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robin_dh's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
bookscomics's review
5.0
First of all, thank you Fantagraphics for publishing this comic! I read Asthma by him a couple years ago and absolutely loved it. I then tried to find the first ed self published version of Education but it was impossible to find. I’m so happy I finally get to read it!
It was as amazing and stunning as I expected it to be. The comics is three narratives that intertwine with one another: a man is visited by his father and they go to an old train station to visit it, an English teacher explains his grading methods and his experience reading students essays, and we see pen pal correspondences between two people. It is about all that but it feels like much more while reading it and yet I wouldn’t be able to say what more because this book is impossible to describe. It’s a meditation of time and space as well as relationships and intimacy. The intimacy in different types of relationships: either between family, between student and teacher, between strangers.
I think the best part of the book is the way that Hankiewicz shows his mastery of the comics form and his use of comics language (panels, speech bubbles, lines that indicate action and/or sound, etc.) He pushes boundaries, experiments with comics language and the English language. Many other people have pointed out that his work is in the comics-as-poetry realm since he has this underlying rhythm in his comics and he also manages visual rhymes. Some images as symbols that evolve in meaning as you continue reading (which I know many comics artists do but he just does it so well). This book is poetic but it’s a story/poem that can only be told in the comics medium. Any way, I love this book and I highly recommend it as well as Asthma.
It was as amazing and stunning as I expected it to be. The comics is three narratives that intertwine with one another: a man is visited by his father and they go to an old train station to visit it, an English teacher explains his grading methods and his experience reading students essays, and we see pen pal correspondences between two people. It is about all that but it feels like much more while reading it and yet I wouldn’t be able to say what more because this book is impossible to describe. It’s a meditation of time and space as well as relationships and intimacy. The intimacy in different types of relationships: either between family, between student and teacher, between strangers.
I think the best part of the book is the way that Hankiewicz shows his mastery of the comics form and his use of comics language (panels, speech bubbles, lines that indicate action and/or sound, etc.) He pushes boundaries, experiments with comics language and the English language. Many other people have pointed out that his work is in the comics-as-poetry realm since he has this underlying rhythm in his comics and he also manages visual rhymes. Some images as symbols that evolve in meaning as you continue reading (which I know many comics artists do but he just does it so well). This book is poetic but it’s a story/poem that can only be told in the comics medium. Any way, I love this book and I highly recommend it as well as Asthma.
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