I'm going to admit from the very start that I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino's films, and as such in reviewing this new graphic book/bio I bring to the review a somewhat deep insight into this master's contribution to world cinema.Quentin Tarantino: A Graphic Biography is without a doubt a really good primer for those who are novices to the Tarantinean Empire as well as those, who like me, cannot resist watching Pulp Fiction for the 20th time when we come across it the tube while channel surfing.
The graphic bio spends time discussing QT's youth, including the part played in his upbringing by his supermom Connie, who as a single mother raised Tarantino while busting her ass initially as a nurse in California.
Tarantino's "training" as nearly everyone who is a QT fan knows, came from his experience working in a video rental store (remember those?)... if my memory serves me right, one of his best buds from those days was the really super-good artist Steve Martinez, whose work often appears in Tarantino's movies and whose work was exhibited in DC in the 1990s at either the Fraser Gallery or eklektikos - my memory fails me. The painting of Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction is in fact by Steve.
I remember him and I once discussing the huge size of Thurman's hands, which in the painting look out of proportion, until you fixate on them in any of her movies and notice that the lady has some fucking giant paws!
Back to the book... the press release summarizes it by noting that:
From the set of 1993’s Pulp Fiction, to a bar room meeting with Robert Rodriguez and an inspirational lunch with Leonardo di Caprio, this unique graphic novel takes us across a series of Hollywood-inspired vignettes covering the movie-obsessed life and career of one of modern cinema’s greatest filmmakers – Quentin Tarantino.
It is those meetings that essentially tell most of the story, and it really delivers in a fresh, novel way, as it places the reader next to Uma when she discusses ideas with the man!
Here's one of the panels (note the size of Ms. Thurman's hands... cough, cough...).
The graphic novel is essentially designed in such a way as to be devoured in one reading, and then be lovingly stashed away in your bookshelf as a prize and artsy copy of one of Hollywood's most talented directors.
And do not be surprised if, like it happened to me, you pull it back out, re-read it, re-examine the rather decent artwork and re-enjoy the whole adventure.
And then you discover, that just like the classical Tarantinean trick, you can pretty much open the book anywhere and start reading it from wherever your eyes land!
