Extra!Extra! A covert, government engineered, mind-control disease infects the District of Columbia! Read all about it in Washington White!
In the District of Columbia, the President authorizes covert testing of a mind-control disease, a transgender drummer fights to rejoin her punk band, and a greedy developer is gentrifying the universe within the disease. Meanwhile, the black owner of a local tabloid, Washington White, threatens to expose the corruption—because his evil, white tycoon dad is the one behind it.
Highly inventive and intelligent: a critical reflection and satire of contemporary (religious, capitalistic, racist, homophobic) culture through abstract and wild art.
I found this graphic novel difficult to follow for a few reasons. First, the dialogue text was hand-drawn and not inked, same as the graphics and speech bubbles. Everything blurred together. The text was also varied widely in size, and some was neon colored. While I respect these features as artistic choices, it made reading the work difficult. Second, the story jumps between different characters and worlds with little transition making it difficult to keep track of the narrative.
On the positive side, I found the art appealing, especially facial expressions and use of color. I just wish I could have enjoyed the story more.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but this GN was really hard to read because of its stylistic appearance. The text was in different fonts by letter- some very fine, others big and bubbly, which made for a disjointed read. Furthermore, the illustration was so fantastic that it was hard to tell what was going on in terms of plot and characters. It gave me a headache and I didn’t care to push through.