Friday, February 29, 2008

Eric Heuvel's "The Search"

I want to order this graphic novel for our library. I think, that it will present the Holocaust in another medium that some students will find more accessible, similar to how they viewed the 9/11 report graphic novel.
I am actually having trouble finding out where to order it so maybe someone out there can help with that.
It is an interesting review in the NYT and also another interesting example of how the graphic novel is changing. Though, I do questions some things like the graphic novel version of Beowulf or the Odyssey but maybe it's not that much different from the abridged children's version of the Iliad or Alice In Wonderland.
I am also fascinated by the fact that it is considered a textbook.
clipped from www.nytimes.com

No Laughs, No Thrills, and Villains All Too Real
An Excerpt from an English Translation

Among other things, the book, building on the obvious precedent of Art Spiegelman's "Maus," shows how far comics have come as a cultural medium taken seriously here, but also that the Holocaust has come a long way too, as a topic to be freshly considered by a new generation of German teenagers.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

The visual style of “The Search” is clear, simple, pastel-colored, in a classic Belgian-Franco comic tradition. “Less is more,” Mr. Heuvel, the artist, said in a recent telephone conversation, acknowledging that he pilfered liberally from Tintin’s inventor, HergĂ©. “We spent endless hours making sure that the Nazi costumes were kept to a minimum because boys can glorify these things.”

She added: “More and more young German students do too. They are sensitive to the idea that the subject is not just about Germans and Jews. It’s about people and life.”

 blog it

2 comments:

bluenote said...

Go to this website: http://www.annefrank.com/2_book_books_4.htm. This is website for the Anne Frank House Museum in the United States, and it is the only company in this country that is selling the book right now. There is a currently a delay in the supplies, but the book should be available in March or April. If you call the museum, someone will very helpfully take your name and number and pass it on the bookstore folks. Also, when you go to that webpage, scroll down and check out another one of Heuvel's books called "A Family Secret." It is another graphic novel about the Holocaust, and it looks equally intriguing.

Best of luck,

Tiffany Graham
Springfield, PA

Anna M. said...

@tiffany graham: thank you so much!!! I was looking and looking for information and nothing was coming up. This is great! I'm sure other people will be happy to read this as well!