Second, he’s an excellent artist with a style that you won’t find anywhere else. Some pages can get very talky, but it’s always with a point, and you breeze right through it, anyway. First, Nob is a great storyteller who can pace out a gag over a single page in a strong way. It almost wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for two things. There are complete smaller stories, a laugh a minute, and very little real change. This book is a drawn sitcom in all the best possible ways. Yeah, I know, I laughed as I typed that, too. It should appeal to the stereotypical comic reader in North America instantly. There’s plenty of material out there to publish.įrom a pure demographics point of view: It’s a comic book about a middle-age guy with no money and too many kids. The “Dad” series continues in “Spirou Journal” to this day. I hope they pick up production on it sometime. Unfortunately, Europe Comics’ translations stalled out at this third book. There are eight “Dad” books now in the series. Read it and enjoy it, have a few laughs, look forward to the next. It’s the kind of book you can pick up and read a page or two of when during a commercial break or something. (Nob is clearly setting up some future stories here and there, but there’s not a heavy continuity.) It’s the ongoing saga of a father with his back to the wall and a house full of daughters. There’s no single story to tie it together, just certain thematic elements. It’s a great assortment of things that never gets old and never wears out its welcome. That runs four pages and brings the police in to straighten him out.īut, mostly, “Dad” is a collection of single-page gags that run the gamut from pratfalls to family matters, from Dad’s personal life to his career, from visual to verbal. (I wonder if that worked as well when it appeared in “Spirou Journal” to begin with? Did the readership remember Dad’s previous issues by the time that issue of the magazine came around? It works well in album format, so I’m not complaining.)Īnd then there’s the story of the camping trip Dad arranges for his family that, of course, goes spectacularly wrong in every way imaginable. Again, the gag recurs later in the book for another punchline that works because you remember this sequence from earlier on. I would bet that it was a complete story in a December issue of “Spirou Journal.”ĭad goes through some stress levels that result in a major (ugly) acne outbreak for a few pages. But there’s also a Christmas story that runs across three pages. That visit from Ondine’s mother is a series of gags. We get more than just isolated single-page gags in this book, though. Nob plays well with “continuity.” This book isn’t tied up in it, but uses it well from time to time.) (And, many pages later in the book, we see how she gets him back. Thankfully, it’s a comedy so we can safely laugh at the situations, including the preposterous way Dad finds to get rid of her. If this was a serious book, everyone would have lifelong issues that would scar them. If that situation sounds vaguely familiar, Lewis Trondheim and Obion’s “Mamma Mia!” has a similar storyline in it with a slightly different degree of “kooky mother.” She’s also the kooky caricature of a Hollywood star, concerned with her yoga practice more than her child, and prone to fits of champagne. She’s a famous actress having trouble coming to terms with her age and a career that’s slowing down. In this book, (second child) Ondine’s mom shows up.
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