops a likable princess (with whom anyone who's ever felt lost can relate) with occasionally wicked parents and a knight of true nobility to attend her needs. Next to Jimmy Corrigan and Mister Blank, Sparks inhabits an Olympus of only the elite of comicdom. As gods among men, books like these are either those to which all the others aspire or else villainous reminders of how far from adequate the rest of comicdom truly is.
Josephine, the book's protagonist/damsel in distress, is utterly human. She's sad and tragic and naive and wobegotten. And entirely likable. Every time she is snubbed, mocked, ignored, or abused, I am almost compelled to reach for the nearest Sharpie (always good to keep many at hand at all times) and either draw devil horns and mustachio upon the offender or scratch their countenance from the book altogether. Sanity always draws me back with the recognition that without those other human faces, Josephine's story will not ring as true the next time I pick it up.
Josephine is one of those characters that you get to watch grow. She begins as timid wallflower and ultimate geek-girl (she's an auto-hound) and slowly musters courage at the prompting of some dubious friendships. But courage needs to be earned and her initial attempts at freedom from her fears are only as successful as any halfhearted endeavor can be. And so, she needs to grow through the experience of pain and love and rejection and abandonment and love and death and terror and love. And love. And it's wonderful and I rejoice in her character and its victories.
Of course, not everyone is going to adore Marvit's work. In looking for other reviews of the work awhile back, I ran across a review by someone who must be a bitter old sea hag (like the one from Popeye). Either that or someone with her own opinion. But I prefer to believe her the former—as I don't see how anyone operating anywhere on the legal-to-drive side of her seventh bottle of gin could reasonably come to like conclusions as she.
______________________
Oh, now that I remember it. Sparks did have some minor problems that editing didn't catch—a repeated line here, a grammatical mistake there—all entirely forgivable because of the wealth of Story!
March 25, 2019
I first saw this book at the library when I was probably in middle school. Years later, I remembered it and finally read it. The philosophical dialogue is wonderful, and Marvit's black-and-white drawings are expressionistic (there are shades of Jeff Smith's "Bone" style), but the story is SO DARN SAD. Bleak, at times. I could have done without much of the profanity or as violent of a conclusion. This story is powerful and timely for the #MeToo era, but it's not as magical of a story as I expected. Mixed feelings about this one.
June 5, 2025
There were some typos.
January 28, 2013
This is a poignant, often sad fantasy about the life of a girl who considers herself a failure, leading a fairly miserable life even with her skills and a decent job. It truly lives up to its moniker of fairy tale, for it is as all good lore: Gritty, supernatural, with a few morals to impart and a decidedly imperfect ending.
It begins by introducing the characters, the young woman Jo, her drugged-up mother, her domineering cop father, her coworkers at the shop. She is an ace at fixing cars, but deeply depressed with a non-existant social life. Staying late one night, she decides to build a humanoid out of spare parts, simply as a lark; but when lightning hits it, it comes to life. After understandable fright, she takes it home and installs it in a room on the roof of her tenement, and starts trying to teach it language and knowledge. He eventually picks up a name from the neighbor, who loves to play as King Arthur: Galahad. Jo slowly makes progress on teaching him, with the help of a spell-n-speak to give him voice, through flash cards and later many books from the library, particularly about astronomy.
At the same time she's trying to find her way around a social life with a few other young women, visiting clubs and going on double-dates. Each seems to become one disappointment and disaster after another; even an enjoyable and relaxed evening with a local magnate that leads to a night of passion, ends up being a misunderstanding. Here and there, however, her very imperfect friends and even family reveal sides of themselves she never knew, giving her a glimpse into who they are deep inside. But all of that comes to an abrupt end when Galahad saves her from her father's drunken abuse one night, and they have to flee. The end is triumphant, passionate, and heartbreaking, and to say more would be to ruin the conclusion of a very fine story.
This is one of the few books that have truly affected me on a deep emotional level recently. It's drawn in a style very similar to PvP, enough so that I was drawn to it and picked it up for that reason alone, but despite the comic appearances it's truly a very melancholy story, full of sadness and pain and decadence, with threads of wonder and hope running through it. It deeply affected me at a time when I was dealing with similar circumstances. The characters are all fully-realized, each beginning as almost cut-outs only to expose their dreams and fears and become more real. The art becomes a metaphor to the way that we view people, beginning simply as "others" that we pigeonhole, until we get that glimpse inside and they suddenly become as human to us as to Jo. It is the story of one girl growing up, trying to come to grips with her past and her future. The inspiration may be fantasy, but the intensity of genuine emotion drips off every page, in the words, the expressions, and in the stark bleakness of the large spreads. We see Jo starting to live life again for the first time in years, witness her many disappointments and failures while slowly discovering who she is in the world. And it is all done with deep respect for the characters and the reader, death and pain and escape and joy tugging at the heart without the whiney angst that turns one away. A fairy tale for adults.
The dialogue is also well-used, and feels very realistic. We never see into anyone's thoughts; we never need to, because our view is of Jo, though her thoughts are often written down in a journal or opened up to Galahad. The narration is very low-key, preferring to let the story tell itself through art and action once under way. The art, of course, is stunning, easily conveying emotions, clear events, and important details. Obviously a quite solid work that can bring new insights and hope to anyone struggling with their own future.
This book will definitely appeal to anyone who has ever been in this position, especially those in it right now. There is some violence and suggestive sex, but the emotional pain and turmoil far outweighs that, and it would not be particularly suited for young children. But the end offers a mixed hope, that life can go on.
It begins by introducing the characters, the young woman Jo, her drugged-up mother, her domineering cop father, her coworkers at the shop. She is an ace at fixing cars, but deeply depressed with a non-existant social life. Staying late one night, she decides to build a humanoid out of spare parts, simply as a lark; but when lightning hits it, it comes to life. After understandable fright, she takes it home and installs it in a room on the roof of her tenement, and starts trying to teach it language and knowledge. He eventually picks up a name from the neighbor, who loves to play as King Arthur: Galahad. Jo slowly makes progress on teaching him, with the help of a spell-n-speak to give him voice, through flash cards and later many books from the library, particularly about astronomy.
At the same time she's trying to find her way around a social life with a few other young women, visiting clubs and going on double-dates. Each seems to become one disappointment and disaster after another; even an enjoyable and relaxed evening with a local magnate that leads to a night of passion, ends up being a misunderstanding. Here and there, however, her very imperfect friends and even family reveal sides of themselves she never knew, giving her a glimpse into who they are deep inside. But all of that comes to an abrupt end when Galahad saves her from her father's drunken abuse one night, and they have to flee. The end is triumphant, passionate, and heartbreaking, and to say more would be to ruin the conclusion of a very fine story.
This is one of the few books that have truly affected me on a deep emotional level recently. It's drawn in a style very similar to PvP, enough so that I was drawn to it and picked it up for that reason alone, but despite the comic appearances it's truly a very melancholy story, full of sadness and pain and decadence, with threads of wonder and hope running through it. It deeply affected me at a time when I was dealing with similar circumstances. The characters are all fully-realized, each beginning as almost cut-outs only to expose their dreams and fears and become more real. The art becomes a metaphor to the way that we view people, beginning simply as "others" that we pigeonhole, until we get that glimpse inside and they suddenly become as human to us as to Jo. It is the story of one girl growing up, trying to come to grips with her past and her future. The inspiration may be fantasy, but the intensity of genuine emotion drips off every page, in the words, the expressions, and in the stark bleakness of the large spreads. We see Jo starting to live life again for the first time in years, witness her many disappointments and failures while slowly discovering who she is in the world. And it is all done with deep respect for the characters and the reader, death and pain and escape and joy tugging at the heart without the whiney angst that turns one away. A fairy tale for adults.
The dialogue is also well-used, and feels very realistic. We never see into anyone's thoughts; we never need to, because our view is of Jo, though her thoughts are often written down in a journal or opened up to Galahad. The narration is very low-key, preferring to let the story tell itself through art and action once under way. The art, of course, is stunning, easily conveying emotions, clear events, and important details. Obviously a quite solid work that can bring new insights and hope to anyone struggling with their own future.
This book will definitely appeal to anyone who has ever been in this position, especially those in it right now. There is some violence and suggestive sex, but the emotional pain and turmoil far outweighs that, and it would not be particularly suited for young children. But the end offers a mixed hope, that life can go on.
August 21, 2008
One of the most underrated graphic novels of the last decade, SPARKS is a tremendous and heartbreaking achievement. Marvit's tale of a sad young female mechanic who builds her perfect metal man -- who, in turn comes to life -- is a wonderful exploration of what makes us human, and the struggle that comes with pursuing our dreams. Despite the cartoony art, it's not for kids -- there are some instances of nudity, swearing and violence -- but it's done in a context that is necessary for the story. It ends on a note of profound wonder and possibility -- and reminds us of the potential that each of our lives hold.
May 11, 2009
Loved this graphic novel! It had an unique story, about a lonely mechanic girl who lives with a very abusive dad who's a cop and a mother who doesn't do anything to stop her abusive husband from terrorizing her or her daughter. Josephine designs a robot called Galahad to be her companion and teaches him about mythology and astronomy, and in doing so she becomes fascinated with the stars. The ending was sad, but fitting.
November 22, 2009
This book was a cross between Pinocchio and Cinderella. True to the original idea behind fairy tales as warnings, Jo's tale is a harsh one involving corrupt cops, abuse and depression. The illustrations are beautiful although some of the back grounds can be a little bit too busy. Definitely a great read.
August 4, 2010
This was one of the earliest graphic novels I'd read, and it is one of the most prized books on my bookshelf because I hardly ever see it anywhere. The story and the characters are so human and so ultimately tragic that I've cried every time I've reread it.
I can't believe how few ratings there are of this book -- I really cannot recommend it enough.
I can't believe how few ratings there are of this book -- I really cannot recommend it enough.
February 8, 2012
This was quite a lovely story. Sad, romantic, uplifting, heartwarming. I think everyone should read this because it was wonderful. I thought that the artwork was perfect for the storyline - clean lines, almost child-like faces - fantastic for the overall fairytale theme that ran throughout the story. Awesome. This was really quite perfect.
June 25, 2011
I really enjoyed the book, and especially the main character - but I haven't read any other graphic novels where there's so much detail in the drawings and such a well developed text narrative too - so it was kind of hard to read! more work than I'm accustomed to. but worth it.
January 27, 2012
This is quite a story--there's quite a bit going on here. It might, in fact, be too busy for its own good. A highly sympathetic and relatable main character, however--I only wish her face was more expressive.
September 19, 2013
Got this book at the library on a whim and I loved it. I really connect with Jo, myself being 20 years old and still finding where I fit in this world. I think I'll have to read it a second time before I return it.
October 2, 2007
The story is creative and Jo is an excellent character. The majority of the illustrations, however, simply tell the story and do not necessarily enhance the depth of the novel.
June 17, 2008
Great drawings, fast-paced and romantic storytelling. But the sex and language throw off the enjoyment of everything else.
April 13, 2011
I didn't love the heroine or the story that much. I just found it hard to like.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews