Albert and the Others [Paperback]

Guy Delisle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2008

Limbs are swapped and pants are dropped in Albert and the Others, a collection of wordless strips that expose the pleasures, pitfalls, and perversities of masculinity. In this companion volume to Aline and the Others (2006),Guy Delisle delves deep into the male psyche and emerges with twenty-six alphabetically arranged strips, named after the men who tumble through the pages. These elastic protagonists risk damnation and dismemberment in a series of improbable slapstick relationships with women, which veer from the titillating to the downright macabre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This series of wordless portraits of men is slightly disturbing, especially in its attitude toward women's bodies, but one imagines that's the point. Smiling, mindless women are chopped up by magicians and pulled out in pre-disassembled pieces by psychiatrists. One is tied to train tracks, run over and sewn back together by a cowboy. It's definitely creepy commentary when a naked middle-aged fisherman reels in a naked woman, carefully measures her, then throws her back. But the book feels more like an artistic statement than a narrative, and it's not art for art's sake so much as art as a hammer to whack you with. At its best, it makes one giggle and wince at the same time. At its worst, it's upsetting. The art feels quirky with its frumpy little grayscale men (some pages are toned sepia and others are blue). While not a masterpiece like Delisle's autobiographical comics Pyongyang or Shenzhen, it's worth reading. Much the way he captured the sense of danger in the Communist blandness of North Korea, Delisle's portraits capture something of the sinister blankness of the Western workingman. (Mar.)
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From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Echoing Delisle's female-centered Aline and the Others (Drawn & Quarterly, 2006), Albert examines the testosterone side of gender. With simple images in muted color, the author has created a compact, wordless story of a character for each letter of the alphabet. Usually absurd, sometimes perverse, and always interesting, these men are a delight to encounter. Take for example Jean-Luc, who is literally divided into two selves following a jealous-girl fight. Each girl then happily carries away, marries, and forms a life with her half of him. Years later, after each pint-size Jean-Luc has lost his respective love, the two meet and forge a drunken reunion in a seedy bar. It is amazing to see what Delisle is able to do in each of these limited-frame stories. This collection, though minimalist, presents some big ideas about culture and the nature of human behavior and relationships. It will be a sure hit for mature teen purveyors of black humor and the thoughtfully macabre.–Shannon Peterson, Kitsap Regional Library, WA
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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; 1st edition (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897299273
• ISBN-13: 978-1897299272
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,364,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming & imaginative, February 17, 2009

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Michael M. Winters - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Albert and the Others (Paperback)

Guy DeLisle, the author of the totally absorbing 'travel' volumes PYONGYANG, SHENZHEN & BURMA TALES earlier gave us this quirky & amusing volume of visual anecdotes that adds a new dimension to our vision of this unique artist.