Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got one new comic plus a hard cover collection:

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

“Market Day” is a historical fiction graphic novel that takes place in Eastern Europe in the early 1900’s. It’s about a man who is taking the rugs he has made to town in order to sell them. Only he finds that the market has changed and they are nearly unsell-able now. A hard reality for a fine craftsman with a new wife and a baby on the way.

“Market Day” is mostly about its lead character’s thoughts as he makes his way through the day as his world is about to change because of changing economic times. There are certainly parallels to be drawn with the rug maker and the life of a cartoonist (and other profession) today. Income may depend on a single personal connection and when that connection is lost everything can come crashing down. Plus what was good enough in a person’s youth is not good enough with a child on the way.

I thought Sturm did a good job capturing the historical aspects of the story. It had the flavor of a different time and place yet everyone was still easily relatable on a human level. I can see myself and others I know in the story. The biggest difference is that there was a lot more walking in those days.

I’m not sure if this was meant to be part of the book but it made me understand why a lot of Europeans (and others) emigrated to the USA. There was just more opportunity. The book wasn’t about hopelessness but there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to reinvent yourself or find a new profession if you were a European peasant. Even if you were a skilled craftsman. If your craft went away what was there for you to do?

There are no answers in this book. Just more questions. But I find them to be interesting questions.