Kartun Genetika: Panduan Grafis untuk Memahami Genetika dan DNA

by Mark Schultz, Kevin Cannon, Zander Cannon

Dari Adenin sampai Zigot, dari Sitokinesis sampai Partenogenesis—dasar-dasar genetika bisa terkesan sangat asing. Jadi bukankah lebih baik jika mahluk asing yang menjelaskannya?

Bloort 183 ilmuwan alien dari planet yang terancam musnah sedang meneliti dasar-dasar DNA manusia dan evolusi, dan harus mengolahnya menjadi penjelasan jernih dan sederhana supaya pemimpinnya yang awam bisa mengerti.

Di tangan penulis peraih penghargaan Mark Schultz, upaya Bloort tersaji sebagai pengantar lengkap sejarah dan sains genetika yang mudah dipahami dan asyik dibaca, bahkan bagi pembaca yang ngeri dengan sains.

Genres: Science, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics, Genetics, Biology, History

150 pages, Paperback

First published December 23, 2008

About the author

Mark Schultz is an American writer and illustrator of books and comics. His most widely recognized work is the creator-owned comic book series Xenozoic Tales, which describes a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures coexist with humans. In 1993, Xenozoic Tales was adapted into an animated series titled Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and a video game of the same name. Schultz's other notable works include various Aliens comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse and a four-year run on the DC Comics series Superman: The Man of Steel. In 2004, Schultz took over the scripting duties of the Prince Valiant comic strip.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good I teach it.

I bought this book because I am always looking for new ways to teach things to my high school students. After reading it, I went to my department head and (after he looked at the book) had little trouble convincing him to buy a classroom set to use to teach the basics of genetics. My class is now about half-way through the book and the students all seem to enjoy taking some time out to read (no mean feat in and of itself), and some have even said that seeing the pictures in the book has helped them with topics they were having trouble with.
One word of warning is that some of the words used that are unrelated to science are a bit advanced (a great opportunity to teach more vocabulary), but the terms related to genetics are well explained and there is even a glossary to help students still having trouble.

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel about The Stuff of Life could be a companion to a student's main biology course, say 9th or 10th grade. It is an all black and white graphic novel in which an interplanetary Biologist creature studies life and genetics on Earth to report back to leaders of its kind in an effort to learn from the natural evolution and selection processes as well as learning how to use this knowledge to help cure ailments etc.

The content of this novel is expressed in adult language including the subject of procreation on a cellular level omitting details of the act, but the mentioning of sex as part of the process occurs several times throughout the novel as a natural part of life and its creation of diversity.

Topics discussed and explained are the emergence of life of cellular organisms, parts of cells and what they do, Darwin and Mendel, The Human Genome Project, bacteria and viruses and the advancement in medicine to use these to eradicate certain diseases, DNA & RNA, chromosomes, genetic coding, cloning, miosis & mitosis, sex cells (X&Y chromosomes), birth defects, DNA comparison, inheritance, pedigree and anthropology, history, and at last, politics and genetics.

There is a glossary of terms at the end of the book and throughout, there are pages inserted with interesting facts about science, scientists, and or historically significant events that propelled knowledge and fallacies forward or away.

Since it is a graphic novel, there are drawn illustrations but nothing is in color. The text was made to look handwritten and sometimes I had some trouble reading some words as the print wasn't very fine.

The information given as a whole makes for a nice supplement to a regular biology class or a quick refresher course, but I didn't care for the "aliens" exactly as a backstory to explain it all. I read this with a High Schooler who likewise didn't care for that part. However, how else is one to explain it in a graphical way, so something had to give, in this case, the aliens.

Overall, I was ok with this supplementation and found several interesting tidbits that lead to more discussion and research which is always a positive thing. Keep in mind, I do not have a professional background in the science field, so this is just my leisure reading experience and opinion.

Happy Reading.

More of my reviews here:
Through Novel Time & Distance

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schultz succeeds in making genetic science enormously entertaining and slightly less mind-numbing. From A to Z (Adenine to Zygotes) everything is explained in graphic detail (pun intended) and complex concepts are often reiterated with relatable and sometimes humorous analogies. This is a fantastic introduction made all the more enjoyable by Zander & Kevin Cannon's utterly remarkable illustrations. 4.5 Stars!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimming, as it's way too complicated for me, at least to read in graphic format. Honestly, I agree with my library that it is not a juvenile/ children's book. High school level.

I did notice one page appeared twice. Which means there may be one page missing. Pretty sure only sidebar(s) are affected, though.

I am thankful for the sidebar on Lysenko and Michurinism. Bad science can have terrible consequences. We know about the misguided anti-vaxxers endangering all the rest of us as well as their own children, but other ridiculous and awful things can happen if ppl don't understand science and learn what scientists have figured out.

An absolutely fascinating sidebar is about Mark Stoneking's investigation into the evolution of body lice which determined that humans were wearing sewn, fitted clothing at *least* 72,000 years ago!

There's just a lot in here. I recommend a skim to everyone, and a read to those who are comfortable w/ the graphic format.

[Maggie Schilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very good way to learn the basics of genetics (about as much as you would learn in high school). It lays out everything thoroughly while using characters to recap more complicated ideas to help ensure that you understand each item before moving onto the next—and it’s funny!

[Simon Chadwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I’ve always loved about comics and cartoons is the way they can introduce you to moments in history, distant places and cutting edge scientific and technological thinking which can then go on to spark an interest in something deeper. Usually this happens within the context of a broader narrative, but every now and again along comes a cartoon strip that only exists to exploit the unique aspects of the medium.

The Stuff Of Life is written by Mark Schultz, famous for his utterly splendid Xenozoic Tales (or Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, depending when and where you’ve read it) and illustrated by Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon who illustrated the excellent true story of the 1800s’ palaeontological rivalry between Cope and Marsh in Bone Sharps, Cowboys & Thunder Lizards.

The aim of the book is explain the intricacies of genetics, starting with the very basics, using cartoon representations to get across the trickier concepts.

To make it flow and tie the threads together, the strip is given an over-arching narrative of an alien reporting back to his home world about how human genetics works compared to their own (they reproduce by duplicating their gentic make up, so essentially cloning, whereas human reproduction involves the combining of genetic material). Because we see it through their eyes, the explanations have to start small and simple and they build in complexity as the strip moves on, covering adenines to zygotes and from cytokinesis to parthenogenisis.

Complicated inner workings of cells, for example, are cartoonified, so we can easily follow the processes within, and are given further clarity by the questions and explanations of the alien reporter and his audience.

It’s a strikingly elegant and comprehensive way to get across the complexity and scale of the subject matter, and it’s quite good fun too.

As an introduction to genetics, or even as a top up to those of us who have dabbled further with popular science books, it’s entertaining, absorbing and easy to get into, and the perfect example of why the art of cartooning deserves a greater respect for what it can achieve.

[Elizabeth German · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is overall, a texxtbook made more interesting. Al information about genetics and DNA is explained through what seems like a tiny alien. Very much like a cartoon. Its not much more then a lot of information and pictures thrown at you, witch to me was very cluttered. I recommend it to people who want to learn about genetics in a fun way however, since i prefer it to a normal text book.

[Fierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming book explaining genetics and -cough- sex kind of? It’s a good funny graphic novel.

[Desiree Brunelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

the stuff of life, is well full of life and all the way our world came to be. A life from of aliens that look very similar to the sea cucumber on earth travel to earth to understand how we survived and evolved. the lead investigator Blort have been to the planet many times and full understand our DNA and survival of the fittest. Blorts job is to help there home world stop dyeing from diseases that they have, and he must impress the king with his findings to make him understand that the key to life is- " It's is an inspired strategy called...SEX!"
Blort explains our entire history in depth and dumb's it down to more simpler explanation so everyone can understand with a humor in it as well that works very much.

i loved this book it was very funny to me, it was very informational, had great pictures and detail, and it explained very complicated topics like, the topic of life, DNA structure, and the strain of life, very simply and correctly from what i was told in my time in high school.

i would recommend this book to anyone interested in a science book, informational, or would like a better understand in on our planet in depth and it could help you with our own science class, or biology class as well.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informational books don’t usually seem like the kind of thing people read just for fun, but they can still be interesting to read. The Stuff of Life is a book about how cells work, specifically cells in the human body. Each page has paragraphs of text and requires a decent amount of memorization to get all the terms. It may not seem very entertaining, but the entire book is told as if an alien is telling another alien about it and is actually somewhat humorous. The visuals behind the text are cartoony and not at all boring, and they break up the science talk enough that even if you aren’t that interested you will never get bored. There are some things that I have a problem with, like when one of the aliens asks a question about computers, when they clearly have none. Problems like this are so small that they detract very little from the actual experience so it isn’t really worth taking that into consideration, but I figured I would mention it. The book is interesting, it kept my attention, and I learned almost everything I had re-learned in my freshman biology class in a week so it’s clearly good at teaching the material.

[James DiVasta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Stuff of Life has been a unique graphic novel to read. The book is a story of the world and the human race and how evolution takes places from the moment of our planet's existence. But all of it is a scientist from another planet of these sea-cucumber like species and it's their research on Earth. The book goes on about sex, reproduction, evolution, the planet's, genetics. DNA. All that plus more. It does drag on quite a bit though. I get it's supposed to be informational, but it was hard to keep my attention. Therefore, I kinda rushed through it and did not take everything in that I probably should have. Overall, the book was relatively alright, I learned some new things about genetics that I had not previously known and they went over topics that I had learned about in biology.

[Heri · Rating 3 out of 5]

kartun genetika adalah buku sains dalam format kartun pertama dari kolaborasi Mark Schultz dan Kevin dan Zander Cannon

meski sudah dijelaskan dengan gambar untuk mempermudah pemahaman pembaca awam, hal ini tetap cukup sulit untuk bisa dipahami dengan sekali baca. perlu proses dan baca berulang agar paham apa yg dijelaskan

adanya dialog antara ilmuwan squinch bernama Bloort 183 dengan raja squinch Floorsh 727 yang sesekali diinterupsi raja dengan kesimpulan ringkas, membantu pembaca memahami penjelasan panjang dan rumit dan Bloort yang penuh dengan istilah teknis yang memang harus disebut dan tidak bisa diabaikan

disertai contoh kasus penyakit dan perubahan fisik akibat mutasi gen, membantu pembaca lebih memahami dan mengetahui tentang gen, mutasi, evolusi dan hal2 terkait

buku ini lebih cocok dibaca oleh peminat ilmu biologi atau calon mahasiswa yang akan belajar tentang genetika

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not a science brain at all, but I thought a graphic representation of genetics might be good for me. It started easy enough, with the story that aliens from another planet have an inheritable disorder that is causing problems for the leading family. A representative from the alien planet has been studying earth and humans in particular and has learned about genetics through them. The first chapter was heavy into discussion of proteins and the building of genes and such, which kind of lost me since I don't have a lot of experience with those terms and concepts. the second chapter was a little more approachable, but my brain just wasn't in it. As I flipped through the rest of the book, it looked like they would touch more on the pioneers of genetic theories, family trees and heredity, and get into traits, diseases, and disorders. I was just done though. The illustrations were clear and complemented the text well. It's a good offering, but it's not for me.

[Tom Findysz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some very high level scientific content! Probably not suitable for an introductory biology classroom. Even college students can learn a lot from this book! The reason I give 3 stars is for the bad handling of human origins and genetic similarities. They tried their best with the science coordinator, but the information that is used in the book is actually not up to date on that area. There wasn't much talk about mutations and the origin of life and how probability actually works in those cases. It made things seem too easy there. Overall, I would say it is a fun and interesting read for a college student in biology, but not too suitable for anyone younger than that.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content was highly informative, but the way it was presented as a graphic novel didn't work for me. Given how dense the material is (as the book itself frequently acknowledges), I would have liked more time/pages devoted to each concept. Plus, framing the story around alien life forms learning about humans was a weird choice for a non-fiction book. (Or maybe Magic School Bus-esque without being anywhere as entertaining.)

[R_ajab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini menjabarkan tentang mekanisme genetika. Apa saja yang menyusun semua organisme di bumi hingga proses genetika sejak sel-sel memisah sampai ekspresi gen yang bermacam-macam. Bagaimana manusia memanfaatkan pengetahuan genetika untuk peluang yang lebih besar dalam pengobatan, pangan, atau bahkan menelusuri sejarah. Walau bergambar masih banyak hal-hal yang aku kurang mengerti, belum lagi ada penjelasan yang memutar entah digunakan karena gaya tulisan atau apa.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genetics and DNA explained in comics form. Very jargony and hard to read at times, but the Cannons do a great job depicting things and Schultz creates an interesting framing sequence that allows him to reinforce certain facts and examine the science and morality of genetics in a very smart way. Good, but definitely for those interested in the science of it.

[Fernanda Fadel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of this comic is rather nice, the illustrations are well-done.
The only thing I didn't like is that there's too much genetics theory and not much story, so sometimes it became like a pure biology class. But I guess it's hard to turn this topics into well elaborated stories.
Nevertheless, I totally recommend it and would use it in Biology classes for sure.

[queen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I looooved this book! What a fun and engaging way to teach about DNA and genetics! I wish this was published when I was in high school, and I think this should be required reading for all science classes. Had I read this in my youth I’d have probably gone into science. What a wonderful way to spark an interest and curiosity in science!

[Konstantin Ivanovitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely and accessible reminder of the beauty and wonder that is biology.

Of course it is a little outdated and barely scratches the surface but Ifound it, like with most non-fiction graphic novels, a great primer that helps me choose which avenue I would like to go deeper with. The underlying story is cute. It might be good powerpoint slide material for teaching a high school course.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menarik dan sangat informatif sih (apalagi diambil dari POV alien), tapi tulisannya terlalu padat untuk ukuran kartun, lebih padat dari kartunnya Larry Gonnick. Jadi rada pusing bacanya (tapi ya salah sendiri jadi bacaan pagi setelah bangun tidur).

[Lucas Cavalcanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Li um exemplar em português (Genética e DNA em Quadrinhos, publicado no Brasil em 2011, não catalogada no Goodreads) que me fora emprestada pelo meu então professor de biologia, em 2016. Lembro-me de ter sido uma leitura bem divertida.

[Chloe Glynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's essentially a graphic retelling of Genetics by Hartwell et al, which I already read for university. It's a fine summary, though the narrative structure seems irrelevant.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good basic overview of genetics both on a cellular level and a molecular level. Well written. A fast read.

[AceWings · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent illustrated book to learn the foundations of genetics. Good for medical students & teachers too. All concepts are clearly drawn and are scientifically accurate.

[Aditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit too technical but otherwise an excellent read + visual treat

[Chella]

Wowser, I felt like I was reading a text book. Not altogether in a bad way, but maybe I should have read Genetics for Dummies first.

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone asked me what it was that made me want to read this book.

• I needed a biology 101 reintroduction. (Side note: my biology 101 class at university was taught by confused creationists. The class was a DISASTER. With a capital D. Literally.)
• I have a thing for graphics ... maybe especially non-fiction graphics.

That's it.

What I appreciate most about this book is that I got from it terms I can use to help me be more mannered in my informing my gracious hosts about my diet restrictions. When I read Miss Manners Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, I learned that, when giving one's diet restrictions and preferences to a host, one may request elimination of EITHER one category of food OR two specific foods. EITHER "No gluten, please." OR "No eggplants and no hard boiled eggs, if you would be so kind." (Perhaps it is clear that these examples are mine, if only because the Guide was written before the anti-gluten movement.) This leaves people like me in a bind. EITHER I must make things difficult for my host OR I must suffer at the dinner table (and afterward). At the very least, I would like to be able to say "No things from the fungus or animal kingdoms." (People are always trying to feed vegetarians mushrooms. ARGH! SHROOMS! NOT A VEGETABLE! <- I have surprised many people (veggies and carnies) with this fact.) This, however, is two categories of food — two ENTIRE KINGDOMS, my friends — which, Miss Manners makes clear, is Right Out. *However.* Now I can improve etiquette and edibility by saying "No heterotrophs, thank you very much! :)"

Anyhoo.

+ The concept is pretty great. - The organization is sometimes awkward. - The execution ranges from clever to stiff.
+ I learned stuff! :) - But... I feel like I could have learned a lot more stuff. It was way too text-heavy at times, like an illustrated textbook, not a true graphic.
+ I think it does a particularly solid job on Mendel and phenotype vs. genotype. And I liked the bit about Johnny Appleseed. It was my favorite insert.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Name: Kimberly Madal
APA Citation: Schultz, M, (2009). The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA. New York: Hill and Wang
Genre: Non-Fiction
Format: Graphic Novel
Selection process: YALSA's Best Graphic Novels for Young Adults booklist

This book is hands down the best way to learn about genetics and DNA. The graphic novel makes it interesting for anyone to learn about the smallest parts of the human body. The explanation of DNA, genetics, and the importance to the human body is told from the perspective of a starfish looking alien. This alien visited Earth in order to help save his planet. His planet is having difficulties reproducing successfully so he travels to Earth to learn about the human species. He returns to his planet and explains the importance of cells, DNA, and genes and the importance they play in reproduction.
The mildly interesting story of an alien species learning about DNA and the impressive graphics would assist anyone, even the non-scientific, in learning about cells, DNA, genes, and the importance they all play on the various functions of the human body. I was so impressed with this graphic novel I recommended it to my Biology teacher sister. She loved it and will be using parts of it in her Biology classes to help high school freshman learn about these "basic building blocks" of life!
Recommendation: Highly Recommend

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good as far as I can tell. Cute frame story. Nice illustrations. Came out before recent discovery that Homo Sapiens did Tha Nasty with Neanderthals. And also the length of time Aborigines have been in Australia has moved further back. And some wee hominids have been found in Indonesia. But still an informative read for a genetics and DNA layman like me.

I think, however, of a scientific essay by Noam Chomsky I read 15-odd years ago. Describing the functions of pieces of the eye, he explained, is not the same as understanding how it works, or how sight works, or how it evolved. Science, he said, often confuses describing the functions of pieces of things as "understanding" them. I remember wondering if an avowed atheist was turning coat when I read that piece. But I think he was simply concerned with the limits of scientific explanation.

There's a lot of description of processes and functions and structures here...amazing work, intricate and astonishing discoveries for sure. But do the people doing this work really understand how genetics function? Or why it works? Or how these amazing systems came to be?

Funny that this comic book taught me more than my year-long Biology course in high school 30-odd years ago.