Hall Of Best Knowledge - Softcover

Fenwick, Ray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560979100 ISBN 13: 9781560979104

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2008

Synopsis

by Ray Fenwick
Ray Fenwick has pioneered his own medium of storytelling, one best described as "typographical comics." Hall of Best Knowledge is presented as a handsome, personal journal written by an unnamed voice, referred to only as "The Author." Little is known about him. He clearly fashions himself a genius, writing with a faux-aristocratic air, and it is presumably his belief in his own genius that leads him to want to share his knowledge with the world. It becomes obvious to the reader early on that all is not as it seems; only at the end does the picture become completely clear. Hall of Best Knowledge is part graphic novel, part art object, part satire, part puzzle. The slow unfolding of the author and his story builds humor with each page, creating a peculiar examination of the idea of genius and the problems that arise in the search and transmission of knowledge. HOBK will be a handsomely designed and packaged book, presented as a found journal, with rounded fore edges, an elastic band to hold the book closed, and other production touches to further solidify and give form to the concept of the book.

About this title

About the Author

Ray Fenwick is an artist, illustrator and typographic thing-maker living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A former improv comedian and theater school dropout, Ray now occupies himself making drawings, comics and patterns for people like Blue Q, CMT, If'n Books, Nickelodeon, Urban Outfitters, and others. He regularly appears in Fantagraphics' flagship anthology, MOME.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Fenwick’s graphic-novel debut is a series of single-page images, each focused on a word or short phrase (e.g., “Wealth,” “Metaphor,” “Death,” “The Unique Gifts of Genius”) that is printed larger than the rest of the hand-lettered text accompanying it. Each text expatiates on the big word or words in a mini-essay embedded in a sea of hand-drawn decoration. The persona presenting the texts elaborately pretends to be a “genius” delivering daily lessons to the would-be-knowledgeable. Every so often, the writer-artist cancels class, as it were; “Cancelled” appears instead of a subject of instruction, and the instructor explains and assigns homework. This is all very droll, despite the fact that the teacher sometimes seems as awkward as a precocious but naive kid. Moreover, he mentions a brother with some envy, also a mother. In the end, all comes surprisingly clear. Fenwick carefully realizes a character with whom and a situation with which it is keenly gratifying and affirmative to empathize. This is a life-passage story that reveals itself as such so slyly that the joy and loving humility it evokes at the end are breathtaking. --Ray Olson

About this edition

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1560979100
• ISBN 13: 9781560979104
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 168