The American - Poster Giveaway
Ends Sep 5, 2010
Enter today for your chance to win this full-sized, double-sided theatrical poster from the upcoming Focus Features Film.
Breaking Up is one of those rare graphic novels where the creators take full advantage of the medium. It's not just words and pictures, but demonstrates an exceptional usage of the form through symbolism, exaggeration, and just enough breaks from reality to involve the reader in ways neither a movie nor a textual novel could achieve. This is the kind of comics Scott McCloud talks about when he extolls the powers and virtues of the comic book medium.
Our narrator is Chloe, one of four girls who have been "best friends forever" since middle school. Now entering their junior year of George O'Keefe School for the Arts -- or "Fashion High", as the girls have dubbed it -- Chloe, Erika, Isabel and MacKenzie are beginning to find out that forever isn't as long as they thought it was, as they all begin to grow apart, whether out of misguided ideals or out of necessity.
The most driving wedge between them is MacKenzie's overwhelming passion for popularity. To achieve this, she's been hanging out more with the school's fashionista, Nicola -- and secretly mashing on her Nicola's boyfriend, Gabe! Having lost her virginity that summer, she's certainly the more worldly of the girls now. When Erika starts to face boyfriend troubles of her own -- he's wanting to start having sex or break up -- MacKenzie is the first to tell her to dive in, while Chloe is more supportive of Erika's decision not to do anything she doesn't feel ready for.
Meanwhile, Chloe starts to learn more about Adam -- the school Star Trek geek and all-around social pariah. As the two are forced to share a workstation in art class, Chloe realizes Adam isn't so bad, and develops feelings for him -- feelings that are mutual. But she hides their relationship from her friends, because she fears how they would react -- particularly MacKenzie, who would angrily shun Chloe if she thought there was a chance that, by association, Chloe's actions might hamper MacKenzie's own social climbing.
As the school year progresses, the drama for all four girls increases exponentially until it all comes tragically and inevitably crashing down, driving the four girls their separate ways, with little hope that things will ever be the same again among them.
This is the first work I've seen from author Aimee Friedman in a graphic novel format, and I hope it's not the last. This New York Times bestselling author proves she has the chops to deliver an engrossing tale in the structured format. Christine Norrie's pencils are clean, well-defined, and communicate thousands of words of realistic detail while remaining visually spacious and free from inky clutter.
"Breaking Up" is a story beautifully told and beautifully rendered. The emotional content is high without being melodramatic, and the resolutions to problems are real-world. The reader cannot help but care about all the characters from the very first chapter. This should easily be an Eisner nominee, if not an Eisner winner, for 2007.
