On the Coffee Table: City of Light

Title: Berlin, Book Three: City of Light

Writer and Artist: Jason Lutes

via Amazon

It's been 11 years since my last post about Lutes's extraordinary comic book series, Berlin.  In the time since, he has finished the series.  City of Light compiles issues #14-24.  We saw him give a talk at a local bookstore and he signed the copy I just finished reading.

Overall, the stories follow a group of characters - many of them only tangentially connected - from 1928-33, an extraordinary time in Berlin's history.  The tensions playing out on the streets will spill over to the battlefields of an entire continent before long.  The central character is Marthe, managing two romances: one with a woman, Anna, one with a man, Severing.  Neither works out, nor does her art career so by book's end, she gets on a train back home to Cologne - her story started on a train arriving, now ends on one departing.

In a secondary narrative, we follow 12-year-old Sylvia, orphaned by the May Day Massacre, taken in by a Jewish family.  She runs the streets with a group of Communist toughs who scuffle with both the police and the Nazis, an increasingly meaningless distinction.  As readers, we know those tensions won't completely resolve until decades later.

As Hitler rises to power, life is getting tougher, especially for the Jews.  Sylvia's foster family boards the same train as Marthe in the end.  Again, as the reader, we know more about what's coming than the characters do.  We're more worried for the Jews than they are for themselves.  We worry, too, for Anna and other homosexuals, knowing the persecution coming for them.

Over 24 issues, the tension gradually builds for the reader and the tension is never fully released, because we know what comes next.  Safer is not the same as safe.  That's life.

Berlin is excellent.  I wouldn't say it's on the same level as Persepolis, Maus or Showa but it's a solid addition to any historically-based graphic novel collection.

Comic Book Finds: Berlin 17 & 18

Title: Berlin
Issues: #17-18
Release: November 2010 and January 2012
Writer and Artist: Jason Lutes

Image via The Beguiling

Berlin is one of the most rewarding comic book series I have discovered.  The story begins in 1928 and, according to plan, will eventually run through 1933.  I have previously reviewed two trade publications: City of Stones (Issues 1-8) and City of Fire (9-16).  Issue 17 begins the third book of the trilogy, City of Light. 

The strength of this series, as with any good historical fiction, is the portrayal of the everyday lives of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.  In #17, Severing, a journalist, visits Berlin's Communist Party headquarters.  His intentions are unclear: is he thinking of joining?  writing a story?  While there, he encounters a 12-year-old girl, Silvia.  He doesn't know her but we do: essentially orphaned by the May Day Massacre but finding her way, dependent on help, yet tough as nails.  The issue ends with with Marthe (Severing's former lover) and Anna (Marthe's current lover) caught in a compromising position by their landlady.

Image via Drawn & Quarterly

#18, the most recent issue to be released, finds Severing descending into alcoholism, depression or both.  Silvia runs into trouble, both at home (she's been taken in by a Jewish family) and on the streets.  Marthe and Anna visit a nightclub, where matters take an unfortunate turn.

As readers with historical perspective, we know life in Germany is going to get a lot harder before it gets easier, especially for those already on society's fringes.  One can't help but feel invested in the characters' future.  I can't find anything about when we can expect #19 but I'm hoping soon.  If the previous 14-month interval is anything to go on, March 2013 seems like a possibility.

On the Coffee Table: City of Smoke

Title: Berlin, Book Two: City of Smoke
Writer and Artist: Jason Lutes

Image via Cosmic Comix & Toys

Book Two collects issues 9-16 of Lutes's ongoing series.  The story picks up in June 1929, a month after Book One left off.  For my review of Book One, try this link.

Berlin definitely gets racier in Book Two as Marthe is introduced to the city's underworld - drugs, orgies, secret societies, etc.  Not for kids, this one, but good value for the rest of us.  New characters are introduced - most prominently, an American jazz band in an entirely new story line (tangentially connected to the others, of course).  All the while, the socio-political melodrama is intensifying.  The stock market crashes and the already struggling German economy is further compromised.  The increasingly desperate populace is easy pickings for the rising Nazi party.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Marthe originally came to town as an art student.  Part of the cleverness of this series is how the reader is encouraged to perceive the book through Marthe's artistic lens.  In Book One, it was a discussion of perspective.  In Book Two, Marthe draws portraits as Kurt, her journalist lover, interviews witnesses to the May Day Massacre.  She later complains to Anna, a new lover (told you it gets racier), of the limitations of her portraits in telling the stories of the character.  Through this, we pay more attention to the faces of Lutes's characters.

***END OF SPOILER***

With the introduction of the jazz band, the role of music takes greater prominence in the story, testing the limits of the comics medium.  How do you convey a clarinet solo without the use of sound?  Lutes does a pretty good job over two pages.

Image via Page 45

It may be a while before Book Three is compiled but single issues now run up to 18.  I saw both 17 and 18 the last time we were at Drawn and Quarterly in Montreal but didn't pick them up - next time.  The plan is for 24 total, taking us to 1933 culminating, no doubt, with the rise of Hitler.