Comics I Bought This Week: February 12, 2011

Feb12
on February 12, 2011 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Comics I Bought This Week

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got one new comic plus a graphic novel:

  • The Walking Dead – 82

  • The Original Johnson Volume 2

    • And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

    “Miss Don’t Touch Me” by Hubert and Kerascoet

    This book is a French graphic novel that was originally published in 2007. It looks like it has the proportions of a full sized European comic but here it’s published smaller (about 9 x 6.5 inches). I wish I could have read it at a larger size because that’s what I prefer.

    I’m not sure exactly what category I’d put “Miss Don’t Touch Me” into. It takes place in Paris in the 1930’s so I guess it would be historical fiction but there is also the crime aspect. Plus there is quite a bit of twisted humor in it. The lead character is named Blanche and at the beginning of the story she is a maid but after the murder of her sister she goes undercover at a brothel to try and find her sister’s killer.

    In some ways this is a “Slice of life” book because the everyday world of a 1930’s Paris brothel is shown to us. As a person Blanche a complete innocent in the world of a brothel and she is not actually a prostitute. She becomes a girl that whips and humiliates men and they aren’t allowed to touch her. Hence the title of the book. If you’re squeamish about the inner workings of the sex trade then stay away from this book.

    As a crime story it’s a bit odd because Blanche really has no idea what she’s doing. She breaks into and eventually joins the brothel on a total hunch. Once there she noses around and gets into trouble but never really figures out what is going on. A secondary character, a cross dresser who resembles Josephine Baker, does some of the actual detective work near the end of the story. It is a bit of an odd structure for a crime story.

    The artwork is that thin, wobbly-lined, cartoony, drawing style that I see in a lot of French comics that make it over here. It’s expressive and nicely drawn and has rich flat colors. Overall I like it and the storytelling is good but sometimes the art seemed cramped to me. I think that’s because it was originally printed larger but I couldn’t verify that. It is pretty though.

    Overall I enjoyed the story and in was complete is this book but there is also a volume two which I’m now going to have to read.