Word: shane
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...devout Christian hinterlands of Wisconsin, became the first such work to gain both critical and popular success. This month will see the arrival of two more very strong books based on the authors' childhood. Harvey Pekar's The Quitter, comes from a veteran comix-maker, while, Shane White's North Country marks the author's debut. Though their early circumstances could not have been more different, the authors' childhoods share some remarkable similarities...
Told from two generations later and a world apart, Shane White's North Country (NBM; 96 pages; $14) seems superficially completely different from The Quitter. Where Pekar explores the life of a Jewish immigrant's son in post-WWII urban America, White's experience is that of an nth-generation non-denominational Christian growing up as the child of Vietnam-era parents in the farmland of upstate New York. In spite of this, both books share themes of violence, the legacy of parental neglect, and the power of personal expression to move people beyond their crushing circumstances. For a first...
...trigger flashbacks. These mostly center on the terror of living with an alcoholic, abusive father and a beaten mother. White masterfully evokes the milieu of the early 70s and hardscrabble folks that got married too young and gave up too much too soon. Fights would get bad enough that Shane spends stretches at a time with his grandmother, who takes him with her to the bar where she works. While she flirts with customers, making him "feel weird," Shane drinks "flat cokes" and eats "smoke-flavored pretzels." Such details become a hallmark of North Country, bringing scenes alive...
...Shane White faces a brutal upbringing in 'North Country...
...self-confidence to switch from a sad scene of failed escape rendered in the old-fashioned color dots of past comics, to a harrowing red-hued sequence of a kiddy party interrupted by a berserk relative who starts a shoot-out through the window. Seemingly out of nowhere, Shane White has arrived with a grossly huge talent for drawing and a keen knowledge about how to use the form of comics to best editorial advantage...