Rockin’ the family
“When I think of Queen I remember my whole life” writes Mike Dawson towards the beginning of his rather lengthy semi-autobiographical graphic novel, Freddie & Me : A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody. And while Mike’s fascination with the band and it’s music flows through the book, it’s clearly in the background while Mike’s life takes center stage. There’s Mike at a young age, watching a video on TV of Freddie Mercury vacuuming in drag while singing “I want to break free,” Mike listening to a cassette with a friend who wonders if there are any more songs with “swear words”, Mike arguing with his younger sister Sarah about the relative merits of Queen versus Wham! (and, eventually, just George Michael), and, of course, young Mike’s solo performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” during a talent night while the family was on holiday in Wales with his bemused and mortified parents watching from the audience–guaranteed to make you smile. (Check out that cover image for a preview.)
There’s an opening sequence to set up the story, but then the action moves back in time to Mike’s childhood and follows a pretty straight-forward chronological narrative path, with the occasional omniscient cartoonist/narrator breaking through to comment on the subjectivity of the action. The art is all black-and-white which serves the story pretty well since the narrative takes a fairly leisurely pace (some might say it drags a bit, but I’m trying to be charitable). Dawson’s style borders on caricature with some of the images of children, where features seem to be larger than normal, but that’s probably a decent approximation of the disproportion of youth and the coltishness of adolescence. ...
Written by LibWorm: Public Libraries · Filed Under Reading News
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