Tales Of The City Vol. 1

Chroniques de San Francisco

by Isabelle Bauthian, Sandrine Revel (Artist), Armistead Maupin

San Francisco, 28 Barbary Lane, Anna Madrigal runs a boarding house. She wel-comes people who have nowhere else to go: the misfits. This matriarch is known for her unending kindness and her superb marijuana crop. The novel starts with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, a prudish, naïve, young woman who escaped her dull Ohio hometown for San Francisco. She settles in with her other fellow tenants: Michael “Mouse,” a personable young gay man, Brian Hawkins, an incor-rigible Don Juan, and Mona Ramsey, a young hippyish bisexual.

Genres: Graphic Novels, LGBT, Comics, Queer, Fiction, Bande Dessinée

129 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 22, 2022

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read any of the original books, I haven't even seen the Netflix series, so I stepped into this with fresh eyes. I do like to read short stories, and I enjoyed the stories here, with overlapping characters. There are a lot of those, which can give the whole thing a breathless quality. There are also a couple of eyebrow raising surprises towards the end, and I'm not sure how to feel about how they were handled - I think the sense of rushing through the material works against the storytelling here.

I liked the art a lot, it's warm and clean. Nice.

(Thanks to Ablaze for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley)

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I found out there was going to be a graphic novel version of the first Tales of the City book, obviously I was going to jump on that ASAP. The only catch? The graphic novel was in French, no English version available, and as I've previously mentioned here, my French is poor to nonexistent. No matter! I went on Amazon.fr and managed to click the appropriate buttons, and a copy made its way to me across the ocean.

I figured between the little French I did have, the pictures, and the fact that I already knew the story quite well, I'd have a good experience reading this, and I was mostly right. I was able to tell what was going on, but I was acutely aware that the writer of this comic probably made her own choices about what dialogue to include or perhaps even modify, and that I was missing out on nearly all of that. Still, as I continued to read I was able to figure out some of the text through sheer repetition of certain words. It made me think that if I just read enough graphic novels in French I might indeed master it someday!

The art was wonderful. Some of it reminded me a bit of Tintin and some of Chris Ware, but mostly it was its own delightful thing, a bit impressionistic and full of vivid color. The characters were all perfectly drawn, and thinking of them now makes me smile.

Although I got this book sometime last year, the craziness of 2021 meant I just got to it this month. It's an odd bit of timing, because today I learned that an English version is coming out next month after all! Still, although I'm happy I'll have an opportunity to read and understand all the speech bubbles, I don't regret "reading" this French version; it was a lovely experience all its own.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

As possibly the only person who has never read this book or seen any film adaptations, I thought I’d read the new graphic novel. It’s set in 1978 San Francisco, a time described as existing between the Summer of Love and the AIDS crisis. Mrs. Madrigal runs a boarding house, and her newest tenant is the naive Mary Ann, recently arrived from Cleveland. We learn that the other residents are of various sexual orientations, and each struggles in their own way. I can understand why it was successfully adapted to productions by BBC TV and Netflix—— an unabashed soap opera time capsule of late 1970's San Francisco. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't read the original books by Armistead Maupin, so I don't know if the cheesy soap opera tone of this graphic novel adaptation is in there or if it is just a function of distilling down all the main plot points to fit them in a slim volume.

A young single woman with the on-the-nose name of Singleton moves to San Francisco to make it on her own. She gets to know the landlady and other tenants in her apartment building, and we get to know all their romantic entanglements, which frequently revolve around infidelity. There's a whole lot of hooking up and breaking up. To add to the drama, terminal illness, being closeted, homophobia, pregnancy, a private investigator, and suicide are tossed into the mix, and then the ending really goes over the top with blackface, pedophilia, and accidental death. Too many of the plot developments depend on "it's a small world" type coincidences

Frankly, it's like three or four seasons of All My Children boiled down into a book that takes less than an hour to read.

Also, I always feel weird when the book is subject to the Google Translate game. This is the English translation of a French graphic novel adapting an novel originally written in English. I'm curious if the translators went back to Maupin's original novel as a source to reference his exact words or tone or if they just do a straight translation from the French and call it a day.

In the end, reading this brief graphic novel felt more like reading a Soap Opera Digest weekly recap than watching the soap itself. I'm almost curious to check out Maupin's first novel to get the full effect, but I doubt I will.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would prefer the novel to the graphic novel, but the characters were interesting and the illustrations were nice.

[Larakaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully adapted comic of a timeless classic.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the original books. HUGE. Have read them many times, listened to the audiobooks, and watched the adaptations over and over.

Not sure if this was necessary - creating a graphic novel. The story felt rushed to me. Didn't have the wonderful pacing of the original books. Still if it gets to a new generation of readers, that's a good thing.

[currentlyreadingbynat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into Tales of the City, but I know its a book that's been made into TV shows. The book has been on my radar to read for quite a while, as it's a queer classic. I'm glad I picked up this comic version as it was a really good introduction into the story. As this is the first volume in a series of many, it finished at a point where a few aspects are unresolved. I will definitely have to pick up the next volume to continue the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

[J MaK · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5) The artwork is nice but the progression of this one escalates very quickly. It chronicles the chaotic entanglements amongst a group of tenants who live in San Francisco. Many of the stories are unbelievable almost as if scripted for shock value.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having just recently read the first book in this series again I was wondering how they would fit everything in; the answer is by omission, Brian and DeDe suffered the worst. Well maybe Edgar’s wife Frankie… Which was expected I’m just perplexed by what they omitted and what they kept in and how many times they changed who was saying dialogue from the source material and in many instances this changed the import of scenes. There’s a reason Michael wears tighty whities and is envious of the leopard print… But more importantly I felt the biggest omission was the city of San Francisco. The city is one of the characters and this did not come through in the adapting. The art style is interesting if uneven and might have worked better if it wasn’t so constrained to it’s grid structure and it’s source imagery occasionally lifted directly from the original miniseries. I did enjoy Armistead Maupin’s cameo. Though perhaps they should have fixed the French signs in the background because it comes across as lazy, much like two misspelled names. In the end I don’t know who this was for, fans will feel the omissions and new readers will be turned off of picking up the original books. And after thinking about it for awhile I now realize if they want to continue forward how are the going to fix that Norman really looked like he died and Connie and Brian didn't hook up...

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this. I read the written version some years ago but I didn’t really enjoy it. Reading this graphic novel version made me realise that I must read the written version again, and this time read the rest of the series as well, because I didn’t fully appreciate the richness of the story when I read it the first time.

I think the graphic novel manages to catch the way the lives of the characters are intertwined and it does manage to convey the gist of the story. It isn’t perfect but it is certainly engaging. I liked the artwork and the brightness of the graphics, and I think this really brings the characters to life. It couldn’t have been easy to produce a graphic novel of such a complex story with so many characters but the artist did an excellent job.

It is also good to have a graphic novel of this book because it provides an introduction for people who may wish to know what the story is like without reading the book. I do hope that there will be graphic novel versions of the other books in this series. This is an excellent start.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who never read the original Tales of the City, when it was being written in the 1970s, this might seem as a strange nostalgia, and in a way it is. Taking place after Stonewall, but before AIDs, this is when the Gay Movement had nothing keeping it back. And San Francisco was the place to be.

The stories here are of people from the midwest, who are niave, and lovers that break up, and find new lovers, and men cheating on their wives, and all because they know the landlord of a boarding house, who brings them all together.

The stories are sad, and funny, and sweet, and all hard to imagine the world they all came from, but although the stories are fiction, the situation, at the moment, was real.

This is a good way to be introduced to Tales of the City, of which there are at least six books. This is illustrating the first one.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Anniek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've watched and loved the Tales of the City Netflix adaptation, but have never read the original novels. I hoped the graphic novel adaptation would be an accessible way to introduce me to them, but unfortunately it felt kind of choppy and like I kept missing out on context. I didn't feel like I got to know the characters very well. That said, I did really enjoy the art work, and overall I did enjoy reading this.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Armistead Maupin and Tales of the City. I have read all the books and seen the television adaptations. This graphic novel is a good introduction to the characters. It’s kinda like a Cliff Notes version. It’s short and sweet. Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the ARC. 3.5 stars rounded up

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK but far too much of s soap opera. Also with the short length of the book the characters did not make much of an impression.

[Gabrielle Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very tough read. It was very choppy and had a million story lines back to back with no transitions. The characters are mostly bad people. Do not recommend.

[Fred Langridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely graphic novel adaptation of Tales of the City.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t read the original but always intended to-this graphic adaptation seems to retain the soapiness of Maupin, but with just brief Cliff-notey glimpses of what obviously are deeper vignettes of Madrigal’s family.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great adaption of one of my favorite books. However, that being said I would advise anyone who reads this to of read the book first. If you have not read the book, you will get some of the bullet points of it, but you will miss so much. This works great as a companion to the first book. But again, I will say that you should read the book first otherwise some parts might not total make sense to you.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in San Francisco in the 70’s, this graphic novel based upon a 1978 novel by Maupin adeptly moves between about half a dozen story arcs. All of these stories are connected by key characters being residents of a Barbary Lane rooming house run by a maternal and jovial hippie pot-grower landlady named Anna Madrigal.

In a sense, the lead character is Mary Ann Singleton, a new arrival at 28 Barbary Lane. Singleton isn’t the kind of lead that the entire story revolves around; there’s plenty going on that takes place outside her perspective. However, Singleton does make a great focal point because she’s a fish out of water. Being Midwestern and straight, she’s a run-of-the-mill character in Ohio (her home,) but in SF, she’s the oddball. Her extreme ordinariness among outcasts both generates tension and highlights the unconventionality of the Barbary Lane rooming house.

The story is soap opera-like. It’s loaded with drama and low-level intrigues – extramarital affairs, closeted gays with out of the closet partners, drugs, etc. – but the pacing of these low-level intrigues keeps the flow of the story intense.

I never read the original novels, but I thought the artists did a great job of not only of illustrating the work, but also of organizing the story into a graphic format.

I’d highly recommend interested readers check it out.

[Read by Curtis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally written by Armistead Maupin as a serialized feature in the San Francisco Chronicle about a group of gay, bi, straight and trans friends and lovers, Tales of the City expanded into nine novels, eight radio series, three television limited/mini series, a stage adaptation, and now a graphic novel. It may be redundant to state that Tales of the City has a passionate and devoted following, largely because it prominently featured LGBTQ+ characters long before it was de rigeur to do so.

Unfortunately, the graphic novel does not hold up. Plotlines are slashed to fit into 120-odd pages, which only die-hard fans will likely be able to follow. With so many characters and so little time, the graphic novel doesn’t allow the reader to fall in love with the characters in the same way that the novels do. In the end, I did not love this iteration of Tales of the City, but it did make me nostalgic for the original novels. Maybe it is time to revisit the novels.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was...OK. I did like the art style, which felt like a muted callback to the color palettes of the 1970s.

But this felt simultaneously compressed and disjointed. It's been a hot minute since I read the original book this was based on, but I remember Tales of the City to be a bit of a soap opera about your neighbors, almost like you were spying on them through the fence. This loses something in the transition to graphic novel. And the end didn't feel "right" so maybe this is Vol 1 of several to cover the events of the novel.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 2 out of 5]

My approach to Tales of the City , A graphic novel “From the novels of Armistead Maupin” is as soneone who had read the books more than once, along with others by AM; seen both the original made for TV version and most of the bowdlerized version. Sad to say I once owned, but no more the un sanitized version and alas it is nolonger readily replaceable.

What am I to say about this failure, of a graphic novel. How exactly Maupin’s, very adult fairy tale of a magic 1960’s kingdom, with its Disneyland castle, again 1960 style castle magically placed atop 28 Barbery Lane in that also magical place San Francisco. This discontinuous, vague pale reduction as chopped together by Isabelle Bauthian & Sandrine Revel is something I cannot abide. Maupin , working one newspaper column length at a time crafted the world based on what he wished it had been like. Yes it had the occasional presents of evil spirits, harshers of the mellow and innocence could be rudely lost, but mostly it was a place of good vibrations heartfelt welcome and healthful natural healting. That and the occasional free clinic.

What started pushing the sand into my oyster was the coloring. Yes, very pretty, but all pastel. No one ether the ons too stoned to remember it nor the hard-nosed critics of the period, would ever have painted it in pastels. The counter culture was in your face, clashing, primary colored and loudly printed. Even the suits were in loud ties and colored stiff shirts.
Naked people with just as loudly naked, the sex was intended to be dirty, all human parts were visible and distinct. This too was part of fighting the ”man”.

Overall, the plot is mostly here. Scene jumps tended to be more abrupt than the format dictated ones in the original. By the end the story board was so edited as to be more like plot highpoints than much about character.

Tales of the City is a proven product. It has had and held an audience for decades. It is fairy tale history for an adult audience. May not for an entirely sober one, I am one of the sober ones. It is meant to be what those who were there want to remember there as having been like. Please Graphic Novelist, Tales of the City again. Try to be as bold and inventive as the original. Please no more pastels

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how we can pretend we’re living in some cute affordable neighborhood in San Francisco during the 1970s. Yes this is it. A thoughtfully drawn graphic novel. I need to mention that Tales of the City is actually a legitimate novel, which I own a copy of. Yet I was still compelled to view this graphic novel version.

These folks are messy. They are young… ish. Young at heart.

Main character is Mary Anne, I suppose. She is an early 20’s white gal from the middle of the continent. Her landlord is a retirement age lady who never gives up on love. NEVER. The other tenants in the building also believe in love, but they are consistently distracted by lust.

The most confusing bit is when Mary Anne gets involved with her boss, who also gets involved with a dentist, who is the ex of her neighbor Michael. Meanwhile the dentist dumps Michael, and gets involved with Mary Anne’s boss. Wait. I’m still confused.

Also, Mary Anne’s landlord is dating the father in law of Mary Anne’s boss….

And Mary Anne’s other neighbor (a lady) gets involved with a good number of men. And now decides she is forever finished with men. Wants to totally focus on women now.

Tales of the City, everyone!

How many novels are in the series?

[Ingrid Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this brought back so many memories of when I first found Tales of the City. It was a short series on public TV and one of the few that showed not only gay people, but happy gay people.

This graphic book, which I read in English, stayed true to the original novel. And like that first book, I am ready to read the next volumes.

The art work was well done, a realistic style that captured the feel of the late 70s.

Thanks to @netgalley, Diamond Books Distributors, Armistead Maupin, Isabelle Bauthian, and Sandrine Revel for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest unbiased opinion.

[Aiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

La série de romans d'Armistead Maupin est un exemple de lecture tournée vers la tolérance, l'ouverture d'esprit et la compassion. L'adaptation qu'en ont fait Isabelle Bauthian et Sandrine Revel dans ce premier tome est à mon sens très réussie : la narration est fidèle aux idées tout en gardant une certaine liberté, l'album est rempli de clins d'oeil de trouvailles narratives, tandis que le trait de Sandrine Revel donne une touche de poésie, de tendresse à la communauté pleine de vie du 28 Barbary Lane et à une époque pas si lointaine.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tales of the City is one of my favourite book series, so I really wanted to like this graphic novel, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. The art style isn't my taste, though I can appreciate the aesthetic, but the pacing of the plot was very strange. Parts of the plot were cut out that feel pretty fundamental to understanding the story and I honestly I don't think I would have been able to follow what was going on if I hadn't already read the books. The translation is quite rough in places as well. It's a real shame, because I'd love to see a well done comic adaptation.

[Jessica Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a joy to revisit Tales of the City, this time in graphic format. The illustrations were well done and gave me a feeling of nostalgia throughout. This is a series that I read in print years ago and it was like eating popcorn, had to read the next one immediately. I also loved the mini-series. Reading the graphic novel (volume 1) makes me want to read the entire series again and I think I will!

[Stephanie Racette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Juin 2024. Le travail artistique est superbe. Le scénario, lui, m’a déçue, je m’y suis presque perdue. J’ai pourtant lu (et beaucoup aimé) les romans, mais leur lecture remonte à plus de 15 ans. Je me demandais comment s’y retrouvaient des nouveaux lecteurs de cette série?!
J’ai le tome 2, que je vais lire. Mais je crois que ca n’ira pas plus loin.
Par contre, j’ai une folle envie de relire les romans.