The Ghosts We Know

by Sean Karemaker

In his debut book Sean Karemaker presents stories of his wild BC country childhood contrasted with his downtown Vancouver bus riding adventures. In between are stories of small town parties, drawing in cafes, school misfits, scrolls, street people of all kinds, and winding through it all are the ghosts, both known and unknown.Karemaker has a distinct panelless style of comics in which the narrative and art blend seamlessly. Journal writing has always been an instinctive foundation for him -- most often of an observational, autobiographical nature -- and here he combines it with flowing, murky images to make wholly original comics.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2016

Reviews

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag. Sort of a combination of autobiographical (or what read as autobiographical, anyway) stories and impressionistic/surrealistic imagery and even narrative (e.g. the one story purporting to be that of a leaf that became a human being). There is some very arresting imagery here, especially the two-page spreads folding human figures into the landscape, and some innovative cartooning. Karemaker eschews traditional page design and panel divisions, which leads to some interesting variations on expectation (e.g. captions appearing in odd and unexpected places, or being angled to create a sort of quasi-3D effect--as if the words were emerging from the page). On the other hand, many pages are difficult to read; following the narrative sequence is at times a challenge. There's something of a preciousness about it at times, too, an overly self-conscious effort at literariness that does not entirely succeed. Other odd elements include Karemaker sometimes depicting his narrator as a human, other times as a sort of anthropoid bird (I assume that we are to read these two as the same character being represented differently, anyway), and occasional hints of the supernatural, as opposed to the merely impressionistic. Evidently this is one of those pieces of "life writing" that pushes against readerly expectations of the form. It is not a fully successful experiment, but it is certainly interesting and a pleasure to look at.

[Lisa Macklem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again I am stymied by a system that won't let me do 1/2 stars. 3 stars is too harsh and 4 too generous. The art is interesting but is sometimes somewhat lost in the centre gutter. I like that he doesn't use traditional panels, but at times it is difficult to follow the story. Stories are almost always two page spreads. While it is clearly a memoir, I often found it difficult to determine any other relationship between stories - it often wasn't clear why we moved from one story to the next. I found myself wondering if this was supposed to be abstract, surreal, symbolic or all three. It's an interesting portrait of the artist but not entirely successful for me.

[priscilia]

[Goodreads when will you allow half stars?] It was more than "ok", less than a straightforward "i like it." 2.5 stars for interesting art and creative layouts, but also for confusing and disorganized text, and discontinuity of story.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

The writing was interesting, but it almost felt like most little stories didn’t have endings. I wanted more from them.

The art in this book is intense though! I spent a large majority of the time reading this book, just looking through the images seeing new things every time.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of Sean Karmaker's stories that give you a sense, not only of his storytelling style (largely autobiographic in nature), but the broad, scroll-informed style of his art.

[Nicole Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting. The art was different. Story kind of choppy but I enjoyed it.

[Missnöjd Konfirmand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Väldigt löst sammanhållna små historier. Men häftiga illustrationer!

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although not my preferred style of graphic novel, I did enjoy seeing places from my youth drawn out and brought back to life.

[Cynthia]

a little peek into the introspective mind of a somewhat darkened introvert

[Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the frameless panels. seeing all of this in colour would be amazing.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is its own personal tragedy that is endlessly sad. A lonesone guy who still hasn't come out of a shell that will cause him ongoing misery- unless he welcomes it for the sake of his art.

Middle of nowhere nervous ned that wouldn't try sports, despite his father's attempts, which make you "accepted" no matter if you're shy or awkward or fat or ugly for that matter.

BUT the unique and captivating art is spectacular in its breadth and depth!