Cardboard - Doug TenNapel

I said I might get to Cardboard this week, and here we are. Cardboard came out last year, which i think makes it TenNapel's most recent graphic novel. Unlike Power-Up, this one is in colored, the duties for that handled by Der-Shing Helmer.

Mike is a carpenter, father, and widower. Excep there's no carpentry work to be had, his insistence on being a widower makes things difficult for him and his neighbor Tina. and the money crunch is starting to affect his parenting. Especially when the only birthday gift he can afford for his son Cam is a cardboard box, purchased from Old man Gideon. Gideon gives him the box with only two conditions: Bring back the scraps, and don't ask him for more cardboard.

Cam rolls with it and suggests they make a cardboard man, a boxer. Who then comes to life, as cardboard men do. This produces great envy in Marcus, the unpleasant local rich kid, and he tries to destroy Bill. Only Mike's quick thinking turns the remaining cardboard scraps into a cardboard maker, which gives them enough supplies to save Bill. It also gives Cam the idea of making more cardboard people, including one of his mother, which Mike strenuously objects to.

Then Marcus gets ahold of it, takes the idea to the next level, and before you know it, cardboard monsters are trying to cardboard over the town.

As I mentioned in the Power Up review, TenNapel often has a main character who is their own worst obstacle. Mike believes carpentry is all he's good at, and the fact he can't provide for his son by it makes him a failure. There are a lot of panels of just Mike, close in on his face, or framed so his whole body is visible, but not much else. He's tried to wall himself, because he thinks it's what he deserves, because he doesn't want to rely on anyone, because it's supposed to be his job to look after others.

He feels like he'd betray his late wife Carol if he acted on the interest he feels towards Tina (and the interest she has in him). So he fights against the part of himself that recognizes she's a good person, who would help him, who would love Cam, and would very much like to not be alone herself. There's a nice sequence on page 52 where she brings over cookies, and at first, she and Mike are just talking. he's being sort of bitterly sarcastic, and Tina's not in the frame, because mostly he's talking to himself. Then there's a panel very close-up on Tina, as she offers to help in the job search. The fact that she's so close, from Mike's perspective is that moment where his pride, and whatever you'd call his loyalty to Carol's memory come flaring into effect, and the next thing you know, he's trying to return the cookies, because it might give her the wrong idea if he accepted. Ugh. Even Mike knows it's a stupid thing to say, but there's a guilty part that forces it out.

I like TenNapel's designs for the creatures. Marcus' especially feel like things an angry kid might make. Robots, gorillas with a cage in their belly, giant versions of typically small creatures the kid thinks are cool But most of them lack color, beyond the color of standard cardboard. Which makes Bill stand out more, with his boxing gloves, shorts, and hair. He gets a wider range of expressions. Among the regular folk, most of them look like normal people, except Gideon, who looks slightly kooky with his eyes that don't match, and side burns when there's no hair up top.  For some reason, I really like his fingerless gloves, they complete his look somehow, maybe for making him look a little more threadbare? He looks like an oddball, but not so far gone you couldn't run into someone like him in our world.

Helmer's colors work well also. When Gideon is selling Mike on buying the box, he gets really energetic and the shadows start shifting to mimic his movements. When he forms teeth with his fingers, the shadows form one around him. When he thrusts his arms into the sky, the shadows form a column around him. And in both panels, there's a strong amount of red present as well. Suggesting energy, danger, Gideon enthusiasm, I'm not sure, but it doesn't quite extend to Mike, who has a calm cream color, with some pink tinges. There's also a point where Marcus is trying to create cardboard life (minus the cardboard maker), where the background in this sickly olive color that sharply contrasts with the cool blues in the panels of Mike sleeping that surround it. It makes you a little worried, watching Marcus get frustrated, while at the same time, seeing how things aren't going too badly for Mike.

Between Power Up and Cardboard, I'm not sure which I prefer. Cardboard's longer, which gives TenNapel more room for story. There's more going on with the characters in that one, where Power Up didn't have much time to flesh out anyone but Hugh.