Last week the NY Times ran an article about a comic book that had me salivating. The Japanese brother-and-sister team of Shin and Yuko Kibayashi have been writing the series "Drops of the Gods" for four years. The comic, centered around wine, has gained such a following in Japan and Korea that wine sellers often import wine based upon what the characters are drinking. The beauty of the story is that it uses the pairing of word and graphic image to describe wine in vivid and imaginative ways. (Click on the image to enlarge and read from right to left)
Personally, I believe the graphic novel to be one of the great art forms for exactly this reason. In comics, the old maxim 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is combined with the human necessity to describe and to name. Much like a steak paired with a good wine, words and images play off each other to tremendous effect as the act of story telling is enhanced by a showing of sorts.
The Times article goes on to describe the Kibayashi's as unabashed Francophiles who find American wines lacking in Old-world depth. This, to me, was fine, but what was truly disappointing is that the article states there are no English translations. I was horrified. Then I did my own snooping around and found that at least the first three chapters are translated. Enjoy!
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