By Mikaël, translated by Matt Maden (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-253-3 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-254-0
As a purported land of promises and untapped opportunity, America has always fascinated storytellers – especially comics-creators – from the “Old World” of Europe: an inclination and interest that has frequently delivered potent and rewarding results. This continentally-published yarn by self-taught, multi-disciplined, multi award-winning French-born Québecois auteur Mikaël (Harlem, Junior l’Aventurier, Rapa Nui, Promise) was first released by Dargaud in 2018 as twinned albums before breaking into English via a monolithically oversized hardback (229 x 305mm) edition that got the entire story done-in-one.
Everything about this stylish Depression-era drama is big and powerfully mythic. In March 1932, with poverty wracking the nation and the world, and Herbert Hoover dreading the upcoming Presidential election, immigrants and natives flock to Manhattan and the bustling, dangerous construction site that will one day be Rockefeller Center. Casualties are high as we focus on the Irish contingent rushing daily into the skies to rivet and weld a concrete and steel colossus into New York City’s ever-changing skyline.
The story unfolds through the eyes of fresh-off-the-boat new recruit Dan Shackleton who joins the crew after the death of “high-steel” man Ryan Murphy. Dan is a garrulous, easy-going son-of-the-sod, but even he has difficulty befriending the taciturn, thoughtful, barely-human behemoth everyone calls Giant. A formidable, remarkable worker, Giant lives in a grubby flophouse and keeps to himself, but affable Dan persists and eventually the big man almost-imperceptibly thaws… at least enough that Shackleton becomes unwitting witness to a strange ritual…
Hiding a tragic secret that dates back to the recent Irish War of Independence, the Big Man is a solitary creature of fiercely controlled passions who keeps his every opinion to himself. A dutiful worker, Giant was given the task of informing Murphy’s widow in Ireland when he died. Instead, he began impersonating the dead man in a string of letters containing the bulk of his own carefully-hoarded wages and savings. Over months, a bizarre one-sided relationship develops that metastasizes into a full-blown crisis after the silent bruiser falls foul of organised crime. When the letters and money stop, Mary Ann Murphy and her children take ship for America to be reunited with her beloved husband. As the wounded colossus recuperates, he has no idea of the troubles that are heading his way…
Tapping into a wealth of powerful socially-crusading movies that immortalised pre-WWII America and packed with period detail and mythology, pungent political commentary, a broad cast of moving characters and timeless drama, this is a human-scaled tale playing out amongst mighty edifices – both human and architectural – with warmth, passion, humour and beguiling humanity.
Supplemented with an Introduction by Jean-Louis Tripp and a stunning selection of production sketches, covers and other art, Giant is a stunning saga of uncommon folk in perilous times and one no lover of grand stories could possibly resist.
© 2018 Dargaud-Benelux. © 2020 NBM for the English Translation. All rights reserved.
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Today in 1923 American Blondie artist Paul Fung Jr was born, while Warrington’s finest author/animator/cartoonist/editor John Geering (Puss ‘n’ Boots, Smudge, Bananaman, Danger Mouse, Count Duckula) came along in 1941, and Rich Burchett (The Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures, Blackhawk) in 1952, but we lost Doc Attaboy, It’s Papa Who Pays! and Toots and Casper cartoonist Jimmy Murphy in 1965.
In 1974 the 11-year run of UK goggle fest Whoopee! began today.