What do you think?
Rate this book
Red: A Haida Manga
Referencing a classic Haida oral narrative, this spectacular full-color graphic novel blends traditional Haida imagery with Japanese manga to tell the powerful story of Red, an orphaned leader so blinded by revenge that he leads his community to the brink of war and destruction. When raiders attack his village, young Red escapes dramatically. But his sister Jaada is whisked away. The loss of Jaada breeds a seething anger, and Red sets out to find his sister and exact revenge on her captors. Tragic and timeless, Red's story is reminiscent of such classic tales as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, and King Lear . Not only an affecting story, Red is an innovation in contemporary storytelling from the creator of Haida Manga and the author of Flight of the Hummingbird; it consists of 108 pages of hand-painted illustrations, and when arranged the panels create a Haida formline image 13 feet long. A miniature version of the panel in full-color is on the inside jacket.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published February 23, 2010
5 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
About the author
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
16 books34 followersMichael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an award-winning visual contemporary artist, author and professional speaker. His work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections across the globe. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum and Vancouver Art Gallery. His large sculptural works are part of the public art collection of the Vancouver International Airport, City of Vancouver, City of Kamloops and University of British Columbia. Yahgulanaas's publications include national bestsellers Flight of the Hummingbird and RED, a Haida Manga. When not writing or producing art, Yahgulanaas pulls from his 20 years of political experience in the Council of the Haida Nation and travels the world speaking to businesses, institutions and communities about social justice, community building, communication and change management. His most recent talks include the American Museum of Natural History and TEDxVancouver 2015.
Yahgulanaas became a full-time artist after many decades working in the Haida Nation's successful campaign to protect its biocultural diversity; however, he began to play as an artist much earlier. As the descendant of iconic artists Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill, his early training was under exceptional creators and master carvers of talented lineage. It wasn't until the late 1990s after an exposure to Chinese brush techniques, under the tutelage of Cantonese master Cai Ben Kwon, that he consciously began to merge Haida and Asian artistic influences into his self-taught practice, and innovated the art form called "Haida Manga."
Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. It is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement and is weaved through his art, books and speeches. Haida Manga offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection and action.
Yahgulanaas's visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, ceramics and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition he uses art and speaking opportunities to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii - his ancestral North Pacific archipelago - is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.
Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Yahgulanaas has created a practice that is celebrated for its vitality, relevancy and originality.
(from: http://mny.ca/en/biography)
Yahgulanaas became a full-time artist after many decades working in the Haida Nation's successful campaign to protect its biocultural diversity; however, he began to play as an artist much earlier. As the descendant of iconic artists Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill, his early training was under exceptional creators and master carvers of talented lineage. It wasn't until the late 1990s after an exposure to Chinese brush techniques, under the tutelage of Cantonese master Cai Ben Kwon, that he consciously began to merge Haida and Asian artistic influences into his self-taught practice, and innovated the art form called "Haida Manga."
Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. It is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement and is weaved through his art, books and speeches. Haida Manga offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection and action.
Yahgulanaas's visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, ceramics and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition he uses art and speaking opportunities to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii - his ancestral North Pacific archipelago - is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.
Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Yahgulanaas has created a practice that is celebrated for its vitality, relevancy and originality.
(from: http://mny.ca/en/biography)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
April 14, 2014
Beautiful, but hard for me to follow. The note after the conclusion revealing that the pages makes one whole image was stunning and made me want to look at it longer.
Edit: Upgrading this from three to five stars after further reading and contemplation. I think this book does everything it sets out to do. It was hard for me to follow because it challenged me, challenged my ideas of what a story is - not because it was poorly done. Very unique and necessary work.
Edit: Upgrading this from three to five stars after further reading and contemplation. I think this book does everything it sets out to do. It was hard for me to follow because it challenged me, challenged my ideas of what a story is - not because it was poorly done. Very unique and necessary work.
October 22, 2016
Beautiful, unique artwork, really cool artistic concept, narrative didn't do much for me.
May 16, 2025
Haida Gwaii is a large island in the North Pacific, nudging close to the panhandle of Alaska, with a vibrant indigenous culture — the Haida.
The more one knows about Haida mythology and iconography the more you can get out of this volume. Otherwise the story can be confusing.
As it turns out — Each page is part of a large illustration and I have to wonder if individual pages were sacrificed to achieve the whole. I had a library book, so could not arrange the pages into one large illustration as suggested. There is a message here though — about the individual and the whole and lots of other messages as well.
As someone who knows very little I felt I was missing most of it. I probably should have spent more time with it all; the pieces and the whole, the pages and the book, the message and the aspiration.
The more one knows about Haida mythology and iconography the more you can get out of this volume. Otherwise the story can be confusing.
As it turns out — Each page is part of a large illustration and I have to wonder if individual pages were sacrificed to achieve the whole. I had a library book, so could not arrange the pages into one large illustration as suggested. There is a message here though — about the individual and the whole and lots of other messages as well.
As someone who knows very little I felt I was missing most of it. I probably should have spent more time with it all; the pieces and the whole, the pages and the book, the message and the aspiration.
May 18, 2018
Imagine picking up a comic book and reading it, if you have never before encountered the form in any way. You have read prose, and illustrated books, but the unique language of sequential art storytelling is new to you. You have never distinguished between caption, thought bubble, and word bubble. You have never before encountered a page of illustrations with multiple images of the same two characters, only slightly different in each panel. You don't know what a panel even is.
Reading Red: A Haida Manga is a fraction of what that experience may be like. Also comparable would be encountering manga for the first time, having only ever read Western sequential art, though Red is even further from mainstream Western style than most manga. More than anything, the experience reminded me of reading Burgess' A Clockwork Orange for the first time, or to a lesser extent, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. There is a learning curve when you begin the book, as you are confronted with an unfamiliar dialect that begins with the first sentence, with no explanation or lexicon to help you interpret. The writer teaches the reader to read the new dialect as the reader experiences it.
As I have to do any time I read A Clockwork Orange, partway through Red I returned to the beginning, having gained an understanding of the language through reading that I now wished to apply to better understand what I had just read. This experience creates a circular, dreamlike quality to the storytelling, as the sequence itself is interrupted in its own sequential storytelling. This is entirely consistent with the style of art on each page as well.
In contemporary sequential art, the eye is guided along the page in the direction of the story's action, and its dialogue, as one encounters dialogue balloons and captions along this same sight line. Red does not do this. Every page, each a perfect square, is filled first with thick, flowing black gutters that do not appear at first to serve the needs of the panel's illustrations at all. These gutters guide the eye in strange ways, forcing the reader to see the whole of each page, a full beat before looking more deeply to interpret the panels. Panels will be strangely long and skinny, never symmetrical, or tall and thin, or inexplicably a circle, though with gutters seemingly needlessly three times the width on one side compared to the other. It quickly becomes clear that the panels must serve the gutters, not the other way around, as some illustrations awkwardly squash together to fit a skinny panel, and others morph and stretch to fill panels that seem unusually large. Occasionally, illustrations will reach between panels, with a gutter separating the panel in a way one would not expect necessary nor helpful. Other times, where one may expect a gutter to be, there is none. instead, a panel is separated into two by a feature in the illustration, or by a word bubble. Again, all of this serves to force the reader to acknowledge the page first, as a whole painting, and then the individual panels.
The illustration in each panel, beautifully rendered in watercolour, is similarly unique. The bio at the back of the book describes the artist as trained in traditional Haida art. Those familiar with this West Coast indigenous form will recognize the stylized, two dimensional, interpretive artistic tradition. It is very heavy on lines and expression, and often seems to capture the spirit of its subject as much as its physical form. Thus is this book illustrated. Still, while the creator has chosen to inform his illustration deeply with his studied tradition, he also borrows heavily from sequential art forms of the manga tradition. Some panels will be filled with thick lines to their very edges, rendering all characters two dimensionally to an almost absurd and cubist degree. Other panels leave lots of room to breathe, and are drawn in a more realistic, three dimensional style with fully rendered backgrounds.
I found myself needing to stop and recognize each artistic choice on a page, and consider it, before understanding what the artist was trying to say. This made for a much longer read than I anticipated. It also put me in a humble position. I came to the book expecting that I already knew, and discovered that I did not. I let the storyteller teach me.
I had noticed as I read that the thick black flowing gutters of each page flowed into the next, unbroken from page to page. I never did discern any larger illustration or narrative, until the final page. At the end of the story, the artist helpfully illustrates all the pages over a two page spread, revealing that the gutters of the book create their own much larger illustration when fit together. The characters the reader has come to know peek out from behind and around the lines of these giant traditional drawings, giving yet another unique perspective on the story's narrative and sequence. It is timeless and always, and all parts of it existed as a whole before the reader began the first panel.
My copy of Red came from the library, and was specially bound to protect the spine and dust cover. Therefore, I had never seen the book without its cover, nor the dust cover without the book. Upon reading the final pages, I peered under the jacket to find that its underside was printed with the book's full picture from the assembled pages. I am glad to have discovered it this way. This, too, served the piece as a whole.
The story is a simple one, adapted from Haida oral tradition, and follows the character of Red. The reader is reminded of many other ancient myths and epics as the story unfolds. The medium the artist has invented creates a dreamlike tone, appropriate to the retelling of an oral tradition. To examine the story in plot or character in this review would be inappropriate. In this case, the medium certainly is essential to the message, and all I have described to now is as important to the experience of the book as the story itself. I do not wish to remove the traditional story from the medium to examine it and thus dissect a piece that is so obviously part of a whole. The reader must make up her own mind.
My biggest criticism of the book is that for all its intentionality, sometimes the panel illustrations are so minimalist and expressive that they seem to contradict the careful focus of the work as a whole. The gutters that form the final image are crisp and perfect, and when the panel illustrations are of still images, they are often the same. However, sometimes in movement, or in paintings of landscape, the reader can see where the artist allowed paint to drip and splash, or can see the pencil marks underneath the transparent colour. This lack of polish may serve many styles of visual storytelling. Reaching the end of this book, though, I wished for something closer to perfection. This may be only my preference, but it is enough to draw me out of the experience. If it was an intentional choice by the artist, I wish there were more evidence that this was so. Furthermore, the printing of the book left something to be desired in the lack of vibrancy of the colour, and the depth and darkness of the black gutters. I could see by the underside of the dust jacket that the illustrations could be more impacting if given a bolder print. I would like to see this book on thicker paper, printed with a glossy ink that better captures the bold lines.
I recommend this book to readers who appreciate traditional storytelling, indigenous culture, sequential art, and thoughtful, interpretive reading.
Reading Red: A Haida Manga is a fraction of what that experience may be like. Also comparable would be encountering manga for the first time, having only ever read Western sequential art, though Red is even further from mainstream Western style than most manga. More than anything, the experience reminded me of reading Burgess' A Clockwork Orange for the first time, or to a lesser extent, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. There is a learning curve when you begin the book, as you are confronted with an unfamiliar dialect that begins with the first sentence, with no explanation or lexicon to help you interpret. The writer teaches the reader to read the new dialect as the reader experiences it.
As I have to do any time I read A Clockwork Orange, partway through Red I returned to the beginning, having gained an understanding of the language through reading that I now wished to apply to better understand what I had just read. This experience creates a circular, dreamlike quality to the storytelling, as the sequence itself is interrupted in its own sequential storytelling. This is entirely consistent with the style of art on each page as well.
In contemporary sequential art, the eye is guided along the page in the direction of the story's action, and its dialogue, as one encounters dialogue balloons and captions along this same sight line. Red does not do this. Every page, each a perfect square, is filled first with thick, flowing black gutters that do not appear at first to serve the needs of the panel's illustrations at all. These gutters guide the eye in strange ways, forcing the reader to see the whole of each page, a full beat before looking more deeply to interpret the panels. Panels will be strangely long and skinny, never symmetrical, or tall and thin, or inexplicably a circle, though with gutters seemingly needlessly three times the width on one side compared to the other. It quickly becomes clear that the panels must serve the gutters, not the other way around, as some illustrations awkwardly squash together to fit a skinny panel, and others morph and stretch to fill panels that seem unusually large. Occasionally, illustrations will reach between panels, with a gutter separating the panel in a way one would not expect necessary nor helpful. Other times, where one may expect a gutter to be, there is none. instead, a panel is separated into two by a feature in the illustration, or by a word bubble. Again, all of this serves to force the reader to acknowledge the page first, as a whole painting, and then the individual panels.
The illustration in each panel, beautifully rendered in watercolour, is similarly unique. The bio at the back of the book describes the artist as trained in traditional Haida art. Those familiar with this West Coast indigenous form will recognize the stylized, two dimensional, interpretive artistic tradition. It is very heavy on lines and expression, and often seems to capture the spirit of its subject as much as its physical form. Thus is this book illustrated. Still, while the creator has chosen to inform his illustration deeply with his studied tradition, he also borrows heavily from sequential art forms of the manga tradition. Some panels will be filled with thick lines to their very edges, rendering all characters two dimensionally to an almost absurd and cubist degree. Other panels leave lots of room to breathe, and are drawn in a more realistic, three dimensional style with fully rendered backgrounds.
I found myself needing to stop and recognize each artistic choice on a page, and consider it, before understanding what the artist was trying to say. This made for a much longer read than I anticipated. It also put me in a humble position. I came to the book expecting that I already knew, and discovered that I did not. I let the storyteller teach me.
I had noticed as I read that the thick black flowing gutters of each page flowed into the next, unbroken from page to page. I never did discern any larger illustration or narrative, until the final page. At the end of the story, the artist helpfully illustrates all the pages over a two page spread, revealing that the gutters of the book create their own much larger illustration when fit together. The characters the reader has come to know peek out from behind and around the lines of these giant traditional drawings, giving yet another unique perspective on the story's narrative and sequence. It is timeless and always, and all parts of it existed as a whole before the reader began the first panel.
My copy of Red came from the library, and was specially bound to protect the spine and dust cover. Therefore, I had never seen the book without its cover, nor the dust cover without the book. Upon reading the final pages, I peered under the jacket to find that its underside was printed with the book's full picture from the assembled pages. I am glad to have discovered it this way. This, too, served the piece as a whole.
The story is a simple one, adapted from Haida oral tradition, and follows the character of Red. The reader is reminded of many other ancient myths and epics as the story unfolds. The medium the artist has invented creates a dreamlike tone, appropriate to the retelling of an oral tradition. To examine the story in plot or character in this review would be inappropriate. In this case, the medium certainly is essential to the message, and all I have described to now is as important to the experience of the book as the story itself. I do not wish to remove the traditional story from the medium to examine it and thus dissect a piece that is so obviously part of a whole. The reader must make up her own mind.
My biggest criticism of the book is that for all its intentionality, sometimes the panel illustrations are so minimalist and expressive that they seem to contradict the careful focus of the work as a whole. The gutters that form the final image are crisp and perfect, and when the panel illustrations are of still images, they are often the same. However, sometimes in movement, or in paintings of landscape, the reader can see where the artist allowed paint to drip and splash, or can see the pencil marks underneath the transparent colour. This lack of polish may serve many styles of visual storytelling. Reaching the end of this book, though, I wished for something closer to perfection. This may be only my preference, but it is enough to draw me out of the experience. If it was an intentional choice by the artist, I wish there were more evidence that this was so. Furthermore, the printing of the book left something to be desired in the lack of vibrancy of the colour, and the depth and darkness of the black gutters. I could see by the underside of the dust jacket that the illustrations could be more impacting if given a bolder print. I would like to see this book on thicker paper, printed with a glossy ink that better captures the bold lines.
I recommend this book to readers who appreciate traditional storytelling, indigenous culture, sequential art, and thoughtful, interpretive reading.
January 20, 2015
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The art was spectacular; and I'd want to give it a 5 star review for the art alone. However the narrative was way too choppy and sub-par. It wasn't linear, which excited me as a challenge, but it was disjointed more than can be defended. Scenes and elements would be introduced all of a sudden only to vanish by the next page, leaving the reader fumbling to make connections when something similar would occur later in the book. Also, I personally don't like it when characters from a non-English speaking tribe presumably centuries ago use slang words such as "wanna", "yeah", "c'mon" etc. It's a minor issue in a comic as opposed to a novel but it's irksome nonetheless. The writing, in general, could have been way better. The dialogues were interesting and engaging up to the point that Jaada gets kidnapped. After that Red becomes uni-dimensional and so do everyone else. dat art tho
April 26, 2014
A little disjointed to read, but I think that speaks to how tormented Red is.
I loved the wordless panels. These illustrations are quite powerful on their own, and the larger concept behind the artwork (detailed at the end) is great.
I loved the wordless panels. These illustrations are quite powerful on their own, and the larger concept behind the artwork (detailed at the end) is great.
January 3, 2023
I kick-start my reading year with this stunning full-colour graphic novel! The hand-painted illustrations are a combination of Haida imagery and Japanese manga and they are absolutely beautiful!
Red tells the harrowing story of a leader who is blinded by his rage for revenge which eventually leads his community to war and destruction. The story was intense and heartbreaking although I struggled a bit with the story flow, which I think it's not unusual when reading graphic novel.
Regardless, I'm so glad I picked up this book!
Red tells the harrowing story of a leader who is blinded by his rage for revenge which eventually leads his community to war and destruction. The story was intense and heartbreaking although I struggled a bit with the story flow, which I think it's not unusual when reading graphic novel.
Regardless, I'm so glad I picked up this book!
June 10, 2010
Gorgeous art, intriguing tale and innovative melding of cultural/artistic styles.
August 1, 2010
I like Haida art a lot but I'm not much of a manga reader so the artistry was appreciated but I didn't love this book.
October 31, 2012
very cool! different and needs some thinking about but wow!
Read
February 8, 2013What a beautiful find on the shelves of the public library! I wish I could rip out the pages as suggested in the author's note to put all the pages together.
October 8, 2016
Haida manga is a very interesting art, I really liked the book for that but the story was really short and a little hard to follow...the 4 stars are mostly for the art.
July 7, 2020
This was a beautiful graphic novel that made me pause many times just to soak in the designs. I’ve never seen these kinds of designs before, which flow and curve and reinvent comic panelling. I love how the images can be moved around to create new stories, which I think is also the intention of the writer. The story begins with, “Once upon a time this was a true story …” It was true and is no longer true. Perhaps the fact that we can use the pages to create a new story is to also say that we can break the cycle of violence. That right now, you can change the world.
I also love the line, “Ever since we got scared, everyone else’s gotten scared of us.” It feels awfully relevant these days, especially in the context of the story.
There is something really tragic about Red because there is so much about him to empathize with. He suffered in a way no one else in his village has, but the problem was that he didn’t want restorative justice. And while he was not restorative in his actions, I’m not sure the ending was either. This story is kind of a parable or a morality tale, but I wish it gave a better description of what to do, rather than what not to do.
I also worry that blaming the traders at the end is also wrong. They warned Red about his sister and her feelings, and while I don’t want to say they are blameless, to focus on them is to ignore the pain which Red himself felt and needed to articulate.
Love the book, highly recommend.
I also love the line, “Ever since we got scared, everyone else’s gotten scared of us.” It feels awfully relevant these days, especially in the context of the story.
There is something really tragic about Red because there is so much about him to empathize with. He suffered in a way no one else in his village has, but the problem was that he didn’t want restorative justice. And while he was not restorative in his actions, I’m not sure the ending was either. This story is kind of a parable or a morality tale, but I wish it gave a better description of what to do, rather than what not to do.
I also worry that blaming the traders at the end is also wrong. They warned Red about his sister and her feelings, and while I don’t want to say they are blameless, to focus on them is to ignore the pain which Red himself felt and needed to articulate.
Love the book, highly recommend.
January 8, 2021
Tough to rate. Yahgulanaas is evidently very much an innovator in his blend of Haida art techniques and manga, and though I am far from sufficiently knowledgeable ab out modern art to comment intelligently on this, it very much looks to me as if he is making a self-conscious effort to reappropriate from figures such as Picasso the approaches to art they themselves appropriated from non-European cultures. However, I had a hard time following the actual story. At times, how one event followed from another was not clear to me, and at others, I had literally no idea what it was I was supposed to be seeing. There are what seems to me to be significant narrative lacunae. For example, the inciting event for the action is the carrying off of Red's sister by raiders, but when he re-encounters her years later she is now evidently happily married. How we got from one state to the other is never explicated. I suppose that one could argue that the narrative follows Red, and since it depends on the tragic error of him killing his sister's husband rather than her kidnapper, how she ended up married is less important than the judgement being called down on Red for his own violence. And of course kidnap victims can end up being assimilated by the group that took them, even Stockholmed into becoming emotionally invested in them, or the sister may somehow have gotten away from the kidnappers and ended up married to someone else. But, regardless, it never occurred to her to drop a message back home? Interesting enough visually, worth a look, but not a big winner, to my taste.
December 4, 2025
3.5* I think
As a story, this wasn’t the most interesting or easy to follow. But I read this for a comics class and got to read an essay about the tradition of Haida art and how Yahgulanaas uses and alters it, and that heightened the experience so much! It was really cool to learn about the formline/frameline, an aspect from Haida art, which in this is the thick black line that acts as “borders” to “panels” that also is representative of Haida values. It was just super interesting to learn about that aspect of the work and the culture it comes from. This book is a cut up mural, for gods sake! That’s cool, and is in and of itself interesting commentary that a piece of indigenous art needs to be cut apart to be dispersed and understood by western audiences. I’d recommend looking into the Haida art / manga background and culture if you’re interested. The essay I read was “Creating a Haida Manga” by Miriam Brown Spiers, not sure how easily it’s found online.
As a story, this wasn’t the most interesting or easy to follow. But I read this for a comics class and got to read an essay about the tradition of Haida art and how Yahgulanaas uses and alters it, and that heightened the experience so much! It was really cool to learn about the formline/frameline, an aspect from Haida art, which in this is the thick black line that acts as “borders” to “panels” that also is representative of Haida values. It was just super interesting to learn about that aspect of the work and the culture it comes from. This book is a cut up mural, for gods sake! That’s cool, and is in and of itself interesting commentary that a piece of indigenous art needs to be cut apart to be dispersed and understood by western audiences. I’d recommend looking into the Haida art / manga background and culture if you’re interested. The essay I read was “Creating a Haida Manga” by Miriam Brown Spiers, not sure how easily it’s found online.
Read
November 14, 2020This manga translates cultural art and story into something closer to a modern day comic. The color palette is amazing and my favorite thing about the art. To me, the story felt like it stopped as it was getting excellent and I would have liked a little more, but I think that it's likely on my end with me missing a lot of the depth. I hope to read more of this sort of thing so I can build my capacity and experience this from a more developed place.
I am not going to rate this one because I can tell I'm not qualified.
I am not going to rate this one because I can tell I'm not qualified.
January 5, 2021
Beautifully drawn and stylistically challenging. I'm not a Manga reader, so I feel like I went into this at a disadvantage. I found the story difficult to follow - but again, that may be my inexperience with both Haida and Manga storytelling. I will have to go back and spend more time with this work at some point......
August 20, 2017
Certainly a great piece of art, even if I cannot follow the symbols.
July 3, 2021
The artwork in this book is one entire piece of art. Instead of panels, Yahgulanaas uses a bold geometric design that creates a complete picture across the entire book, which the characters then interact with. I also loved the blending of Japanese manga with Haida oral storytelling. It's a beautiful book.
https://theconversation.com/haida-man...
https://theconversation.com/haida-man...
August 9, 2022
The art is amazingggggg
November 9, 2023
Beautifully drawn and interesting ideas, but at the end gets very confusing. I hope to be able to read one of this writers other works though.
October 30, 2024
School book.
January 8, 2020
Objectively, I can see that is is a cool mix of Haida art and manga. Honestly, I'm not much of a manga fan, so the appreciation of it was a bit lost on me. I found the narrative jumbled and a bit confusing, but I can absolutely see that this is innovative.
May 22, 2017
When speaking about Haida manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas explains that this new form he created is a response to monumental art – pieces so large and full of meaning that their scale can overwhelm their observer. He wanted to give the viewer a way in to a more intimate relationship with a monumental piece. Manga provided a convention to allow him to carve up his larger vision and storytelling painting into smaller panels, reproduced as single pages in a book. The reader can linger or flip through, reading at their own pace, appreciating the beautiful watercolours, and paying attention to all the details that contribute to the narrative.
But he doesn’t want you to stop there. In an afterword, he encourages you to tear the book apart, two copies actually, so that you can reassemble the monumental work, creating “a composite – one that will defy your ability to experience story as a simple progression of events.” Why not simply include a fold out at the back of the book with a larger version of the composite piece? Asking the reader to destroy the book to create something new further demonstrates Yahgulanaas’ whole-hearted commitment to the accessibility of art. The book itself is not a precious object. The act of communication is the point. Tear this thing apart and get to experience story in a whole new way, a way that will make you question how communication works and how stories can be told.
Yahgulanaas is often described as “playful,” but this goes far beyond play. Red is a radically humanistic approach to art, communication and storytelling. Not only has he demystified the object d’art itself, he has created a hybrid form, with roots in many traditions – a Haida story and aspects of traditional Haida art like ovoids, u-shapes and animal-humans mix with some Japanese stylistic influences like Kabuki face painting, and are realized in Chinese watercolour techniques. The composite is overlaid by thick-lined Haida totems that read as manga panel divisions in its deconstructed book form. This hybridization speaks to another of Yahgulanaas’ goals: to talk to both Natives and non-Natives alike and remind us that Indigenous cultures are not monuments or artifacts from the past – they are alive, breathing, relevant, and evolving.
The story of Red is based on a true story, one that Yaguhlanaas has the authority to tell because of his own family ties to it. He has chosen to share this story outside his own community. This decision would not have been made lightly. Red’s story illustrates that when it comes to justice and reconciliation, vengeance, xenophobia, and violence can only bring about tragedy for all involved. We need to open a dialogue and try to understand each other. With Red: A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is making the first move. How will we respond?
But he doesn’t want you to stop there. In an afterword, he encourages you to tear the book apart, two copies actually, so that you can reassemble the monumental work, creating “a composite – one that will defy your ability to experience story as a simple progression of events.” Why not simply include a fold out at the back of the book with a larger version of the composite piece? Asking the reader to destroy the book to create something new further demonstrates Yahgulanaas’ whole-hearted commitment to the accessibility of art. The book itself is not a precious object. The act of communication is the point. Tear this thing apart and get to experience story in a whole new way, a way that will make you question how communication works and how stories can be told.
Yahgulanaas is often described as “playful,” but this goes far beyond play. Red is a radically humanistic approach to art, communication and storytelling. Not only has he demystified the object d’art itself, he has created a hybrid form, with roots in many traditions – a Haida story and aspects of traditional Haida art like ovoids, u-shapes and animal-humans mix with some Japanese stylistic influences like Kabuki face painting, and are realized in Chinese watercolour techniques. The composite is overlaid by thick-lined Haida totems that read as manga panel divisions in its deconstructed book form. This hybridization speaks to another of Yahgulanaas’ goals: to talk to both Natives and non-Natives alike and remind us that Indigenous cultures are not monuments or artifacts from the past – they are alive, breathing, relevant, and evolving.
The story of Red is based on a true story, one that Yaguhlanaas has the authority to tell because of his own family ties to it. He has chosen to share this story outside his own community. This decision would not have been made lightly. Red’s story illustrates that when it comes to justice and reconciliation, vengeance, xenophobia, and violence can only bring about tragedy for all involved. We need to open a dialogue and try to understand each other. With Red: A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is making the first move. How will we respond?
July 12, 2017
Red is artistically really interesting - I love how the panels are shaped according to common forms of Haida art, and the fact that the end of the book includes a composite image showing how all the pages' panel structure is interrelated was a nice and fascinating touch. The story contained some humour and some pathos that felt fairly well communicated by the art, and I thought there were some very clever and striking uses of layout and design and visual metaphor to communicate what was happening.
There were also a few parts of the story where things became unclear to me. I'm not sure if that betrays my unfamiliarity with the storytelling traditions Yahgulanaas is invoking or is a comment on the art, but it did occasionally cause me to slow down in confusion; sometimes this was rewarded by understanding something more visually complex, but other times the complexity didn't seem to serve a purpose. I also felt like the pacing of the story was slightly rushed, though I can imagine that with the time and effort it takes to create all this art, the story structure needs to be a bit more malleable.
That said, this is a really interesting work, one well worth reading and one I'm glad I found. I think I'll look into more of Yahgulanaas' work!
There were also a few parts of the story where things became unclear to me. I'm not sure if that betrays my unfamiliarity with the storytelling traditions Yahgulanaas is invoking or is a comment on the art, but it did occasionally cause me to slow down in confusion; sometimes this was rewarded by understanding something more visually complex, but other times the complexity didn't seem to serve a purpose. I also felt like the pacing of the story was slightly rushed, though I can imagine that with the time and effort it takes to create all this art, the story structure needs to be a bit more malleable.
That said, this is a really interesting work, one well worth reading and one I'm glad I found. I think I'll look into more of Yahgulanaas' work!
April 22, 2017
While a lot of aspect of this story flew way over my head, I still found it to be a really exciting read - both on an artistic and narrative level.
A bit of a slower read physically, I constantly found myself having to "read the pictures" which I guess I can sometimes gloss over as I whip through graphic novels at the speed of light. While it did feel a bit arduous at times, I blame my inpatients and not Yahgulanaas. The art is beautiful, drawing from tradition but also infused with many personal elements as well. Using such expressive lines to break up the frames is not something I'm used to and really made the work feel energetic and unique.
I'm not only excited to read more of Yahgulanaas' art, but actually to return to this book again when I've gained a bit more patience and understanding.
---
Reading this book again I have come to appreciate much more this time around. This is not only due to the fact that thanks to light medication I am a much more patient person, but also because I have been reading a book about Yahgulanaas himself that has helped me better understand what he is trying to do with his work.
A bit of a slower read physically, I constantly found myself having to "read the pictures" which I guess I can sometimes gloss over as I whip through graphic novels at the speed of light. While it did feel a bit arduous at times, I blame my inpatients and not Yahgulanaas. The art is beautiful, drawing from tradition but also infused with many personal elements as well. Using such expressive lines to break up the frames is not something I'm used to and really made the work feel energetic and unique.
I'm not only excited to read more of Yahgulanaas' art, but actually to return to this book again when I've gained a bit more patience and understanding.
---
Reading this book again I have come to appreciate much more this time around. This is not only due to the fact that thanks to light medication I am a much more patient person, but also because I have been reading a book about Yahgulanaas himself that has helped me better understand what he is trying to do with his work.
February 2, 2015
Michael Nicoll Yahgulaanas (MNY) is the creator of a new style of graphic novel, Haida Manga. Haida Manga combines First Nations' art style and tales with the Japanese graphic novel form of manga. MNY uses his distinct style of art to bring Haida Gwaii tales to life. Haida art is very distinct and popular in Northwest art.
I read Red: A Haida Manga all in one sitting. As I admired the watercolour illustrations and the unconventional layout of the pages, I felt I was almost missing something in translation. Each page was such a beautiful work of art with minimal dialogue or narration. Because there wasn't a clear cut panel 1, panel 2, panel 3, panel 43 format, I had trouble following the story's details. I have read another story by MNY, The Flight of the Hummingbird, a parable for the environment. This had a more conventional layout and I feel that helped me grasp the morals of the story better.
Read my full review here: http://www.monniblog.com/2009/12/red-...
I read Red: A Haida Manga all in one sitting. As I admired the watercolour illustrations and the unconventional layout of the pages, I felt I was almost missing something in translation. Each page was such a beautiful work of art with minimal dialogue or narration. Because there wasn't a clear cut panel 1, panel 2, panel 3, panel 43 format, I had trouble following the story's details. I have read another story by MNY, The Flight of the Hummingbird, a parable for the environment. This had a more conventional layout and I feel that helped me grasp the morals of the story better.
Read my full review here: http://www.monniblog.com/2009/12/red-...
March 17, 2015
I really enjoyed this. It was a classic indigenous North American oral narrative told in graphic novel form with indigenous North American imagery.
The story itself wasn't new to me. It was reminiscent of Oedipus and the Trojan horse. But it still managed to touch me. Where this book really shone was in the art style and storytelling felt very fluid and dreamlike, which was captivating.
Tangentially related: is it just me, or do myths contain an unusually high number of female abduction narratives while completely glossing over the emotional impact of such situations? Yuck.
The story itself wasn't new to me. It was reminiscent of Oedipus and the Trojan horse. But it still managed to touch me. Where this book really shone was in the art style and storytelling felt very fluid and dreamlike, which was captivating.
Tangentially related: is it just me, or do myths contain an unusually high number of female abduction narratives while completely glossing over the emotional impact of such situations? Yuck.
July 26, 2016
I think it might be because there is a deeper meaning to this and I am completely missing it, but I don't understand what this story is at all. I read what it was supposed to about from the inner flap, but I just don't seem to be getting that from this story.
Maybe when I actually start school and we do this book everything will make sense, but for right now…it's a no for me.
I also think the art style is some of the weirdest I have ever seen. I love graphic novels, but this just seemed cheap. This is not a drawing style that I like at all. All the characters looked really creepy
Maybe when I actually start school and we do this book everything will make sense, but for right now…it's a no for me.
I also think the art style is some of the weirdest I have ever seen. I love graphic novels, but this just seemed cheap. This is not a drawing style that I like at all. All the characters looked really creepy
August 2, 2010
this is definitely an amazing conceptual work. but as a graphic novel, it only sort of works. i am all for innovative panels, but his use of panels often made the narrative confusing. although, the end reveal of the structure makes this clear. i found myself loving and hating the art. overall, i just didn't think the folktale was engaging. there are other Haida legends i would love to see illustrated. lastly, calling it manga is kind of a stretch.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews