Audubon, on the Wings of the World

Enjoyed the art work but not the story. I started reading this and then just skimmed

Fabulous. One of the best graphic novel biographies I've read, period.

This graphic novel does something a lot of other comix bios don't do (to their detriment): it leverages the medium of art! I've read several comix bios lately where it's basically giant text infodumps accompanied by not-so-great drawings, almost like marginalia. They rarely have a “plot” or narrative flow, and we spend a lot of time, instead, getting long explanations of why Biographized Person Is Important. This really bogs the reader down.

Audobon (who I knew as “the guy that birders like” and “the bird society guy”) was, of course, an artist - and so it makes sense that this comix elevates that. But the author and illustrator also just do a good job of NOT explaining everything in text, but rather showing us this guy's life: in all its problematic (!) glory (!?). First, 19th century naturalism and Romantical connexions with Nature (as I like to call it) is super interesting; I am super into learning about this right now. (Hence the Darwin comix bio I just read.) And Audobon was very much part of that tradition: he was obsessed with documenting nature, as he saw it, as it shifted underneath him. To the point that (like the Buddha?!), he left his wife to raise their four children (!) alone for, seemingly, decades. This, of course, earns him little sympathy from a modern female reader (srsly dude?). Similarly, I didn't realize that the way he achieved his meticulous masterpieces was: travel around America using super onerous 19th century methods (years passing), kill rare bird, stuff rare bird, and then, finally, draw and paint rare bird. So he killed a lot of birds. For love!

So it's super interesting. And this comix's aesthetic was evocative, even grim. Like, he has the way of a crazy prophet about him. He did not seem pleasant. His wife is, wow, VERY SUPPORTIVE (she's basically like, “that's fine, honey, go draw your birds - good luck!”). I also didn't realize he was French. And such a schemer/hustler about his background/ambitions, but it feels like tons of 19th century, early America dudes were into that (see Hamilton, the musical).

Anyway. I learned loads. I was totally fascinated. I had SO MANY THOUGHTS. And wow, those birds are gorgeous. AND WE KILLED THE PASSENGER PIGEON TO EXTINCTION!? A wonderful book, really.

The art is fantastic...the story decidedly takes second; I feel that it is missing something.