≡ PDF Pride of Baghdad Brian K Vaughan Niko Henrichon Todd Klein 9781401203146 Books

Pride of Baghdad Brian K Vaughan Niko Henrichon Todd Klein 9781401203146 Books

Download As PDF : Pride of Baghdad Brian K Vaughan Niko Henrichon Todd Klein 9781401203146 Books

Pride of Baghdad Brian K Vaughan Niko Henrichon Todd Klein 9781401203146 Books

An incredibly clever conceit and some truly beautiful art come together to form what is often heralded as one of the best (and most important) graphic novels of the last decade. It's even inspired by real events! And we all know that works inspired by real events are more meaningful, right? So it could be that I came in to this book with impossibly high expectations, but nonetheless, I came away feeling slightly disappointed.

First, what works: as I said, it's a very clever idea and by and large it works. 'Pride of Baghdad' functions as something of a modern allegory about war and is largely successful at not coming across like a polemic. It's hamfisted at times (more on that later), but rarely distractingly so. I've read some reviews that criticize BKV's dialogue, which I thought was just fine and totally suited to the story. One reviewer in particular called 'Pride' out for making its characters too human, which made the story unbelievable or too cartoonish. I feel you couldn't miss the point by a wider margin. This *is* a cartoon, no different in style than, say, 'The Lion King.' Of course, substantively the two works couldn't be more dissimilar, and 'Pride' mostly succeeds at living up to its conceit.

What really floored me about 'Pride,' however, was the art, which was masterfully rendered, from the inking style to the subdued (but incredibly visually compelling) colors. I was impressed by the artist's take on the animals, and how well he was able to imbue them with intelligence and humanity, which went a long way toward making this book work. Even more impressive, however, was the depiction of Baghdad itself. The city really came to life, and became as much a compelling character as our four protaganists. Honestly, I would say this book is worth the cover price for the artwork alone, which is why it's getting four stars rather than three.

Where the book doesn't quite work is its ending. Now, I fully understand that the way things go down is meant to represent the senselessness of war and the thoughtlessness of its perpetrators, and for that to work, what happens *should* be sudden and disorienting. Here, however, it simply doesn't quite work. Such endings can be sudden and disorienting and feel like a sock in the gut while still feeling emotionally satisfying. You can ever trick or shock the reader as long as it feels earned. Unfortunately, that's not the case here, and the reader is left feeling sort of jerked around. I'm pretty much always down on works that don't reward the audience (in some way--it doesn't have to be via a happy ending) for their emotional investment. In the worst cases, if there is no reward, you just feel sort of used, the butt of a particularly mean practical joke. You feel like the author wasn't engaging in good faith and doesn't respect your intelligence. I'm not going to say that 'Pride' is quite so demeaning or deceitful as all that, but the ending doesn't feel earned, and there is no emotional payoff. It's also where the book is the most heavy handed, where it comes closest to bludgeoning the reader with its perspective on war and humanity.

More thorough characterization would have gone a long way toward making 'Pride' more successful. I wish that our protagonists had been given a bit more room to breathe, so that when they finally meet their untimely demise, it hits us like it should. There's also the unfortunate problem of using rape as an easy substitute for back story, which the media in general and comics in particular seem to do a rather lot. (This is a topic I hope to explore further in the near future.) I also wish that BKV had given just a fraction of humanity and character to the faceless soldiers at the end, since doing so would have complicated things in a meaningful way--if we relate to the villains, if we see them as human, it is harder to dismiss them. If we see the villains as aspects of ourselves, we are forced to engage with them. By making the US soldiers literally faceless, 'Pride' makes such moral gray area impossible.


Tags : Pride of Baghdad [Brian K. Vaughan, Niko Henrichon, Todd Klein] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Inspired by true events, a graphic novel examines life on the streets of war-torn Iraq, raising questions about the meaning of liberation through the experiences of four lions who escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during a raid.,Brian K. Vaughan, Niko Henrichon, Todd Klein,Pride of Baghdad,Vertigo,1401203140,Fantasy,Graphic novels.,Comics & Graphic Novels,Comics & Graphic Novels Fantasy,Comics & Graphic Novels General,General,Graphic Novels

Pride of Baghdad Brian K Vaughan Niko Henrichon Todd Klein 9781401203146 Books Reviews

In 2003, American bomb destruction allowed several lions to escape from the Baghdad zoo. Written and illustrated in comic book form, this is far from being a trivial book. The author and illustrator touchingly depict the anxieties, squabbles, and vicissitudes confronting the little family (pride). The lions and other animals speak American English, with personal feelings and needs conveyed with sympathy. As in real life, the pride moves searchingly toward its tragic end. This book will find a place in the homes of all animal lovers; it is a reminder that the needless destruction of war imposes suffering on our fellow creatures as well as on ourselves. I recommend the book especially to parents and teachers who want to convey to children an identification with and love for other animals.
As a soldier reading this while deployed to Iraq and seeing firsthand the costs of war, I am deeply moved. There are so many political influences and hidden subtexts in the plot and beautiful artwork. This will stick with me for a long time. War is hell....I just hope it will end someday and with tyranny on the losing side. I do feel deeply for the Iraqi people, and you really get that sense when reading this. Who are the bad guys? Sometimes it's just a matter of perspective. Great job BK Vaughan, you really capture that essence.
I think the mark of a mediocre work is that criticism attacks not what it does, but what it does not. Pride of Baghdad is, to be blunt, 136 pages that should've been 3 times that. For such a compelling premise, the authors seem rushed. The historical basis plainly states that after several days without eating, the starving lions break free (well, dig free, according to the BBC) and die at the hands of American troops, but the entirety of the story covers a single afternoon, from unexpected threatened starvation to unexpected freedom to unexpected death. This appears nitpicky, I admit, but it seems like the narrative set up requires a sequence of events that could occur over 4 hours or less.

As the more negative reviews said, the allegory seems shoehorned in and ham-fisted, the authors always ready to slap you across the face with their meta-story.

More frustratingly, the finale follows no build-up, and (since I had not familiarized myself with the backstory ahead of time) incredibly arbitrary, as if the writer had just run out of ideas. Are the lives of anthropomorphized lions so boring that it takes only a few hours to illustrate the entirety of the interesting things they might do in a war zone? Why did they limit the things lions do to just hunting and bickering? Lions are, for instance, legendary sleepers, but the interesting question of "where and how would a lion sleep during a war?" remains frustratingly unraised, let alone answered. The lions themselves are caricatures, one-dimensional cardboard cutouts of characters that neither progress nor show any real depth. There is a clear attempt early in the book to provide some via a flashback, but as the only one, it seems odd that the one they keep depicts lion-rape, and apparently serves as the case-in-point justification for that character's gruff exterior (but not at all her stock-character-required gooey center). In one instance, a lion sees a painting of a lion with wings, and clearly wants to discuss it, but in literally the next panel, that conversation is cut off by her compatriot's (and presumably the author's, since the book ends 12 pages later) need to advance the narrative.

The authors present an interesting, if Disney-esque idea about the nature of animals in the zoo, some being religious, some acting as petty gangsters, but then completely fail to examine the consequences of those natures. If the turtle has interesting things to say about people and their wars, why not other animals, the birds for instance? The bear in the story explicitly tells us that it knows a lot more about the world than our protagonist lions. Rather than even providing the clichéd monologue of your standard comic book super-villain, the authors cut to elsewhere, where yet another opportunity to fill us in on how the lions are actually responding to the world around them is wasted.

As I said, this book is mediocre. I liked it on a panel-by-panel basis, but there is a good idea on virtually every single page that goes unexplored. I don't want to suggest motivations for the authors, but given their track record, I can only assume Pride of Baghdad's brevity resulted from Vertigo, the DC imprint dedicated to publishing experimental and long-form books, not wanting to risk publishing an experimental, long-form book.
I love this book. I'd actually read it before, and lost my previous copy. So, I picked this one up and have read it twice so far.

This graphic novel is everything - emotional, complex, and devastating. It's beautiful and compelling, but also heartbreaking. It deals with everything from right and wrong to freedom and patriotism. It remains one of my favorite graphic novels of all time. I love it.
An incredibly clever conceit and some truly beautiful art come together to form what is often heralded as one of the best (and most important) graphic novels of the last decade. It's even inspired by real events! And we all know that works inspired by real events are more meaningful, right? So it could be that I came in to this book with impossibly high expectations, but nonetheless, I came away feeling slightly disappointed.

First, what works as I said, it's a very clever idea and by and large it works. 'Pride of Baghdad' functions as something of a modern allegory about war and is largely successful at not coming across like a polemic. It's hamfisted at times (more on that later), but rarely distractingly so. I've read some reviews that criticize BKV's dialogue, which I thought was just fine and totally suited to the story. One reviewer in particular called 'Pride' out for making its characters too human, which made the story unbelievable or too cartoonish. I feel you couldn't miss the point by a wider margin. This *is* a cartoon, no different in style than, say, 'The Lion King.' Of course, substantively the two works couldn't be more dissimilar, and 'Pride' mostly succeeds at living up to its conceit.

What really floored me about 'Pride,' however, was the art, which was masterfully rendered, from the inking style to the subdued (but incredibly visually compelling) colors. I was impressed by the artist's take on the animals, and how well he was able to imbue them with intelligence and humanity, which went a long way toward making this book work. Even more impressive, however, was the depiction of Baghdad itself. The city really came to life, and became as much a compelling character as our four protaganists. Honestly, I would say this book is worth the cover price for the artwork alone, which is why it's getting four stars rather than three.

Where the book doesn't quite work is its ending. Now, I fully understand that the way things go down is meant to represent the senselessness of war and the thoughtlessness of its perpetrators, and for that to work, what happens *should* be sudden and disorienting. Here, however, it simply doesn't quite work. Such endings can be sudden and disorienting and feel like a sock in the gut while still feeling emotionally satisfying. You can ever trick or shock the reader as long as it feels earned. Unfortunately, that's not the case here, and the reader is left feeling sort of jerked around. I'm pretty much always down on works that don't reward the audience (in some way--it doesn't have to be via a happy ending) for their emotional investment. In the worst cases, if there is no reward, you just feel sort of used, the butt of a particularly mean practical joke. You feel like the author wasn't engaging in good faith and doesn't respect your intelligence. I'm not going to say that 'Pride' is quite so demeaning or deceitful as all that, but the ending doesn't feel earned, and there is no emotional payoff. It's also where the book is the most heavy handed, where it comes closest to bludgeoning the reader with its perspective on war and humanity.

More thorough characterization would have gone a long way toward making 'Pride' more successful. I wish that our protagonists had been given a bit more room to breathe, so that when they finally meet their untimely demise, it hits us like it should. There's also the unfortunate problem of using rape as an easy substitute for back story, which the media in general and comics in particular seem to do a rather lot. (This is a topic I hope to explore further in the near future.) I also wish that BKV had given just a fraction of humanity and character to the faceless soldiers at the end, since doing so would have complicated things in a meaningful way--if we relate to the villains, if we see them as human, it is harder to dismiss them. If we see the villains as aspects of ourselves, we are forced to engage with them. By making the US soldiers literally faceless, 'Pride' makes such moral gray area impossible.