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Roly Poly
In this graphic novel, Phanta embarks on a sci-fi psychedelic journey into an underground drug cult in hopes of becoming the new member of a popular K-pop group. Brazilian cartoonist Daniel Semanas’s candy-colored debut graphic novel, influenced by American pop art and manga, is set in South Korea in the near future. A young fighter has a fiercely competitive relationship with her brother. In her effort to top his internet popularity, she gets more than she bargained for. Full-color illustrations throughout.
150 pages, Hardcover
Published September 4, 2018
2 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
May 9, 2022
nao conhecia essa hq, nunca tinha ouvido falar. viajei pra Sp semana passada e dei uma passada na livraria cultura e achei ela perdida la. tive que comprar!!! a arte é MUITO incrivel!! muitas cores vibrantes, PERFEITA!! A historia em si é bem rasa, na real nao tem bem uma historia com inicio meio e fim kskskks mas eu passo um pano pq a arte é maravilhosa
December 12, 2018
Vale a pena por causa do desenho; o traços e cores são incríveis. Porém, fica só nisso. A história é bem rasa e os personagens basicamente mal desenvolvidos e mal explorados. Até agora não entendi bem as motivações de ninguém dessa história. Até mesmo como ritmo de quadrinho em si deixa a desenhar, pois várias e várias páginas são usadas para uma cena de caminhada apenas para demonstração da capacidade técnica do desenhista. Me peguei pensando se não seria mais justo um livro de imagens ou até mesmo um art book, porque o trabalho do Daniel Semanas é realmente fora de série.
April 21, 2020
Effing beautiful and takes me back, visually, to 1991 aka the best time of my life so how could I possibly dislike this? The dark neon hush, the dinosaurs, the muffled sounds of an arcade, the handfeel of a room-temperature can of unopened soda, rollerblades, stork-legged girl-friends, sideponies and lip gloss. Man.
This book is like the candy collection I had in a shoebox under my bed.
Yeah.
Whew. I need a smoke.
This book is like the candy collection I had in a shoebox under my bed.
Yeah.
Whew. I need a smoke.
September 3, 2019
This is a book for someone dedicated to aesthetics and aesthetics alone.
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and appeals to anyone who's a fan of graphic art styles and loud, vibrant colors. I can't deny that that's exactly the reason I picked it up, and I'm glad that I happened to stumble upon it. However, the art is pretty much the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars.
I'd say the story is lackluster and downright confusing at some plot points. I didn't expect a grand story when I picked the book up, but I still expected a little more. I'm also not fond of how the siblings have a weird ambiguous relationship for no reason. I thought they were dating until the very end.
I'm still happy that I bought it, and I feel like it's a wonderful visual journey. But honestly, I'd treat this as an art book rather than a graphic novel.
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and appeals to anyone who's a fan of graphic art styles and loud, vibrant colors. I can't deny that that's exactly the reason I picked it up, and I'm glad that I happened to stumble upon it. However, the art is pretty much the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars.
I'd say the story is lackluster and downright confusing at some plot points. I didn't expect a grand story when I picked the book up, but I still expected a little more. I'm also not fond of how the siblings have a weird ambiguous relationship for no reason. I thought they were dating until the very end.
I'm still happy that I bought it, and I feel like it's a wonderful visual journey. But honestly, I'd treat this as an art book rather than a graphic novel.
September 9, 2018
If you enjoy bright colors, Instagram, and stories that are 50-75% atmosphere, 25% story, then this book is for you. It leans hard into the Instagram format on several pages of the story.
I left Instagram because it didn't appeal to my asthetic, so I found the layouts in this book unappealing. The coloring was also blockier than I enjoy, but it made sense for a story billed as "candy color".
The story itself is about achieving massive social media popularity, which is something that feels really empty to me.
You can tell a lot of work, passion, and talent went into this book. It just isn't for me.
I left Instagram because it didn't appeal to my asthetic, so I found the layouts in this book unappealing. The coloring was also blockier than I enjoy, but it made sense for a story billed as "candy color".
The story itself is about achieving massive social media popularity, which is something that feels really empty to me.
You can tell a lot of work, passion, and talent went into this book. It just isn't for me.
April 25, 2022
Visualmente bonito. Apenas.
April 22, 2024
100% not for me. Saw it in the library and the cover plus a cursory scan looked interesting but actually trying to make heads or tails of the pages was maddening. I’m not the target audience at all.
September 8, 2018
The art is gorgeous and beyond 5 stars and the main reason why I devoured and decided to purchase this book. I love how it experiments with the format by incorporating social media and things like “what’s inside her bag” into the comic book medium (stuff that reminded me a lot of Brandon Graham’s work - like adding clever brands to delivery trucks: ie “Uni - pop - corn”). The story itself, however, unfortunately felt like too much like a teaser. Not much happened (I feel the plot could be described in 2 sentences) but what did happen was rendered beautifully and explored in so much depth, that I found it impossible not to fall in love with it. Being only Part One of the series (is it a series?), I’m hoping the next few volumes have more story development in them. I will be flipping through this book on a regular basis.
September 10, 2019
As a quick series and quick read I loved this book. Sure it isn't too deep or intricate and the characters are indeed style over substance. But I've seen reviews hating on it and criticising it for sexism. It seems like a love letter to the aesthetic style of kpop video game 90s kids. It's about a girl kicking ass in an arcade to get away with stars that will grant her the ability to get famous. It's nonsense. The goal isn't the point. The journey is. And this one is moving even if it's printed in ink. Art is amazing , design even better. The story sure was a bit vague, but it was nice for it to be so quick and easy that I could flip back and catch parts I had missed in previous time through. The art style is compact and seemingly simplistic but every line and color is thought out. Beautiful work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2019
Art was 5 stars and was the reason I purchased this book.
This book gets the award for the worst attempt to create a story that i’ve ever seen in a graphic novel.
This book gets the award for the worst attempt to create a story that i’ve ever seen in a graphic novel.
July 30, 2024
Roly Poly is a graphic novel, made with a group effort by Daniel Semanas (Author, Artist), Fernanda Kissy (Story and Art Assistant), Danilo Rodrigues (Graphic Design), Julia Balthazar (Color Assistant). It features Phanta, who takes us on a journey, full of action and fighting.
My main thought about the story was that it was okay. I didn't find it to be a really interesting story, just from my perspective, but it was fine. An issue I had with it is that the story wasn’t really clear to me. It was difficult to know her motivations, her goals and what she was doing. It was a very visual based story, so it kind of made it hard for me to relate to the main character. Mainly because the only emotions I generally felt from the pages were negative, such as annoyance and anger. Stuff like that. So I felt like I didn’t really want to know her, and I didn’t really care much about her. I felt like the story could have been told better, to be blunt.
The main positive thing about the book is the work on the illustrations. There's a lot of really great visuals happening. and there's a lot of creativity with all sorts of posing of characters, use of colours, perspectives, use of styles, stuff like that. I'm really impressed by the way the art has all sorts of personality to it. A lot of the pages have a really abstract feel to them, and I had to take a few looks at some of the pages; to check out more of the details that have been put into them. There's all kinds of little references, and details, that have been put into the backgrounds of images.
Overall... I loved the illustrations. The artwork is the best thing about the book. The actual storyline is kind of lacking. Well, to be blunt, my main issue with the story is that it’s very unclear as to what’s going on, and why she’s acting in this way. As a character, Phanta just seems nasty and treats others really disrespectfully; so it makes it hard for me to like her. My sister encouraged me to read this; she borrowed the book from the library, and told me I needed to read it before she returned it. To be honest, it’s the type of book I would like to own for myself, just because of how incredible so many of the illustrations are. But the story didn’t interest me at all. I see that it’s part of a series, just this book in it so far. I kind of would like to see the next book, but just because of the illustrations.
My main thought about the story was that it was okay. I didn't find it to be a really interesting story, just from my perspective, but it was fine. An issue I had with it is that the story wasn’t really clear to me. It was difficult to know her motivations, her goals and what she was doing. It was a very visual based story, so it kind of made it hard for me to relate to the main character. Mainly because the only emotions I generally felt from the pages were negative, such as annoyance and anger. Stuff like that. So I felt like I didn’t really want to know her, and I didn’t really care much about her. I felt like the story could have been told better, to be blunt.
The main positive thing about the book is the work on the illustrations. There's a lot of really great visuals happening. and there's a lot of creativity with all sorts of posing of characters, use of colours, perspectives, use of styles, stuff like that. I'm really impressed by the way the art has all sorts of personality to it. A lot of the pages have a really abstract feel to them, and I had to take a few looks at some of the pages; to check out more of the details that have been put into them. There's all kinds of little references, and details, that have been put into the backgrounds of images.
Overall... I loved the illustrations. The artwork is the best thing about the book. The actual storyline is kind of lacking. Well, to be blunt, my main issue with the story is that it’s very unclear as to what’s going on, and why she’s acting in this way. As a character, Phanta just seems nasty and treats others really disrespectfully; so it makes it hard for me to like her. My sister encouraged me to read this; she borrowed the book from the library, and told me I needed to read it before she returned it. To be honest, it’s the type of book I would like to own for myself, just because of how incredible so many of the illustrations are. But the story didn’t interest me at all. I see that it’s part of a series, just this book in it so far. I kind of would like to see the next book, but just because of the illustrations.
December 10, 2018
É muito promissor e espero que tenha continuação.
Crítica: a história parece um primeiro capítulo de tokusatsu: não fala bem a origem da personagem e nem do vilão, mas serve como apresentação de mundo.
A parte (mais) do que positiva: o mundo é fenomenal. Cores, design, artes, easter eggs... tudo foi feito de forma rica.
A questão é: será suficiente para um quadrinho apresentar um mundo rico mas sem personagens igualmente ricos? Pois, veja: a história entrega ação, mas não se explica muito bem o porque da personagem principal estar "sentando a porrada" em todo mundo. Pior: não estabelece nem empatia entre ela e o leitor, tirando, talvez, quando ela retira seu capacete pela primeira vez. Seria necessários mais cenas impactantes e que demonstrassem mais da personalidade da personagem.
No entanto, acho que é um autor que merece uma atenção acima da média, pois é um animador reconhecidamente competente. Que ele consiga atingir o mesmo nível nos quadrinhos!
Crítica: a história parece um primeiro capítulo de tokusatsu: não fala bem a origem da personagem e nem do vilão, mas serve como apresentação de mundo.
A parte (mais) do que positiva: o mundo é fenomenal. Cores, design, artes, easter eggs... tudo foi feito de forma rica.
A questão é: será suficiente para um quadrinho apresentar um mundo rico mas sem personagens igualmente ricos? Pois, veja: a história entrega ação, mas não se explica muito bem o porque da personagem principal estar "sentando a porrada" em todo mundo. Pior: não estabelece nem empatia entre ela e o leitor, tirando, talvez, quando ela retira seu capacete pela primeira vez. Seria necessários mais cenas impactantes e que demonstrassem mais da personalidade da personagem.
No entanto, acho que é um autor que merece uma atenção acima da média, pois é um animador reconhecidamente competente. Que ele consiga atingir o mesmo nível nos quadrinhos!
May 9, 2019
This was so difficult to actually read for more than half the book -- between the gloss, the candy-neon colors, and the amount of detail in each patter my eyes were swimming. I guess I adjusted enough that I could follow by midway through -- it's an interesting book, could definitely use more set up or exposition. The context was insufficient for me to figure out what the hell was going on until after the book had ended.
I do like how it ended, despite being generally confused as to how or why we got there. I appreciate that the siblings genuinely cared for one another.
IDK, more of a mood piece or art book than a graphic novel.
I do like how it ended, despite being generally confused as to how or why we got there. I appreciate that the siblings genuinely cared for one another.
IDK, more of a mood piece or art book than a graphic novel.
January 18, 2019
Que projeto gráfico, ilustrações e composição maravilhosos, um dos quadrinhos mais bonitos e criativos no que tange às ilustrações, a estória meio que se sustenta inteiramente no projeto gráfico, tendo pouquíssimas falas, o que deixa a estória um pouco confusa e demasiada rápida, mas mesmo assim criativa, e na curta duração do tempo fui capaz de construir empatia pela Phanta. O livro é uma obra de arte impressa que mesmo com alguns problemas de roteiro se sustenta e demonstra muita criatividade.
July 18, 2023
Shame on me for leaving this absolute gem on my bookshelf without touching it for five years :') Jokes on me, I was the one missing out!
Where to even begin? It baffles me that this doesn't have higher reviews.This graphic novel has EVERYTHING. Dazzling colors, dizzying compositions, action, emotion, existential dread, anxiety, and triumph! Psychedelic in every delicious sense of the word. An absolute delight.
Don't be like me! Keep up! Read it!
Where to even begin? It baffles me that this doesn't have higher reviews.This graphic novel has EVERYTHING. Dazzling colors, dizzying compositions, action, emotion, existential dread, anxiety, and triumph! Psychedelic in every delicious sense of the word. An absolute delight.
Don't be like me! Keep up! Read it!
May 24, 2023
Think Lisa Frank illustrates Jem and the Holograms. The technicolor 80s retro art in this book is quite amazing. Every page is worthy of being pinned in your high school locker and taped to your trapper keeper. While I wasn't enthralled by they actual story, I give the creator(s) mad props for even telling a story when so much is going on visually.
July 31, 2024
So much - almost too much! - going on. K-Pop. Robot dinosaurs. Instagram. Psychedelic star wishes. Etc. Takes a familiar, Scott Pilgrim-esque art style and goes completely off the rails with it, arriving at a level of coolness and insanity that most graphic novels never reach. (It’s certainly crazier than Scott Pilgrim, for example, but that’s admittedly a pretty low bar.)
August 1, 2019
GORGEOUS!! Really fun and so interesting to look at, intricate and sense imagery and vibrant color scheme. Story is a little unclear - maybe this is the first in a series? - but it's so enjoyable to look at that doesn't feel like the singularly most important thing.
April 7, 2020
This is about one part substance to nine parts style, but it's a hell of a style - if you're attracted to that twilit/urban/ersatz-80s/vaporwave type of look (and I know I am), this is an uncut brick of the stuff.
November 16, 2022
No translation credit so I ->guess<- he wrote it in English
->Fantagraphics edition is double-open-end slipcased
Too much style with too little substance that's too heavy on the social media pages rendered within.
->Fantagraphics edition is double-open-end slipcased
Too much style with too little substance that's too heavy on the social media pages rendered within.
October 28, 2018
empty. might be an atempt to improve some kind of advertising portifolio. feels like an ad that goes on forever.
January 8, 2019
A mix of Akira, Scott Pilgrim and Motor Crush with an added bonus of beautiful neon colors. It’s so dang pretty.
March 16, 2019
This was ridiculous and didn't make any sense. It's 100% style over substance. But it clearly was supposed to be, and the style is amazing. Five stars!
May 31, 2019
This was cute and psychedelic. I love all the illustrations. Probably going to dress up as Phanta now :)
September 9, 2019
This book is more art than story but it's great art. Fast, bright, fun.
October 3, 2019
Story is simple but the illustrations are stunning and colourful. I like the quirkiness of it and I liked the little social media pages/infographics bits too.
January 14, 2021
The illustrations may be pretty, original and dynamic, the story doesn't follow.
March 7, 2021
A sumptuous, psychedelic read. Semanas draws in a rich style, but retains an eye for the right detail and a fine line.
February 8, 2022
Really cool artwork, but no idea what actually happened.
March 2, 2022
Pretty - in a 1980’s kind of way - but just felt a bit lacking and pointless.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews