My friend and I were walking the halls of Book Expo America when we ran across a booth for graphic novels. Great! So exciting. We're fans. One stuck out in particular – The Cloud by K.I. Zachopoulos, with art by Vincenzo Balzano. The cover art was striking and it was gorgeously presented in hardcover with a little ribbon that matched the binding.
It was the last day of BEA, and publishers wanted to get rid of stuff so they didn't have to bring it back with them, so the guy manning the booth just gave it to us. Wow, so exciting, much happiness, look at this beautiful book.
You guys the writing in it is so garbagey.
At first I thought it was me. 'You just don't like exclamation points and they're used...a lot in this,' I told myself. But when I read a pirate saying "Say yar prayers, scallywag!" I was like
But the thing is – THE THING IS – the art in this book is so. damn. good. It's like a cognitive dissonance where you're seeing these soul-enriching illustrations so you think 'ooh, so great' and then you read this piece of shit writing on top of it and it is JARRING. I legit just stopped reading the text after a while. Every now and then I'd check in, but nope, still garbage, so I'd go back to the illustrations.
It's like...a boy? Who's searching for a wish. I think. And some girl steals it, but then pirates steal it from her and then the boy gets it back maybe and there's some old man who says "hee hee!" and the girl who's obviously also a love interest because why else are girls there says stuff like "You know, when I first spied on you, you looked like a selfish boy but there is much more under your skin."
WHY SHOW IT WHEN YOU CAN TELL IT.
I felt like 5% bad at the end, because I saw the writer's from Greece and now lives in Germany, so it's like, maybe it was a terrible translation? But NO TRANSLATOR IS MENTIONED. I'd be willing to say "Okay, so he's never lived in a country where English is the first language," but I hold the publisher at fault here because someone must be held accountable. They decided "No, this is good enough that we will get this amazing illustrator to do the art and GET THIS PUBLISHED BY HOOK OR BY CROOK."
You deserve better, Vincenzo Balzano. Your pictures are so pretty.
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| Great, right? |
It was the last day of BEA, and publishers wanted to get rid of stuff so they didn't have to bring it back with them, so the guy manning the booth just gave it to us. Wow, so exciting, much happiness, look at this beautiful book.
You guys the writing in it is so garbagey.
At first I thought it was me. 'You just don't like exclamation points and they're used...a lot in this,' I told myself. But when I read a pirate saying "Say yar prayers, scallywag!" I was like
But the thing is – THE THING IS – the art in this book is so. damn. good. It's like a cognitive dissonance where you're seeing these soul-enriching illustrations so you think 'ooh, so great' and then you read this piece of shit writing on top of it and it is JARRING. I legit just stopped reading the text after a while. Every now and then I'd check in, but nope, still garbage, so I'd go back to the illustrations.
It's like...a boy? Who's searching for a wish. I think. And some girl steals it, but then pirates steal it from her and then the boy gets it back maybe and there's some old man who says "hee hee!" and the girl who's obviously also a love interest because why else are girls there says stuff like "You know, when I first spied on you, you looked like a selfish boy but there is much more under your skin."
WHY SHOW IT WHEN YOU CAN TELL IT.
I felt like 5% bad at the end, because I saw the writer's from Greece and now lives in Germany, so it's like, maybe it was a terrible translation? But NO TRANSLATOR IS MENTIONED. I'd be willing to say "Okay, so he's never lived in a country where English is the first language," but I hold the publisher at fault here because someone must be held accountable. They decided "No, this is good enough that we will get this amazing illustrator to do the art and GET THIS PUBLISHED BY HOOK OR BY CROOK."
You deserve better, Vincenzo Balzano. Your pictures are so pretty.
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