Customer Reviews

Cairo

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this vividly illustrated jaunt with a djinni and assorted other characters through the streets of Cairo. Perker's drawings are captivating and entertaining and Wilson's text synchs beautifully. Having studied the Middle Eastern culture of the djinn and written about it in "A Genie in the House of Saud," I highly recommend this book. --KF Zuzulo

Cairo is fastpaced, humane, pretty and a joy to read. But it is too short. I just felt like I wanted more character development, adventure, and plot twists. Not enough happens.

I picked this up without knowing anything about it, and loved it. I tend to read comics in bits over breakfast, kept reading "just a little more" to find a good place to put it down. No superheroes, but a warrior, a djinn, and plenty of demons, all well told and well drawn. Lots of plots, but all tied together nicely with good pacing. I'll look for more work from these folks.

Cairo is written, in many ways, as a loving tribute to the eponymous city itself. Set in the Egyptian capital, the book follows a group of characters from a myriad of nationalities and social backgrounds--including an Israeli soldier, an Egyptian journalist, a drug-runner, a suicide bomber, and an American student--brought together by the rather unlikely circumstance of the theft of a hookah in which it just so happens a "genie" is imprisoned. This framework allows the story to explore the politics of the Middle East, while also exploring the more mystical elements of the culture there.

It is a rather ambitious goal this book's creators undertook, especially considering they are both relatively inexperienced with the medium. Writer G. Willow Wilson and artist M.K. Perker have worked in their respective fields for many years--Wilson as an essayist for esteemed magazines such as Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Magazine, and the defunct Egypt-based Cairo Magazine, and Perker as an illustrator for publications ranging from The New Yorker to MAD Magazine--but this book marks Wilson's first foray into comics while most of Perker's experience is as a cartoonist and not a sequential artist. Frankly it shows, as both creators are clearly unaccustomed to the format of comics and fall back on the skills of their day jobs a bit too often.

It's obvious that the writer is a journalist by trade, which works to both the book's benefit and its detriment. Wilson's approach to the story is to mix the fantasy aspects with a real-world sensibility towards the modern-day issues facing the region. These disparate elements are not mixed perfectly, and the social awareness of the story occasionally can come across as a bit heavy-handed, especially in one bit in which an Egyptian journalist and a young American girl argue politics while spurred on by an evil jinn. But for the most part these two sides to the story do fit together well, and Wilson uses the fanciful trappings of the plot to grab our attention while she delivers her message to us.

What makes Wilson's background as a journalist most clear, however, is not in the subject matter but in how the story is told. The book is at times overly verbose, relying too much on the words to tell the story and not fully utilizing the art as a storytelling tool. The characters are incredibly talkative, and sometimes it is transparent that their dialogue is being used either for exposition or as an authorial soapbox. Thus, the conversations between characters can be quite clunky, and the word balloons occasionally crowd out the images.

The artist's style too can seem a bit ill-suited for comics. Perker clearly has great talent as an illustrator, having worked for a number of well-regarded publications over the past two decades, such skills do not always translate well into good comic art. The faces and postures of the characters are very expressive; Perker is clearly skilled at creating real emotional resonance in the characters he draws. Some of the fantasy sequences involving demons trawling through catacombs are quite visually arresting as well. The composition of certain panels is occasionally awkward, however, and the blocking of some scenes can be rather bland and uninteresting. In many of the images we only see half of a character's face, either in profile or because it extends off-panel, or characters have their backs to the "camera."

These assets and these flaws add up to a finished product that is very much a mixed bag. It has interesting story elements that aren't always handled well and characters that seem like clichés in one scene and very real in the next. The art similarly seems to lack polish on some pages while in others it is incredibly skillful. It is difficult then to recommend Cairo in its present form, as a $25 hardcover, even though it was enjoyable enough to read in the end. Perhaps though once the book is in paperback form, and a bit less expensive, it might be worth a look.

Cairo the city holds many secrets for foreigners. CAIRO the graphic novel isn't so obtuse; it puts some of those secrets out there for all to see and uses them to kick off a story that is part mythology, part social commentary and part full-blown adventure.

The combination works. It's a debut from writer G. Willow Wilson and longtime illustrator M.K. Perker (TURKAN SORAY LIPS, FAIRY TALE MAFIA) that uses magic realism to propel its five principal characters into a heady battle with ultimate evil. Among the participants are Kate, a bored young American seeking meaning in a strange city; Shaheed, a fellow American of Lebanese heritage who claims to be just passing through Cairo on his way to Beirut; Ali, a political activist and newspaper columnist; Tova, a member of the Israeli Special Forces who has lost her way and needs to get back to Israel; and Ashraf, a drug smuggler who has just come into possession of a strange hookah pipe.

Of course, all five characters converge and become intertwined in a sometimes complex plot. Fairly early on, CAIRO takes a giant leap into the fantastical (this is a book about the strange world that most of us never see, after all) when Shams, a genie --- more accurately, a jinn --- pops out of the hookah. With the stage set, Wilson is able to weave in a series of fun cultural fantasy and myth against the strikingly realistic background Perker has laid out.

Shams, it seems, is under a curse put upon him by an evil magician, not to mention being chased by an evil demon. If it all sounds too gimmicky, complicated, or just plain strange, wait. Wilson has a light touch, which is exactly what CAIRO needs and deserves. This is partially allegory, and some standard elements of mainstream comics rear their heads, but overall, it is a plainspoken and craftily simple tale of human existence caught up in a much larger, and very intense, battle between light and dark. Best of all, it often has the feel of old pulp fiction adventures or old movie serials --- fast, furious action clomping away while hapless innocent characters inadvertently drawn into the action try to make their way. To see this take place in the eerie underworld of CAIRO --- and especially with such earnestness and care --- is a fresh treat.

Wilson rushes perhaps a little too hastily to her third act's ending, which does create a jarring climax to an otherwise well-paced tale. But aside from that, this is an impressive debut and shows that Wilson is a talent to watch out for in the future. She has already moved on to the ongoing series Air --- also from Vertigo, and teaming her up with artist Perker --- and has written for the superhero comic The Outsiders. Air shows that Wilson is no one-trick pony; she's a great imaginative talent, and it's going to be interesting to watch where she goes from here.

--- Reviewed by John Hogan

Cairo the city holds many secrets for foreigners. Cairo the graphic novel isn't so obtuse; it puts some of those secrets out there for all to see and uses them to kick off a story that is part mythology, part social commentary and part full-blown adventure.

The combination works. It's a debut from writer G. Willow Wilson and longtime illustrator M.K. Perker (Turkan Soray Lips, Fairy Tale Mafia) that uses magic realism to propel its five principal characters into a heady battle with ultimate evil. Among the participants are Kate, a bored young American seeking meaning in a strange city; Shaheed, a fellow American of Lebanese heritage who claims to be just passing through Cairo on his way to Beirut; Ali, a political activist and newspaper columnist; Tova, a member of the Israeli Special Forces who has lost her way and needs to get back to Israel; and Ashraf, a drug smuggler who has just come into possession of a strange hookah pipe. Of course, all five characters converge and become intertwined in a sometimes complex plot.

Fairly early on, Cairo takes a giant leap into the fantastical (this is a book about the strange world that most of us never see, after all) when Shams, a genie --- more accurately, a jinn --- pops out of the hookah. With the stage set, Wilson is able to weave in a series of fun cultural fantasy and myth against the strikingly realistic background Perker has laid out. Shams, it seems, is under a curse put upon him by an evil magician, not to mention being chased by an evil demon.

If it all sounds too gimmicky, complicated, or just plain strange, wait. Wilson has a light touch, which is exactly what Cairo needs and deserves.
This is partially allegory, and some standard elements of mainstream comics rear their heads, but overall, it is a plainspoken and craftily simple tale of human existence caught up in a much larger, and very intense, battle between light and dark. Best of all, it often has the feel of old pulp fiction adventures or old movie serials --- fast, furious action clomping away while hapless innocent characters inadvertently drawn into the action try to make their way. To see this take place in the eerie underworld of Cairo--- and especially with such earnestness and care --- is a fresh treat.

Wilson rushes perhaps a little too hastily to her third act's ending, which does create a jarring climax to an otherwise well-paced tale. But aside from that, this is an impressive debut and shows that Wilson is a talent to watch out for in the future. She has already moved on to the ongoing series Air --- also from Vertigo, and teaming her up with artist Perker --- and has written for the superhero comic The Outsiders. Air shows that Wilson is no one-trick pony; she's a great imaginative talent, and it's going to be interesting to watch where she goes from here.

-- John Hogan

Well, i know the review title is a bit long but i wanted it to summarize all i want to say about the book.

Apparently i'm the first Egyptian here to review the book. I must say it's a disappointment by all means. When some people told me about this graphic novel called Cairo that was released, I thought, oh my God! i have to buy this, and i did buy it the next day. The cover looks cool, the artwork all in all is very good.

I have just finished the book, and i couldn't wait to review it. I expected it to be a Joe Sacco like work. But it's not, it's full of strange mystics, and myths, reflecting weird Islamic beliefs. Things involving Ghosts, and Satan. I found out at the end of the book that the writer is a Muslim convert.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the modern Cairo, the characters are very very shallow, it is very fast paced, that i couldn't actually define or explain how the character reached a decision, or a conclusion, or even link the relationship to each other!!

I know this is G Wilson's first graphic novel, but she should of used her journalistic talent in mixing a better story that links to TODAY's Cairo. The Cairo i saw in that graphic novel has nothing to do with the Cairo I'm living in.

I can tell that the book was meant for non-Egyptians but it still draws the same view to someone who hasn't seen Cairo, that it's old, and full of desert and pyramids! I'm really sorry to say that i wish that title "Cairo" went to a more deserving work.

I'm a great fan of Graphic Novels, Alan Moore is my all time favorite graphic novels writer, so as Neil Gaiman. So i am into the fantasy, mystics and dreams. But this is very very very weak... It's boring, it says it's recommended for mature readers, i'm sorry it is very childish, may be if i was in my early teenage i would of enjoyed this more.

One last thing that i couldn't actually understand is why do the characters mix arabic with english? Does that mean anything to someone who doesn't understand arabic?

She tried to discuss today's conflicts between Arabs, and Israelis in a fashion that i thought was tasteless.

I really wished to see something that reflects more of today's Cairo with it's traffic, overcrowded streets, the slums, the politics, the economics, the day to day life of the average Egyptian, even if it was a fiction, and more of today's Egypt. We have rich material for any forms of arts. Guess it has to be done by us Egyptians one day!!

I hope Mrs Wilson gets to see this, and i hope she doesn't make the same mistakes in her second graphic novel.

I really loved it - wonderful layering of different elements and subtle references to deeper inspirations for the book. Well done.

This book is beautiful, in every way possible. The graphics are outstanding, fluid, vibrant. The story is clever, insightful and thought-provoking. You'll think about the characters long after you close this book. (Though you'll want to keep it closeby, just to enjoy its ambience.) Wonderful!

Not expecting much when i bought this graphic novel, I was pleasantly surprised. The story moves along at a good pace, the characters develop and the plot is not formulaic. The pace at some points seems too fast, and would probably work best in a movie, and I tuly enjoyed who not everything was spoon fed to the reader, and some details and actions were not explained, more in line with the Moore approach. I'll be buying all the Willow Wilson works and hope that they live up to this one.