Pop Image
Review of Blood Song: A Silent Ballad
By Jon & Ed
2002http://www.popimage.com/content/viewnews.cgi?newsid1042530930,35045,
Jon: So I picked up something interesting a few months ago I'd like to recommend. Eric Drooker's Blood Song. I was glad to see this as I didn't come across it in my local comic shop but rather my local book store. This was a nice surprise as their graphic novel section is quite shoddy. In fact it's not even a section. It's a handful of shelf space. It's practically barren. Which I can understand since there's quite a few comic shops around. None the less, I feel they could sell more if they simply kept more in stock. But on this particular day I was delighted to see copies of, not only Blood Song but Narcissa and Shutterbug Follies as well. I immediately grabbed Blood Song and put it with the rest of my days stash.
For those unaware Blood Song is a silent journey of a young girls struggle to survive when her world is devastated. Eric Drooker is an artist whose work you may have recognized from The New Yorker or The Village Voice. Eric's work is rather amazing. Joe Sacco, cartoon journalist and author of Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde wrote the intro and I believe put it quite well when he said "Each scratchboard-etched and water-coloured image in Blood Song works in sequential step to drive the story forward, and yet each could stand alone as a work of art."
ED: I order mine from Midtown Comics via UPS, so I'm waiting on a pile. I assume I should add this to said pile?
Jon: Yes Ed. Most of the art is done in black, white and blue and Eric creates these striking moments in art by adding bright splashes of yellow, red and orange. Another art method to keep your eye out for is the flow of his art. Normally when you see a double page spread in comics the artist will draw outside the border so when printed the image meets together at the fold in the center. But with Blood Song each page is its own so in creating a flow between pages Eric actually crosses the gap unseen while still keeping a continuous line of action. Though silent, this reads like poetry and quite frankly took more time to get through then most other comics I've recently picked up... and those are scripted. Story wise, some may feel the role of the police takes on too oppressive of a presence, or at least that's a bit of what I've heard, but having recently been hassled by the cops two consecutive weekends in a row, I have no qualms with it whatsoever. Back to the art for a second, I'd also say it seems to just scream New York, if that makes sense. In the same way that Peter Kuper's art says NY, or scenes from Metropolis says NY, you can also see that in Eric Drooker's cityscapes in Blood Song.
ED: You know . . . a lot of things scream NY.
Jon: Yes but you know how an image of a cityscape will uniquely say NY?
ED: Yes. Like a Velvet Underground song screams early East Village, NYC.
Jon: Without even identifying specifics, you can just tell.
ED: Well, I can tell when an artist is not NYC.