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Pride of Baghdad HC
The Pride of Baghdad is an allegory that is sophisticated enough that it will join the pantheon of great graphic novels(Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The Dark Knight Returns, Maus etc) as its reputation spreads.
Visually, it is just beautiful - the art matches the mood in every single frame, whether the horror of the casualties of war (the giraffe getting decapitated is just sickening), the beauty of the sunset ("Is that a horizon?") or the drama of a stampeding herd of horses. That Niko Henrichon hits the mark time after time is nothing short of miraculous.
Now to the story. What I like is that it is an allegory of the richest kind. Part of it reads obviously but then a few elements jar. I then read it a different way and the allegory says something different. I read it a third time and get a third story and so on - now that's story-telling at its best.
That there is no happy ending just speaks volumes to me - that's the test of the great writer: to avoid the temptation to wrap it up, to make it pretty. Admittedly Brian K. Vaughan was tied to that ending because of the RL events that the story was based on. A less confident writer, though, might have been tempted to reconcile all four lions so that they all died nobly, at peace with the world, having fulfilled their purpose in life. Instead, it is just ugly brutal and pointless - just like an allegory about war and the nature of freedom should be.
Visually, it is just beautiful - the art matches the mood in every single frame, whether the horror of the casualties of war (the giraffe getting decapitated is just sickening), the beauty of the sunset ("Is that a horizon?") or the drama of a stampeding herd of horses. That Niko Henrichon hits the mark time after time is nothing short of miraculous.
Now to the story. What I like is that it is an allegory of the richest kind. Part of it reads obviously but then a few elements jar. I then read it a different way and the allegory says something different. I read it a third time and get a third story and so on - now that's story-telling at its best.
That there is no happy ending just speaks volumes to me - that's the test of the great writer: to avoid the temptation to wrap it up, to make it pretty. Admittedly Brian K. Vaughan was tied to that ending because of the RL events that the story was based on. A less confident writer, though, might have been tempted to reconcile all four lions so that they all died nobly, at peace with the world, having fulfilled their purpose in life. Instead, it is just ugly brutal and pointless - just like an allegory about war and the nature of freedom should be.