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Tamaki, Mariko, and Steve Rolston - Emiko Superstar
Emiko is an ordinary girl going through an ordinary summer, complete with baby-sitting job, until one day, a chance encounter at the mall leads her to performance artists at The Factory. Eventually, Emi becomes one of the performance artists.
I feel this comic falls into the genre of "ordinary person discovers avant garde stuff and it changes her life, even though the avant garde crowd eventually falls apart." It may be a cousin to the genre of "ordinary guy meets artsy and free girl, and horizons are expanded, though the artsy and free girl is not meant for this world," albeit with a heroine instead of a hero. I am, as you may be able to tell, not a fan of either of these genres. I dislike the portrayal of the radical or avant garde as only able to illuminate "ordinary" people's lives and to not be self-sustaining. I'm also tired of the idea that artsy is good, but only in limited amounts.
On the plus side, I loved having a multiracial heroine in a comic not about her multiracialness. I also liked that the art gives the women in the comic different body shapes.
There's a side plot about a suburban housewife wanting to escape that I wanted to like, but it felt too rote, much like most of the comic for me. Well-intentioned, but ultimately not interesting.
I feel this comic falls into the genre of "ordinary person discovers avant garde stuff and it changes her life, even though the avant garde crowd eventually falls apart." It may be a cousin to the genre of "ordinary guy meets artsy and free girl, and horizons are expanded, though the artsy and free girl is not meant for this world," albeit with a heroine instead of a hero. I am, as you may be able to tell, not a fan of either of these genres. I dislike the portrayal of the radical or avant garde as only able to illuminate "ordinary" people's lives and to not be self-sustaining. I'm also tired of the idea that artsy is good, but only in limited amounts.
On the plus side, I loved having a multiracial heroine in a comic not about her multiracialness. I also liked that the art gives the women in the comic different body shapes.
There's a side plot about a suburban housewife wanting to escape that I wanted to like, but it felt too rote, much like most of the comic for me. Well-intentioned, but ultimately not interesting.
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(Anonymous) 2009-05-01 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)--minnow
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I think much of my blah-ness was due to not liking that whole artsy trope.
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"I dislike the portrayal of the radical or avant garde as only able to illuminate "ordinary" people's lives and to not be self-sustaining. I'm also tired of the idea that artsy is good, but only in limited amounts." - yes, dead on.
tlönista
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I did like Derek Kirk Kim's Minx piece Good as Lily, but I think that is because although it is fairly standard YA coming of age, I like that genre much better than the indie comic introspection in Same Difference and Other Stories.