Pentti & Deathgirl
By: Emma Rendel
128 pages, color, soft cover
Langauge: English
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009
ISBN: 978-0224-08506-9
This is the English debut book of Swedish artist Emma Rendel, consisting of two longer stories about the main characters in the title. The first story focuses on a Finnish man in the countryside with latent and unresolved homosexual feelings, who takes his frustration out on the people around him, picking fights with men in order to be close to them. A disturbing piece, with some really horrid and at the same time amusing violent scenes. In the other story we follow the innermost thoughts of a social outcast, a school girl who really has no friends and does her best to make sure no-one knows. This story is told in big, one-page images in black, white and red (for the girl’s dress), contrasted with pages seemingly taken from the young girl’s notebook with hand drawn lines and a very immature style of writing. The effect is striking and both stories linger in my mind long after having read them. In many of the images, Rendel's influences from the great artist Tove Jansson become evident, which is both beautiful and disturbing in combination with her disfigured characters and bleak stories. Compared to Rendel's Swedish book, Allt är alrajt, I think this one is stronger, with more vivid images and more touching stories. But why compare? Rendel is a unique voice in comics, and we will most surely see and hear more of her in the future.
By: Emma Rendel
128 pages, color, soft cover
Langauge: English
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009
ISBN: 978-0224-08506-9
This is the English debut book of Swedish artist Emma Rendel, consisting of two longer stories about the main characters in the title. The first story focuses on a Finnish man in the countryside with latent and unresolved homosexual feelings, who takes his frustration out on the people around him, picking fights with men in order to be close to them. A disturbing piece, with some really horrid and at the same time amusing violent scenes. In the other story we follow the innermost thoughts of a social outcast, a school girl who really has no friends and does her best to make sure no-one knows. This story is told in big, one-page images in black, white and red (for the girl’s dress), contrasted with pages seemingly taken from the young girl’s notebook with hand drawn lines and a very immature style of writing. The effect is striking and both stories linger in my mind long after having read them. In many of the images, Rendel's influences from the great artist Tove Jansson become evident, which is both beautiful and disturbing in combination with her disfigured characters and bleak stories. Compared to Rendel's Swedish book, Allt är alrajt, I think this one is stronger, with more vivid images and more touching stories. But why compare? Rendel is a unique voice in comics, and we will most surely see and hear more of her in the future.
