Final Cut (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Description

Final Cut (Pantheon Graphic Library) : Burns, Charles: desertcart.in: Books Review: Bought as a present, they loved it! Review: An incredible comic book about a young, teenage, artist finding himself, with peers who are good friends but don't quite understand his artistic vision. This could be a metaphor of course for any artist, regardless of the art, living by their vision, unsure if it will be executed successfully, but living far more in the interior world of the mind, of fantasy, of private ideation, than most, especially for teens who are developmentally feeling out the world of non-familial relationships. This is also a story of a socially awkward and withdrawn young person, possibly on the spectrum, or just depressed from living with, and caring for, a mother with serious addiction and mental health problems, a world also other peers will never understand, and the very world that has tilted him into a more private, internalized, realm. Finally, this is the story of romantic attraction to a friend, never stated, though his peers do state their own to others, yielding dating successes as a result, while the protagonist's, remaining hidden, suffers the likelihood of remaining in fantasy, frustrated, in isolative pain. One senses his calling is for a deeper, creative, and professional, success, still in embryo, with perhaps the romantic delayed. There are references to horror and science fiction films with themes of invasion, pod people, cannibals, all representative perhaps of the social world the protagonist feels alien in, with him in his own pod, and peers with demands and personalities that seem jarring and invasive. I read the author's "Black Hole" which is another very elevated comic art work, but "Final Cut" is his masterpiece in drawing, character complexity, and emotional effect upon the reader. Most people still think comics are for kids or involve superheroes, which was an important trend in the 1960s, which is still cashed into. But works such as this one show that deep art can still thrive in this medium, especially when a genius like Burns comes along to remind us how impactful it can get.