Riel story adapted to fit comic book style

Page 29

Louis Riel

-A Comic-Strip Biography

By Chester Brown

Drawn and Quarterly Publications

272 pages (hc)

$34.95

Louis Riel-A Comic-Strip Biography is an interesting experiment, taking a unique approach to the telling of the story of Louis Riel and his struggle to have the rights of the Metis people in Western Canada recognized by the federal government. The story is told entirely within comic-strip panels, six to a page, drawn in black and white.

Whether readers will be happy or disappointed with the book is in large part dependent on what they expect the book to be. Historical purists looking for a totally accurate portrayal of the life of Louis Riel won't find it here, at least not in the first 241 pages of the book.

Brown himself informs the reader in the book's forward that he's adapted Riel's story to make it fit the comic book style, ignoring some things and simplifying others in much the same way pieces of history have for years been adapted in order to make them more interesting in movies and television.

But that's not to say Brown didn't do his research on his subject. He lists 28 sources in the book's bibliography, and provides a very detailed explanation in his notes of exactly where and why portions of the book diverge from recorded histories.

These notes, which go on for 23 pages, also provide additional information that would prove difficult to get across in the main part of the book without bogging down the narrative.

While the information is all there, the format in which it is presented is a bit on the awkward side, requiring the reader to read through the comic-strip, then read the explanatory notes and refer back to the strip to see which portions each note refers to.

The format also affects the book's usefulness as a teaching tool, because readers are more likely to remember the less than accurate comic version of events than they are the historically accurate notes they must wade through after. This isn't made any easier by the fact that the notes have been written out by Brown rather than typeset.

The content of the comic itself also makes it a less than ideal tool for teaching. While the idea of using a comic-strip format to reach a younger audience is ideal, there is some language in the book that might not be suitable for younger readers. And a few of the drawings, while black and white and sparse in detail, still might be too graphic for some. This may be a testament to Brown's skill as an illustrator, the ability to capture in a simple illustration the horror of a character getting a bullet through the head, but art and talent don't make the image any more palatable to the squeamish.

This book has more to offer to the fan of the comic book style than to fans of history. That makes sense, after all, because the book wasn't created by a writer of histories who decided to use the comic-strip format to tell a particular tale, but by a creator of comic-strip books who decided to try his hand at portraying a piece of history.