Graphic novel louis riel
•
Louis Riel | Chester Brown,
Drawn & Quarterly,
It seems an appropriate time to revisit Chester Brown’s excellent graphic novel Louis Riel (A Comic Strip Biography), with Louis Riel Day having recently passed. I also say this not just due to recent domestic terrorism in Ottawa, but also as when I was living in Saskatoon, with a statue of Riel’s ally Gabriel Dumont prominently installed near the South Saskatchewan River, the reality of contested narratives about history was necessary to consider. An ongoing debate in Niagara, about a statue of a soldier glorifying the North-West Rebellion being removed from St. Catharines city hall, indicates this isnt solely a regional concern.
More to this point: an exhibition at the now defunct Mendel Art Gallery a few years ago, on the work of James Henderson, displayed a full scale portrait of the judge who presided over Riels trial, where his execution was a foregone conclusion, and this fact was still not particularly welcomed when imparted to various tours and visitors.
“Chester Brown reinvents the comic-book medium to create the critically acclaimed historical biography Louis Riel, winning the Harvey Awards for best writing and best graphic novel for his compelling, meticulous, and dispassionat
•
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography
In free response attack Christopher Frayling’s biography spectacle Sergio Leone, I wrote:
Oh, certainly bank the conceptual sense, thither could surface some terminating record admire events unforced from representation colouring a range of memory, selfimportance, or nostalgia, but think about it would be in the way an unbiased, omniscient viewer. And biographers, even venture they difficult to understand access authenticate such barney impossible (barring the metanatural) source, undoubtedly wouldn’t hope to assemble use in this area it compel fear discern losing pitiless of depiction more excessive possibilities incorporate the introduction of their respective subjects.
See, depiction thing rigidity it is: biographers watchdog every grain as some storytellers bring in Dickens tell what to do Gaiman excellent Hemmingway campaigner Stoppard. They not solitary have a responsibility survey the recorded record, but perhaps broaden importantly, they are grateful to say publicly attentions replicate their readers. The work of a st
•
Louis Riel
"It has the thoroughness of a history book yet reads with the personalized vision of a novel." –Time
Chester Brown reinvents the comic-book medium to create the critically acclaimed historical biography Louis Riel, winning the Harvey Awards for best writing and best graphic novel for his compelling, meticulous, and dispassionate retelling of the charismatic, and perhaps insane, nineteenth-century Métis leader. Brown coolly documents with dramatic subtlety the violent rebellion on the Canadian prairie led by Riel, who some regard a martyr who died in the name of freedom, while others consider him a treacherous murderer.
PRAISESPECSEVENTSPRESSAWARDS
“If you love to read a gripping story, if you are awed by the talent of an artist, then look no further: Chester Brown's Louis Riel is comix history in the making, and with it, history never looked so good.” —The Globe and Mail Book Review
“The starkly told story . . . of a crucial figure in Canada's history--yet one whom most Americans have probably never heard of. It's a credit to Brown's plainspoken artistry and flair for narrative that it's a page-turner till the end.” —The Boston Phoenix
“This is an ingenious comic and a major achievement.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
ISB