Boneme: How To Kiss A Monster (Paperback)

~ Joy Rip (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Boneme: How to Kiss a Monster" by Joy Rip is an experimental graphic novel that is more of an art book than a typical comic book. Boneme is the name of our central character. And it tells the story of a poor joyless boy who is determined to experience something called happiness, especially romantic happiness, before he dies. Unfortunately, it is not to be. Joy, the narrator of our story and Boneme's dream girl, dies at our poor desperate boy's own hands. Is this picture book a cautionary tale about unrealistic hopes of happiness (or joy)? Is it a nihilistic fairytale? "Boneme" is a tale for telling when there is nothing left to say... A tale for telling when tragedy is neither beautiful nor profound, only overwhelmingly painful and ugly. There are people born unhappy or are quickly made unhappy after birth. Boneme is one. This story is meant for them and those who think they know someone like them. This story is meant for anyone who has no story... anyone wants to hear. Enjoy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (October 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440418659
• ISBN-13: 978-1440418655
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Evolution of the Graphic Novel, October 24, 2008

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Create Space is coming out with some very interesting new works that challenge the description of the graphic novel genre. An earlier offering, THE FALL: Q & A FALLEN ANGEL TELL THE STORY OF SATAN'S FALL, was a highly successful marriage of graphics and story with a twinge of philosophy. Now author Joy Rip has produced a fine book BONEME: HOW TO KISS A MONSTER that is in every way an art book, but an art book with a message - an invitation for thinking stimulated by a different level of combining the visual with the written word. It is highly successful.

Quietly, BONEME shares the story of a 'monster' named Boneme ('There once was a little boy who had so little joy no one wanted to be around him') whose profound need for love and affection results in the destruction of his own need when his encounter with a girl names Joy ends in his killing her. The narrator of the tale is Joy and is the sole soft portion of the story: when Boneme is tortured by the fact that he is a monster, Joy states 'Real monsters never think they are'. The corresponding 'narration' from Boneme is primarily in the form of bristling graphic art that makes real the person whose face is hidden by a mask.

For this reader the power of the graphic novel here reaches its peak in the last pages, all of which are filled with black and white ink drawings of the solitary life and deserted places that are the world of Boneme. This is sensitive writing and art that manages to draw even the most skeptical reader of graphic novels into the fold. With authors/artists like Joy Rip and Q around there promises to be a resurgence of the graphic novel. Perhaps that means that we as adults have grown into the sanctuary of imaginative thinking that children share as they devour comic books. Read this book - for a number of reasons, among which is the quality of art and thought it represents. Grady Harp, October 08