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Greendale
Legendary singer-songwriter, musician and activist Neil Young brings one of his most personal albums, GREENDALE, to comics. Overseeing the work of acclaimed writer Joshua Dysart (UNKNOWN SOLDIER) and fan-favorite artist Cliff Chiang (HUMAN TARGET), they compose a graphic novel that explores a whole new dimension to the album that Rolling Stone voted as one of the best of its year.
In the Fall of 2003, as the nation gallops into war, a politically active teenage girl named Sun lives, loves and dreams in a small California town named Greendale.
Sun's always been different. There's been talk that the women in her family have all had a preternatural communion with nature. And when a Stranger comes to town – a character whose presence causes Greendale to, well, go to hell – she'll find herself on a journey both mystical and mythical. To face the Stranger, she'll unearth the secrets of her family in a political coming-of-age story infused with its own special magic.
In the Fall of 2003, as the nation gallops into war, a politically active teenage girl named Sun lives, loves and dreams in a small California town named Greendale.
Sun's always been different. There's been talk that the women in her family have all had a preternatural communion with nature. And when a Stranger comes to town – a character whose presence causes Greendale to, well, go to hell – she'll find herself on a journey both mystical and mythical. To face the Stranger, she'll unearth the secrets of her family in a political coming-of-age story infused with its own special magic.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 2010
1 person is currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Dysart
390 books96 followersI write comic books, graphic novels and novels. I'm a three time Eisner nominee, two time Glyph award winner, New York Times bestseller, a recipient of The Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year award, and have been in competition twice at Angoulême.
I've worked on Hellboy, Swamp Thing, & Conan the Barbarian; I co-wrote a graphic novel with Neil Young; I helped restart Valiant Entertainment; and I've done on-the-ground research in Uganda (2007), Iraq (2014), & South Sudan (2016), writting graphic novels about war and famine in those regions.
Goodnight Paradise came out in 2018 with long time co-creator Alberto Ponticelli and is a murder mystery set in the houseless population of Venice Beach, Ca.
My first novel (novella - it's only 100 pages) has dropped. It combines my love of slasher horror, Agatha Christie fair-play mysteries, construction sites, and bugs. It's called BROOD X. Buy it wherever trash genre books are sold!
I've worked on Hellboy, Swamp Thing, & Conan the Barbarian; I co-wrote a graphic novel with Neil Young; I helped restart Valiant Entertainment; and I've done on-the-ground research in Uganda (2007), Iraq (2014), & South Sudan (2016), writting graphic novels about war and famine in those regions.
Goodnight Paradise came out in 2018 with long time co-creator Alberto Ponticelli and is a murder mystery set in the houseless population of Venice Beach, Ca.
My first novel (novella - it's only 100 pages) has dropped. It combines my love of slasher horror, Agatha Christie fair-play mysteries, construction sites, and bugs. It's called BROOD X. Buy it wherever trash genre books are sold!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
September 19, 2022
Very pretty pictures couldn't save this meandering, plotless "story" that can best be summed up with "we've fucked up the planet, abandon your family and go do something about it."
November 19, 2016
Love Cliff Chiang his art is amazing but the story was just too bland for me.
July 30, 2014
Unfocused, does not really stand alone from the album
I'd never heard of Neil Young's Greendale album before I picked up this graphic novel, but I decided the premise was interesting enough that I gave it a chance.
Greendale might be your cup of tea if you like your reading material to touch upon tons of ideas but develop none of them. This book is a coming-of-age, anti-war, anti-importing-oil, anti-drilling-for-more-American-oil-so-we-don't-have-to-import-it, anti-big-electricity, anti-media, super-hero book in which our heroine uses some of her powers to control people's minds (?) and change their opinions about all of these topics by speaking a bunch of platitudes at the end of the book while the devil character (who wanders in and out of the book and is making deals with the Bush 43 Administration and big energy on his cell phone) is beaten. I'm not really if she uses her super powers to control peoples minds, but they do point out that herd animals follow her naturally (sheep, caribou, cattle) and the only way her sophomoric rantings at the end of the book (chock full of meaningless phrases like "We are breathing in new ideas, the collective progressive tendency of the nation is becoming stronger!") would not have had an effect on anyone unless she backed them up with her power to control herds of animals.
None of these themes is explored in very much depth. I suppose the book is really about the women in the Green family of Greendale, California. Nature-based superpowers are inherited by the women in the Green family but the book doesn't look into (in any detail) what these women have done with those powers. The powers are clearly nature-based but are they guardians of nature? Do they use their powers to thwart development, aid it or are they neutral towards it? Why does the boyfriend turn into some sort of goat-thing? Why do some of the women become deformed while others look normal?
There were so many interesting stories that could have been told here. Instead, they have decided to tell them all at once and in so doing, they have told none of them at all.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
I'd never heard of Neil Young's Greendale album before I picked up this graphic novel, but I decided the premise was interesting enough that I gave it a chance.
Greendale might be your cup of tea if you like your reading material to touch upon tons of ideas but develop none of them. This book is a coming-of-age, anti-war, anti-importing-oil, anti-drilling-for-more-American-oil-so-we-don't-have-to-import-it, anti-big-electricity, anti-media, super-hero book in which our heroine uses some of her powers to control people's minds (?) and change their opinions about all of these topics by speaking a bunch of platitudes at the end of the book while the devil character (who wanders in and out of the book and is making deals with the Bush 43 Administration and big energy on his cell phone) is beaten. I'm not really if she uses her super powers to control peoples minds, but they do point out that herd animals follow her naturally (sheep, caribou, cattle) and the only way her sophomoric rantings at the end of the book (chock full of meaningless phrases like "We are breathing in new ideas, the collective progressive tendency of the nation is becoming stronger!") would not have had an effect on anyone unless she backed them up with her power to control herds of animals.
None of these themes is explored in very much depth. I suppose the book is really about the women in the Green family of Greendale, California. Nature-based superpowers are inherited by the women in the Green family but the book doesn't look into (in any detail) what these women have done with those powers. The powers are clearly nature-based but are they guardians of nature? Do they use their powers to thwart development, aid it or are they neutral towards it? Why does the boyfriend turn into some sort of goat-thing? Why do some of the women become deformed while others look normal?
There were so many interesting stories that could have been told here. Instead, they have decided to tell them all at once and in so doing, they have told none of them at all.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
August 13, 2017
Really disappointed by this one. No substance or thought.
June 13, 2019
Es hat mir gefallen, vor allem der Zeichenstil und die Figuren. Aber diese Geschichte war so unheimlich vollgepackt, daraus hätte man eine Reihe machen können und das hätte dem Stoff auch gut getan.
April 22, 2012
Cliff Chiang's stunning artwork could probably command at least 4 stars all on its own. The story feels disjointed, though. Greendale is the story of Sun Green, a Northern California high school girl who comes from a family of earth goddesses (for lack of a better term). The women in her family seem to have some bizarre connection to the planet, and they are all stalked by Randall Flagg some weird devil guy who controls events using his harmonica. Come to think of it, he does look a little like Neil Young.
Sun has visions and dreams, experiences over the top tragedy in a very short amount of time, and eventually starts a nationwide movement against the Iraq War and drilling in Alaska. The hippy themes, while not offensive to me, do come off a very thick paintbrush. You'll even see a stack of books about protesting and the 1960's; at least twice these books get a panel to themselves.
It's not always easy to know what's happening, despite Chiang's clear pencils. It's a beautiful book. The art is colored in lovely pastel shades, and the two-tone hardcover was designed with real taste. (I wish more Vertigo books had this kind of cover.) The story has some good messages about fighting for what you believe in and being close to your family.
But it's not entirely successful as a graphic novel. Maybe on a second reading. . .
Sun has visions and dreams, experiences over the top tragedy in a very short amount of time, and eventually starts a nationwide movement against the Iraq War and drilling in Alaska. The hippy themes, while not offensive to me, do come off a very thick paintbrush. You'll even see a stack of books about protesting and the 1960's; at least twice these books get a panel to themselves.
It's not always easy to know what's happening, despite Chiang's clear pencils. It's a beautiful book. The art is colored in lovely pastel shades, and the two-tone hardcover was designed with real taste. (I wish more Vertigo books had this kind of cover.) The story has some good messages about fighting for what you believe in and being close to your family.
But it's not entirely successful as a graphic novel. Maybe on a second reading. . .
March 16, 2011
Take a 2003 protest album and turn it into a graphic novel: that's basically what the creators of this book were tasked to do.
Personally, I'm not an ardent Neil Young fan. I enjoy quite a few of his songs, but I only ever bought one of his albums and that was a greatest hits album back in the 90s. So, I really had no preconceptions walking into Neil Young's Greendale.
Whatever the album is about, the graphic novel is about an eighteen-year-old girl named Sun Green. She comes from a long line of Green women with hippie-ish names, including Sea and Sky. She's growing up in a small California town called Greendale during the onset of the Iraq War in 2003. She's having nightmares about dead animals and a foreboding stranger, all while various members of her family endure their own turmoil, including a grandfather drifting deeper into senility and a disenfranchised cousin battling depression. It's when she sees the stranger about town when she's awake that she realizes something is really wrong.
The story of Sun's coming of age is fun, especially with the infused fantasy elements thrown in, including the stranger not so coincidentally bears a resemblance to a younger Neil Young. She's incredibly flighty in spots through the first half of the book, like when she hooks up with a young activist vanning his way to Alaska to protest oil drilling. The fun is balanced by some effective tension among a very deeply developed family as a supporting cast. In fact, the family is so rich with back story that it borders on soap opera--the age old love triangle between her grandparents and great uncle ranks high.
Where the story seems to reenter the mundane is towards the end, however, as the promise of epiphany and confrontation falls a little flat. At least with a jade sot like me. The very on-the-nose recriminations of the Bush Administration throughout the book cannot be ignored, but the book is based on a protest album. I just thought the heavy-handedness and almost preachy quality of the book detracted from what was an otherwise engaging story.
If you're an out-and-out liberal, a fan of Neil Young, and/or a fan of YA fantasy, this is a perfect graphic novel to dive into. If you're the complete opposite of any of those, then you'll likely have a soured reading experience. Me? I liked it. Really liked it, to be honest, despite my weariness with not just the war, but the anti-war sentiment.
Personally, I'm not an ardent Neil Young fan. I enjoy quite a few of his songs, but I only ever bought one of his albums and that was a greatest hits album back in the 90s. So, I really had no preconceptions walking into Neil Young's Greendale.
Whatever the album is about, the graphic novel is about an eighteen-year-old girl named Sun Green. She comes from a long line of Green women with hippie-ish names, including Sea and Sky. She's growing up in a small California town called Greendale during the onset of the Iraq War in 2003. She's having nightmares about dead animals and a foreboding stranger, all while various members of her family endure their own turmoil, including a grandfather drifting deeper into senility and a disenfranchised cousin battling depression. It's when she sees the stranger about town when she's awake that she realizes something is really wrong.
The story of Sun's coming of age is fun, especially with the infused fantasy elements thrown in, including the stranger not so coincidentally bears a resemblance to a younger Neil Young. She's incredibly flighty in spots through the first half of the book, like when she hooks up with a young activist vanning his way to Alaska to protest oil drilling. The fun is balanced by some effective tension among a very deeply developed family as a supporting cast. In fact, the family is so rich with back story that it borders on soap opera--the age old love triangle between her grandparents and great uncle ranks high.
Where the story seems to reenter the mundane is towards the end, however, as the promise of epiphany and confrontation falls a little flat. At least with a jade sot like me. The very on-the-nose recriminations of the Bush Administration throughout the book cannot be ignored, but the book is based on a protest album. I just thought the heavy-handedness and almost preachy quality of the book detracted from what was an otherwise engaging story.
If you're an out-and-out liberal, a fan of Neil Young, and/or a fan of YA fantasy, this is a perfect graphic novel to dive into. If you're the complete opposite of any of those, then you'll likely have a soured reading experience. Me? I liked it. Really liked it, to be honest, despite my weariness with not just the war, but the anti-war sentiment.
August 4, 2015
This suffered from extremely klunky writing. There were a lot of interesting ideas like a genetic, matrilineal chain of earth magician women, but hippie rambling and anti-Bush foot - stomping made it all ring way too hollow. The nostalgia for the 60s was painful in the extreme, the California eco-fantasy was irritating to slog through, and the Iraq war/Enron anger/oil economy protest was too thin to engage. I don't know if it was Niel Young's writing that was so awful or the adaptor of his album that this came from, but the parts that worked couldn't transcend all the parts that didn't.
The fantasy of the politics of protest and activist life was the most weak part of the book (for me), really failing to engage with the massive failure of popular resistance to stop the Bush wars and wallowing in a thinly imagined sixties vision of how to fight power. After the success of the Cheneys and Rumsfelds in crushing world protest, you need a better vision (even in a magickal eco-fantasy) than a girl with a megaphone chaining herself to a corporation's statue as a catalyst for national awakening.
The art was pretty solid and really beautifully colored with great renditions of characters, but the thin vision of the writing dragged it down badly.
The fantasy of the politics of protest and activist life was the most weak part of the book (for me), really failing to engage with the massive failure of popular resistance to stop the Bush wars and wallowing in a thinly imagined sixties vision of how to fight power. After the success of the Cheneys and Rumsfelds in crushing world protest, you need a better vision (even in a magickal eco-fantasy) than a girl with a megaphone chaining herself to a corporation's statue as a catalyst for national awakening.
The art was pretty solid and really beautifully colored with great renditions of characters, but the thin vision of the writing dragged it down badly.
January 19, 2016
I did not enjoy this graphic novel at all. What could have been a good story (although a bit preachy) was hampered by too much reliance on graphics instead (not in addition) to words. I frequently felt like I was being asked to solve some sort of visual puzzle to figure out what was going on. I am quite sure I missed many parts of the story due to this. If I want to solve puzzles I will pick up one, I don't want to have to guess at what the author is trying to say.
May 1, 2015
What a fascinating companion piece to Neil Young's album (which I listened to for the first time while I read this).
It's an interesting tale of environmentalism and activism and spirituality. With an engaging story and great art.
Recommended.
It's an interesting tale of environmentalism and activism and spirituality. With an engaging story and great art.
Recommended.
September 7, 2010
The artwork is gorgeous, but the story remains just as dippy (and continues to not make a lick of sense) as its aural and cinematic counterparts. Go figure.
February 8, 2017
Why do supremely talented artists like Cliff Chiang so frequently attach themselves to other people's vanity projects like this utterly idiotic book? Turning a concept album into a graphic novel is a terrible idea, and unsurprisingly ends up as a bunch of strange, misshapen pieces disjointedly jammed together.
Girls in a family have weird nature powers for some reason. A demon (or whoever the antagonist was supposed to be, it's never remotely explained) is lurking around being sinister. Iraq War the Sequel is starting up. Something about drilling in Alaska. Something about dreams. Something about a power company. Something about family conflict. Something about caribou. Something about drugs. Something about whales. Something about a guy drinking poisoned water, turning into a deer creature, and breaking his neck.
The problem with all those bits is that they never coalesce in a way that makes sense. Neither the protagonist or antagonist have an identifiable goal and whatever conflict is supposed to be occurring between them is so esoteric that it's not clear what the stakes are, what any given action either one takes accomplishes, or how everything actually resolves itself. There's a lot of trying-to-be-spooky material, but if there's an actual threat it's never specified. None of the sudden weird events or randomly injected character moments lead anywhere, just serving as filler disconnected from the half-baked beats that try to pass for a plot. It's all totally vacuous, a hippie's fever dream without a center, theme, or moral.
Girls in a family have weird nature powers for some reason. A demon (or whoever the antagonist was supposed to be, it's never remotely explained) is lurking around being sinister. Iraq War the Sequel is starting up. Something about drilling in Alaska. Something about dreams. Something about a power company. Something about family conflict. Something about caribou. Something about drugs. Something about whales. Something about a guy drinking poisoned water, turning into a deer creature, and breaking his neck.
The problem with all those bits is that they never coalesce in a way that makes sense. Neither the protagonist or antagonist have an identifiable goal and whatever conflict is supposed to be occurring between them is so esoteric that it's not clear what the stakes are, what any given action either one takes accomplishes, or how everything actually resolves itself. There's a lot of trying-to-be-spooky material, but if there's an actual threat it's never specified. None of the sudden weird events or randomly injected character moments lead anywhere, just serving as filler disconnected from the half-baked beats that try to pass for a plot. It's all totally vacuous, a hippie's fever dream without a center, theme, or moral.
June 29, 2010
Broad in scope and ambitious in intent, 'Greendale' however falls short in its placement and introduction of phenomena. Events, while fascinating, read as arbitrary or as incomplete thoughts. In the intro, Neil Young writes "I made it up and I don't know what the hell is going on, so don't feel bad if you feel a little out with this."
Given the superb quality of the prose and the art, I do feel bad for feeling a bit 'out of it' with this book. It felt like it should have been 100 pages longer, but what we get is a sufficiently satisfying read. There's a solid, vast familial story still waiting to be uncovered under the foliage of 'Greendale,' and perhaps I need to listen to the album and see the film to find it. I was hoping the book alone would be sufficient.
Definitely a library read, but buy it if you are a fan of Cliff Chiang's gorgeous artwork. Kudos to Vertigo for the stunningly gorgeous design of the hardcover edition.
Given the superb quality of the prose and the art, I do feel bad for feeling a bit 'out of it' with this book. It felt like it should have been 100 pages longer, but what we get is a sufficiently satisfying read. There's a solid, vast familial story still waiting to be uncovered under the foliage of 'Greendale,' and perhaps I need to listen to the album and see the film to find it. I was hoping the book alone would be sufficient.
Definitely a library read, but buy it if you are a fan of Cliff Chiang's gorgeous artwork. Kudos to Vertigo for the stunningly gorgeous design of the hardcover edition.
February 20, 2016
This is a puzzling and disappointing piece of work. While the concept is intriguing, and there's no doubt that the artwork is gorgeous, however, the story is two-dimensional at best, and struggles to find its footing. Given that this was based on a concept album by Neil Young, there was always the chance that there was bound to some pieces of puzzle lost in translation - especially given the less then stellar introduction by the very man himself, who says hesitatingly "I mean I made it up and I don't know what the hell is goin' on."
The story strives to be profound, but there are too many loose ends and one can't help but wonder if Joshua Dysart is trying to emulate the tone of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, what with all the abstract concepts that this graphic novel tries to tackle. The beautiful artwork on its own merits a read, but the weak plot and the baffling storyline means that you should save your money and borrow this one from the library.
The story strives to be profound, but there are too many loose ends and one can't help but wonder if Joshua Dysart is trying to emulate the tone of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, what with all the abstract concepts that this graphic novel tries to tackle. The beautiful artwork on its own merits a read, but the weak plot and the baffling storyline means that you should save your money and borrow this one from the library.
August 3, 2010
I picked this up because the first few pages caught my attention. I liked the story and the artwork ... but I wasn't aware that this was a "thing." A movie, an album, a movement of sorts. And maybe that's where I got lost. It wasn't until the last quarter of the book that I started to feel like I was missing something. Something I never found.
Maybe it's because I'm not a Neil Young fan. But I am a huge tree-hugger, so you'd think I would have been able to pick up what they were puttin' down. Oh, well. Live and learn.
Maybe it's because I'm not a Neil Young fan. But I am a huge tree-hugger, so you'd think I would have been able to pick up what they were puttin' down. Oh, well. Live and learn.
August 21, 2010
What a bunch of happy hippie horseshit, complete with a dizzying array of supporting characters I don't give a wet fart about. Fuck Bush all you want, man, but leave me out of your cheesy eco-friendly back-to-the-roots-of-white-people wet dream. I've checked the movie out of the library numerous times but never had the stomach to finish the first scene. Probably won't even check it out now after reading this political-propaganda/cutesy-consumerist cardboard crap.
July 21, 2010
Superb!
Sun Green: "Can I hug you, great-grandma?"
Mahalia Green: "If it'll get you to shut the hell up."
ha hah ha! I loved this book, extremely well written and flawlessly illustrated. Encourages environmental and social responsibility without being too preachy. Both fantastic and realistic, the story is at times mythic all while remaining down to earth.
Superb!
Sun Green: "Can I hug you, great-grandma?"
Mahalia Green: "If it'll get you to shut the hell up."
ha hah ha! I loved this book, extremely well written and flawlessly illustrated. Encourages environmental and social responsibility without being too preachy. Both fantastic and realistic, the story is at times mythic all while remaining down to earth.
Superb!
August 28, 2010
Maybe it’s because I haven’t experienced the other components of the “Greendale experience,” but this graphic novel seemed simplistic and under-developed to me. Although the artwork and the prose was beautiful, the plot was predictable and self-righteous. I was hoping for an insightful read, which I disappointedly did not get.
November 12, 2011
Nice art, boring story. As something of a radical leftist you'd think I'd be all over this, but nope. Flat/cliche characters, totally predictable arcs, awkward pacing. I did enjoy the touches of magical realism, and of course I liked the dream sequences because yay, cervidae! Oh well. At least it's a fast read.
July 20, 2020
I felt like this graphic novel was everywhere and nowhere. The main character speaks loudly of political and environmental activism and human rights for all, but the level of diversity and inclusion in the book is extremely low.
May 19, 2010
Evaluation based on advanced reader’s copy
November 21, 2010
You're better off reading Wildwood by Charles de Lint or anything by Sheri S Tepper.
October 10, 2014
Strange mix of anti war activism and supernatural behind the scenes stuff. Not very interesting,and kind of blah.
December 22, 2015
Bought this for the Chiang art many years ago and finally got around to reading it. Lovely storytelling but the story is nothing special.
April 16, 2018
Loved the artwork.... the story not so much.
February 24, 2020
The art was breath-taking. I really wanted to like the storyline but it just seemed so disjointed.
March 9, 2021
There are some good concepts here, but the writing is clumsy and uninspired, and we are left with questions at the end.
January 29, 2020
I don't know how I feel about this comic book, not exactly. On the one hand, it has beautiful, effortless artwork and its whole tone is reminiscent of a Verbena Chronicle from Mage the Ascension, with a nod and a wink to Swamp Thing.
On the other hand, it plants all those seeds of mystery and delivers very unsatisfactorily, the Big Bad is (sort of) defeated by the power of ecologically minded youth and believing in one's self and the thing is generally all over the place, waxing symbolic.
Then, there is the protagonist, Sun Green, who is not very likable. She busts the balls of her war veteran cousin, who is clearly suffering from PTSD, pushes her vegan agenda like a parrot and all the while she has these sort of mystical powers relating to the natural world, but are in fact portrayed as rather underwhelming.
In short, it's an ecological tale that could be used as inspiration for a World of Darkness game, but nothing terribly notable, unless you are a VERY BIG FAN of Neil Young. Still, had fun with it for the most part, especially the secondary characters, like the foul-mouthed Shaman, Mahalia Cross.
On the other hand, it plants all those seeds of mystery and delivers very unsatisfactorily, the Big Bad is (sort of) defeated by the power of ecologically minded youth and believing in one's self and the thing is generally all over the place, waxing symbolic.
Then, there is the protagonist, Sun Green, who is not very likable. She busts the balls of her war veteran cousin, who is clearly suffering from PTSD, pushes her vegan agenda like a parrot and all the while she has these sort of mystical powers relating to the natural world, but are in fact portrayed as rather underwhelming.
In short, it's an ecological tale that could be used as inspiration for a World of Darkness game, but nothing terribly notable, unless you are a VERY BIG FAN of Neil Young. Still, had fun with it for the most part, especially the secondary characters, like the foul-mouthed Shaman, Mahalia Cross.
August 19, 2023
This likely would not appeal to someone unfamiliar with the Neil Young album, but as someone who listened to Greendale a lot as kid, I found myself fascinated and impressed by this adaptation (so, yeah, clearly grading on a curve here). Dysart and Chiang manage to wrangle the impressionistic--or, less charitably, unfocused--source material into a generally coherent narrative about a budding activist finding her voice. Making Sun Green the unambiguous protagonist does much of the heavy lifting, but the team also deserves credit for how they incorporate the Green family lore from supplementary materials, using it to provide context for Sun's personal journey.
Still, much like the original album, the narrative as written is the weakest part of the experience. In the same way that Neil Young and Crazy Horse's performances carry the on-edge melancholy of "Grandpa's Interview" and the hopeful anger of "Sun Green" far better than the lyrics, Chiang's artwork sells the fluctuating moods of the story much more than the dialogue or narration. Then again, why should that be considered a major problem in either case? The artists know which medium they're working in, after all.
Still, much like the original album, the narrative as written is the weakest part of the experience. In the same way that Neil Young and Crazy Horse's performances carry the on-edge melancholy of "Grandpa's Interview" and the hopeful anger of "Sun Green" far better than the lyrics, Chiang's artwork sells the fluctuating moods of the story much more than the dialogue or narration. Then again, why should that be considered a major problem in either case? The artists know which medium they're working in, after all.
May 9, 2017
To be honest, I am not a Neil Young fan, which is important for me to say because I had no contextual awareness, no clue as to what inspired this graphic novel and who he is.
With that in mind, this is the story of a young girl's coming of age and coming into her own awareness of how each of us can and should make a difference. At some point I feel like this novel is politically charged. I did enjoy the touches of magical realism. It did make me a little more interested in checking out Neil Young's music.
So much cool stuff, sadly nothing got quite the depth I would have liked.
Oh well. It's a fast read.
Story – 2.5/5
Art – 3/5
*not recommended at all *
With that in mind, this is the story of a young girl's coming of age and coming into her own awareness of how each of us can and should make a difference. At some point I feel like this novel is politically charged. I did enjoy the touches of magical realism. It did make me a little more interested in checking out Neil Young's music.
So much cool stuff, sadly nothing got quite the depth I would have liked.
Oh well. It's a fast read.
Story – 2.5/5
Art – 3/5
*not recommended at all *
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