I liked this comic aesthetically and would love to see this as the giant composite of its original creation. However, I had a hard time following just exactly what was going on, and I'm also unsure what makes this a specific nod to manga and not just a general comic.

*****
Counting this as my indie publisher for the Panels Read Harder challenge. ( )

I was intrigued to hear about this work mixing Haida culture with Japanese manga. I had to read it twice to understand the story. The black lines separating the pictures collectively form native motifs (which you can see as a whole in the back of the book and the inside of the jacket. ( )

"Michael Nicoll Yahgulaanas (MNY) is the creator of a new style of graphic novel, Haida Manga. Haida Manga combines First Nations' art style and tales with the Japanese graphic novel form of manga. MNY uses his distinct style of art to bring Haida Gwaii tales to life. Haida art is very distinct and popular in Northwest art.

I read Red: A Haida Manga all in one sitting. As I admired the watercolour illustrations and the unconventional layout of the pages, I felt I was almost missing something in translation. Each page was such a beautiful work of art with minimal dialogue or narration. Because there wasn't a clear cut panel 1, panel 2, panel 3, panel 43 format, I had trouble following the story's details. I have read another story by MNY, The Flight of the Hummingbird, a parable for the environment. This had a more conventional layout and I feel that helped me grasp the morals of the story better.

Read my full review here: http://www.monniblog.com/2009/12/red-a-haida-manga/" ( )

As an experiment in form, Red is a resounding success. Penned by Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, it’s a beautifully conceived cross-pollination of Haida art and Japanese manga that retells the classic Haida oral tale of vengeful Red, a leader whose actions are poisoned by childhood tragedy.

The story of Red is a found narrative: a classic of Haida folklore. During childhood, raiders take Red’s sister Jaada – an event that instills in the future leader an enduring dream of retribution. The two children were already orphaned; now Red faces the future without family. As an adult, he begins to arm his formerly peaceful society, depleting their resources to buy weapons and to build an ingenious sea-going vessel. One day, traders announce that they’ve located Jaada. What happens next is both a tragedy and a cautionary tale.

Visually, the tale is beautifully told, using a style inspired by traditional Haida arts. Unfortunately, the narrative is not quite as successful as its graphic rendering. More than once, I couldn’t figure out what was happening and who was who. Red isn’t the first graphic novel to suffer from a sketchy, fragmented, at times bewildering story. Textually abbreviated, this form is inherently at a disadvantage. Still, it can and has been done well, and should have been better executed here.

As for the graphics, the panels are colourful watercolours that depict events in the forests and on the waters of the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte) islands in British Columbia. Irregularly shaped, these panels are edged with thick, sweeping lines, curving between the scenes on any given page. This unconventional framing at once unsettles the narrative and creates a dynamic energy.

But this sequence of unusual panels is not the whole story. Taken together, on one of the book’s final pages, they add up to one large-scale formline that suggests an almost fated cosmic patterning. Inspired by traditional Haida art, this formline is also reprinted at a slightly larger size on the inside of the dustjacket. It’s a gorgeous work – one that pulls back to reveal the larger image constructed by the panel shapes. This unique form draws together in a single graphic presentation the close-up, moment-by-moment action of the present, as well as the wide-angled overview of history or mythology. Yahgulanaas goes so far as to recommend tearing out the pages to piece the formline together for yourself: a massive composition nearly ten by four feet.

Read this book for the inspired execution of a new form, for the way Yahgulanaas reinvents sequential art as synthesis as well as series. ( )