Monday, December 16, 2013

YALSA top ten 2007: Sloth


Sloth
Written and illustrated by Gilbert Hernandez
Published by DC/Vertigo (2006)

First review on this site and I start by saying something that clearly marks me out as a horrible person amongst comic book fans: I don't really care for Gilbert Hernandez's comics.

This isn't just based on Sloth. I've read some of Love and Rockets (the first volume of...some edition, the square-ish ones?), Grip: The Strange World of Men, and Speak of the Devil (maybe?). I barely remember anything about them other than them being at best "okay", and a friend complaining about the huge busted women in the art (she was surprised to hear that Hernandez was an award winning and respected creator).

Sloth is about a high school student who wakes up from a coma and is now just really slow. He moves slow, he wants his band to play slower music, he sleeps all the time. There's a bit about some weird monster that maybe exists in a lemon orchard, but then it just falls into a dream world or something. I'm kind of shocked I'm saying this about a book with a monster and a possible alternative dimension, but I just found it really boring.

Marble Season, another Gilbert Hernandez book, is on one of the later lists, so I'll get around to it eventually. But based on the free comic book day preview, which I don't think I bothered finishing, I don't really expect to enjoy it that much either.

This graphic novel is from YALSA's 2007 top ten great graphic novels for teens.

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