Michael Nicoll YahgulanaasCríticas

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a renowned Haida artist who, gradually, during a thirty-year career as a political activist, began to apply classic Haida visual forms and narratives to contemporary means of communications, including political cartoons and comics...Old Growth chronicles over thirty years of Yahgulanaas' graphic works that document the history of political negotiations and cultural conflict off the Northwest Coast of Canada from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Containing studies and experiments, finished work previously unpublished, and works that few have seen, this book reflects on such urgent topics as depletion of natural resources, global climate change and the fundamental question of 'how to live together'.

I always pick up Yahgulanaas's Haida mangas because they're so appealing: the covers, the titles, the art and the style. But then they leave me feeling cold - I know that they're retellings of traditional Haida myths and stories, but they just don't make sense to me.

But it's a great touch to have the three different dialects alongside the English.

Man, I don't know. It feels like something I would find in a museum exhibit on indigenous myths. A beautiful object, with traditional art and coloring, but it doesn't really work as a stand alone graphic novel.

I liked this comic aesthetically and would love to see this as the giant composite of its original creation. However, I had a hard time following just exactly what was going on, and I'm also unsure what makes this a specific nod to manga and not just a general comic.

*****
Counting this as my indie publisher for the Panels Read Harder challenge.

The genre of this book is folklore, based on a South American indigenous story. There is a forest fire, and while all the animals of the forest are frozen in fright, the smallest of them all, the brave hummingbird, carries one drop of water at time to put out the fire. Brief, yet with a big message that says no matter how small, anyone can make a difference.

I was intrigued to hear about this work mixing Haida culture with Japanese manga. I had to read it twice to understand the story. The black lines separating the pictures collectively form native motifs (which you can see as a whole in the back of the book and the inside of the jacket.

"Michael Nicoll Yahgulaanas (MNY) is the creator of a new style of graphic novel, Haida Manga. Haida Manga combines First Nations' art style and tales with the Japanese graphic novel form of manga. MNY uses his distinct style of art to bring Haida Gwaii tales to life. Haida art is very distinct and popular in Northwest art.

I read Red: A Haida Manga all in one sitting. As I admired the watercolour illustrations and the unconventional layout of the pages, I felt I was almost missing something in translation. Each page was such a beautiful work of art with minimal dialogue or narration. Because there wasn't a clear cut panel 1, panel 2, panel 3, panel 43 format, I had trouble following the story's details. I have read another story by MNY, The Flight of the Hummingbird, a parable for the environment. This had a more conventional layout and I feel that helped me grasp the morals of the story better.

Read my full review here: http://www.monniblog.com/2009/12/red-a-haida-manga/"

Brief story about doing all you can do.

Michael Yahgulanaas (Haida)

A North Pacific retelling of a South American indigenous story about a determined hummingbird who confronts fear in her attempt to save the forest from fire. While all the other animals watch in horror as their home is engulfed in flames, the hummingbird races to a stream to collect as much water as she can to drop on the fire. As each animal speaks of helplessness, the little bird performs the futile attempt of damping the fire by dropping one drop of water at a time. The bear asks why she tries. The hummingbird stops to respond – “I’m doing everything I can”.

Internationally acclaimed Haida artist, Michael Yahgulanaas, creates a beautifully striking book with three colours: black, red, and cream. Yahgulanaas is a master of the drawn line; he employs the more traditional First Nation North West Coast design motifs in his art for this book. Each spread background is either cream or red. The images are outlined in black. If the background is red, the images are black outlined with cream centers. Each creature is fluid yet detailed, there is no need for extra images on the page. That would only clutter and distract the reader.

At the end of the book there is a message from Nobel Peace Price laureate Wangari Maathai. About thirty years ago, she began to plant trees in Kenya after deforestation. In her message, she encourages people to think about what they can do for the earth and the environment.

The book also provides information about the hummingbird, for example, how far they can travel. In this section, we also learn about how the hummingbird is revered in various cultures.

'The Little Hummingbird' is about a forest which catches on fire. The fire drives all of the creatures out except for the hummingbird who drops water on the forest and saves the day.

As an experiment in form, Red is a resounding success. Penned by Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, it’s a beautifully conceived cross-pollination of Haida art and Japanese manga that retells the classic Haida oral tale of vengeful Red, a leader whose actions are poisoned by childhood tragedy.

The story of Red is a found narrative: a classic of Haida folklore. During childhood, raiders take Red’s sister Jaada – an event that instills in the future leader an enduring dream of retribution. The two children were already orphaned; now Red faces the future without family. As an adult, he begins to arm his formerly peaceful society, depleting their resources to buy weapons and to build an ingenious sea-going vessel. One day, traders announce that they’ve located Jaada. What happens next is both a tragedy and a cautionary tale.

Visually, the tale is beautifully told, using a style inspired by traditional Haida arts. Unfortunately, the narrative is not quite as successful as its graphic rendering. More than once, I couldn’t figure out what was happening and who was who. Red isn’t the first graphic novel to suffer from a sketchy, fragmented, at times bewildering story. Textually abbreviated, this form is inherently at a disadvantage. Still, it can and has been done well, and should have been better executed here.

As for the graphics, the panels are colourful watercolours that depict events in the forests and on the waters of the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte) islands in British Columbia. Irregularly shaped, these panels are edged with thick, sweeping lines, curving between the scenes on any given page. This unconventional framing at once unsettles the narrative and creates a dynamic energy.

But this sequence of unusual panels is not the whole story. Taken together, on one of the book’s final pages, they add up to one large-scale formline that suggests an almost fated cosmic patterning. Inspired by traditional Haida art, this formline is also reprinted at a slightly larger size on the inside of the dustjacket. It’s a gorgeous work – one that pulls back to reveal the larger image constructed by the panel shapes. This unique form draws together in a single graphic presentation the close-up, moment-by-moment action of the present, as well as the wide-angled overview of history or mythology. Yahgulanaas goes so far as to recommend tearing out the pages to piece the formline together for yourself: a massive composition nearly ten by four feet.

Read this book for the inspired execution of a new form, for the way Yahgulanaas reinvents sequential art as synthesis as well as series.½

This wonderful little book is an inspiration; one that, because of it's simple message and elegant illustrations, provides the understanding that all is not lost, that the damage caused to the environment can still be repaired. If the little hummingbird has the courage and endurance to fight the forest fire alone, drop by drop, even one person's willingness to do their part will change the face of our world for the better. And, if one person can make a change, others will follow.

The introduction by Wangari Maathai, as well as the wise words from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, make each individuals role in the fight to reclaim our environment seem so easy. It is my hope that this story will be widely read and that the image of the hummingbird will act as a reminder that every little bit counts. Our wish for a sustainable environment is indeed within our reach.

$6.99