CCL Podcast #255 – Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth (Bloomsbury)

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Collected Comics Library Podcast #255
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I admit I’ve never been one for biographical comics. No, I’m not talking about Art books or Retrospectives, but actual comic books about famous people. You see more and more pop up every month. Abrams recently has published Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness by Reinhard Kleist, Bluewater Productions has a whole ongoing series devoted to Female Force or Political Power and Bloomsbury USA published Logicomix about Bertrand Russell.

Not exactly a household name by any stretch, Bertrand Russell was in fact, one of the greatest philosopher/mathematicians in the modern era. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, explores his life from his boyhood all the way through most of his life in 1939.

Now I know what you’re thinking, because I thought the exact same thing when I heard of the premise: Why is this guy important? And how this is an interesting and enjoyable topic. To pull of a biography of this sort, the authors and artists had to be very creative. Make no mistake, they have passion in their work and it shows. So much so that all four mentioned above are literally put into the story. The book is told in three separate and distinct viewpoints. The first being, as mentioned, the authors themselves as they plot out and create the very book in which you are reading. They discuss not only about the creative process, but about Russell, himself – what he stood for, his way of thinking and about logic and mathematics.

Bertrand Russell comes in as the second narrator and the second point of view. It’s the beginning of World War II and he is speaking in America in front of a crowd of anti-war protestors. They ask him what side he will take (it should be noted that Russell was a pacifist). He invites everyone in the lecture hall and begins to ask the protesters how they came to their anti-war stance. What was their “Tools Of Reason?”; what was their “Logic?” From the podium, Russell reflects on his life starting from when he was a boy and this is where the third story begins – an autobiography, of sorts.

The switching back and forth between three ongoing and overlapping stories did get confusing and, to be frank, there were too many interruptions. As a result, the pace of the book was slowed especially when the authors interjected themselves.

After reading, I now know who Bertrand Russell is and I get that he is important, but I’m still uncertain as to why. His work on logic, mathematics and other subjects are world renowned, but I’m still perplexed as to why his story needed to be told as a comic book/graphic novel. I guess the trouble lies with the makeup of the book itself. A 347 page Biographical Graphic Novel, as opposed to a 500 page prose novel, can only give a glimpse into a certain point in a person’s life in time. I have found that the problem is within the format. If the authors focus in on a small amount of time (like the Johnny Cash book), too little is given. If the authors cram in a large amount of time (like 67 years in this book), too much is left out.

Another thing that I had trouble with was that the authors, had to take liberties to move the story along. They did not mention Russell’s bother (though they strangely acknowledge this) and they took Russell’s life experiences from different points of time and events and meshed them together. We know that Hollywood does this all the time in order to make a more enjoyable 2 hours. Just look Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. But this is not the same sort of thing. The roots and foundations of this book and its’ subject matter is based on truth and fact. I may be bold in saying this, but I don’t think Bertrand Russell, himself, would find this to be – logical.

As for the book itself, it a very nice paperback. The page stock is heavy, the colors are bold and line work is not overly done. Lettering is used well within the word balloons and the captions standout as they are all yellow. The extras include Logicomix and Reality (which what I talked about above), a lengthy Notebook which boils down to a Glossary of important people and mathematical terms and finally a selected Bibliography.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou
Bloomsbury USA, 2009
352 pages, 9.2 x 6.7, $22.95 US
A copy of this book was supplied to me by Bloomsbury USA

All this including Fire & Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics for $1000 and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

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Tags: bertrand russell, bloomsbury, collected editions, logicomix