Garage Band

Remember my not so enthusiastic review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?

What?

You don't remember?

Well scroll down and have a look. I'll wait for you.

Honestly, I'll wait.

Back? Good.

Well, now that you know that how thoroughly boring that outing was, I can continue. After the movie, I went to Landmark (the book store). The Landmark in Andheri, Mumbai has an amazing collection of Trade Paperback comic books, Manga, Comix and graphic novels. The best part is that you can sit and read whole books, right there in the store.

Since I had some time to kill that Sunday evening, I picked up a couple of books to read. One of them was Gipi's Garage Band and I have to say that it was quite a good read.

Garage band is a small and intimate story about four young band members who practice their music in a garage. The book touches on the differences in each of their lives and how their music brings them together and helps them express themselves.

But the most astounding thing about the book, for me, was the artwork. Gipi's line-work has the honesty of a sketchbook and at times he refuses to clean up extra lines, trials and mistakes.

The water-color palette is subdued and controlled very well throughout the book and the most poignant moments in the story come from the use of space. Gipi devotes whole pages to just depicting the sky and uses these splashes as transitions in a truly cinematic manner.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys great artwork and storytelling - the kind that tells the smaller stories with heart.

If you're still unconvinced, then you can read a preview of Garage Band here.

http://www.firstsecondbooks.net/garageBand.html

And also one for Gipi's Notes for a War Story here.

http://www.firstsecondbooks.net/warStory.html

Lucky for us, Gipi's got a blog online here.

http://giannigipi.blogspot.com/

It's in Italian, but I'm sure you won't go there just to read.