Another Slightly Delayed Response

To be perfectly honest, when I first started reading Working, I wasn’t too excited about it. The first couple of stories I felt were either too cliché or mundane (don’t get me wrong I have immense respect for coal miners or farm workers, it’s just that their plight is nothing new) or too cluttered with text. I also shared Raymond and Lisa’s sentiments about it feeling kind of picture-booky. But then I came to some of the stories where the illustrations actually enhanced these accounts. My three favorites which were able to do this, which were able to take the comics genre and push it towards its potential, were Farmworker, Organizer, and Waitress.

The appeal of Farmworker is obvious. Though it is still heavy in dialogue (something I’m not very happy about) it makes up for it with fascinating images. The portrayal of the protagonist using ancient Mixtec codices juxtaposed with coddled “Anglos” (who looked like their brains were cooked in microwaves) and Spanish phrases in my mind redeemed the story. The words were brought to life and given greater and deeper meaning. The great separation between Mexicans and Anglos was made wider by the barrier of language. The irony of the fieldwork they were boxed into was heightened by their physical depictions as ancient royals. The comics done in this story were not just illustrations of what had already been said in the dialogue boxes. They enhanced the words and did what I expect them to do in graphic nonfiction. I am not six. I am not reading Dr. Seuss. These images have to do something more, and in Farmworker I feel they did.

Organizer was also well illustrated in my opinion. When the main character describes his dad cutting coupons and getting worked over by the myriad companies he admired, Peter Kuper doesn’t just show the dad cutting coupons but goes one step further and has scissors cutting the entire panels in half. The gravity of those cut coupons is amplified. Not only are pieces of paper getting torn apart in the face of these companies, but so also are hopes and dreams (kind of cheesy sounding I know but what can I say I was impressed). I also appreciated the use of very basic and angular shapes in this piece. I don’t want to say too much about it but I felt it very appropriately symbolized the protagonist’s strong and solid views on society and what needed to be done to improve it.

Finally I want to talk a little about Waitress. I really appreciated the depiction of her as both an artist and a work of art herself. She is her own masterpiece. She is that Venus de Milo, that ballet dancer, that high-energy performer, and she works hard everyday to make it that way. I feel the illustrations were able to capture that well. Also I agree with Lee; the progression of her character was really fascinating. What starts out chipper and upbeat slowly morphs into exhaustion and anxiety, and it was nice to see that vulnerability. I feel it grounded the story, validating its realness.

Overall, there is no denying that the lives of these workers are each fascinating and worth investigating. However, in adapting their stories to a graphic novel format, I feel it was necessary to have the illustrations not only stand up to the stories but also enhance them, and I felt only a select few were able to do that.