Customer Reviews

Flink

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If Doug's second to latest book, 'Black Cherry', wasn't your cup of tea then 'Flink' should be right up your alley. Similar to his book 'Tommysaurus Rex', Tennapel tells a simple story about a kid and his large, not human, friend. In this case, that friend happens to be a Bigfoot named Flink.

Doug's art is at its most commercial here (and I mean that in the best possible sense). The main character, Conrad, looks like he's about to leap off the page and into an animated movie. And if there is any fairness in the world, that will be the case. The inks are clean and crisp when they need to be and messy when they need to be.

The story is simple, and the pacing moves the story along at a good clip. It's a story made for everyone, no matter how young or old. Like the rest of Tennapel's graphic novels, this is a must own.

A little more normal than usual. Most of Doug Tennapels G/N are realy out there. Random elements place together and then brought into harmony. Flick is a survival story with ape men, short, not at all what I expected but overall a good G/N. Not an action, sci-fi or fantasy but a good short G/N.

Only the simplicity of the tale itself warranted me taking away one star. Otherwise, we have the sort of excellent art and heartwarming speculative tale one expects from Doug TenNapel.

In this one, I got a big kick that the boy looked so much like my nephew--the sticky up hair, the big dark eyes, the obsession with portable video game player. :)

Story: A boy and his father, on a Bigfoot finding expedition, have a crash landing. Survival--and how it relates to the particular bigfoot in question--is the immediate concern. But this morphs into a tale of friendship...and learning that the "other" may not be as bad as one may assume.

There is danger. There is humor. There is generosity and self-sacrifice. It's a nice wee tale.

Doug does a great job of making the boy and Bigfoot likable. He has a way of telling a visual story, and I always look forward to his next work. And one of his main thematic preoccupations (the relationship of boys and their fathers/father-figures) is at play here, too.

If you have a young person on your Christmas list who likes comic books, and you want a nice tale without offensive material, this one, with its very sweet ending, is a good choice.

Mir

Doug Tennapel shows his versatility as a master storyteller, making a quick 2007 return from Black Cherry earlier the same year. Whereas Black Cherry was a seedy noir gangster tale (and Doug's most "R rated" book to date), Flink takes us back to the kind of all-ages adventure he established earlier with Tommysaurus Rex.

It wouldn't be a Tennapel book without CREATURES. Flink is no exception, centering its setting around the race of "Bigfoot" creatures, of which the title character is one. The other main character is a boy who befriends him. Both are coping with recent losses, and the father-son theme that permeates Tennapel's work has never been more evident.

This is Doug's breeziest book to date, comfortably read in a single sitting. Pacing is snappy and there are fewer characters and less dialogue than his other tales. Buy it and share it with your family.

I can see how the fast pacing and low page count of Flink could disappoint fans of Doug TenNapel's GN's -- TenNapel is such a fantastic storyteller that you don't want his stories to end. It is also the case that his other graphic novels have a neat way of taking time at the beginning to build the world and characters - after a good amount of this, his stories swell into a roller coaster of action.

So, here are my two cents on Flink - from the perspective of father of a 12.5 year old son (and the once 12.5 year old son of my father):

TenNapel's setup reflects the hyperactive nature of a normal 10-12 year boy like the main charecter Conrad -- a clever way of telling the story. Remember how slow and monotanous the begining of EarthBoy Jacobus was? The perfect pace for a retiring police detective with nothing in life to look forward to.

The story is about a boy entering his father's world. The father never completly prepares the boy for this. Conrad's dad can see this coming in a way not as dramatic as the plane crash that occurs. Any dad who trys to love and raise his family wonders if he has gotten enough "how-to-survive" lessons passed onto his children, especial his sons. A swiss army knife is used as a great symbol here - one last tool-for-all-occasions that is passed onto Conrad before he ends up in the real world.

When Conrad is on his own, he stuburnly clings to his video games; he finally ditches the game when he realizes the importance of his relationship with Flink. Instead of seeing my son going blip..bleep..blip like Conrad I was suprised to see myself! One of our society's wierder problems is that childhood (more accuratly childishness) is being perpetuated further into the adulthood years. Heck, I'm 35 and still read comic books! And ditching the internet, in order to strengthen my relationship with my family, is a day to day struggle for me.

There is also a mirroring of two universal themes: 1. when a boy loses his dad and 2. when a dad loses his son. This is serous subject matter. I cannot think of another work that deals with these subjects in such a way that a dad and his 12.5 year old son can really look at it together. Actually I can: The Children's Homer: the Iliad and the Odyessy edited by Padraic Colum. But you can't read that work with your son in one hour (no pictures) and it is not nearly as warm and approachable as Flink. Homer should take lessons from Doug.

Finnally, my son and I love reading TenNapel's GN's. With Flink my son and I, on the second reading, went slower and really pored over the details in the images. We also spent time looking at the slower moments and really imagining what it would be like to be in the character's shoes. We talked about the time when he was 9 and drove with me to Chicago to my dad's funeral... about friends of his who have had thier fathers desert their family... about what my son will be like when he is a father. We had some pretty good discussions. In other words we used our imaginations, slowed down and talked to each other about the story. Intentional? Happy accident of the story teller? I have read TenNapel's other GN's enough times to know how clever he is.

To me, the storytelling is as detailed and crafted as the pictures, and well worth the price of admission - and the pictures are incredible!

Flink is a great tale of tolerance, particularly because (at least in my opinion), it maintains a reasonably realistic approach to the subject (despite the quasi fantastical premise), and doesn't cram its message down the reader's throat. All in all, the characters feel natural, and while this book doesn't have quite as much of the over-the-top flare that the many of Doug's other works have, it's still highly entertaining.

I like Flink a lot. The art is soulful and energetic, and the story is sincere. This is a tale with heart, and it's a solid buy for all ages. I would highly recommend.

However, I finished the book in less than half an hour and was left a little unsatisfied. The pacing is full of big events, but no subtlety. The story bounces from big action to big drama which is hard to sell. This leaves the characters feeling a bit underdeveloped - we never get to really know them well.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Flink to anyone looking for a fun and unique read. The artwork alone is worth the price of admission. Despite it's pacing issues, it is still a solid buy. Cheers!

Flink is one of Doug's best stories and it sits right next to Iron West as having the best artwork of all of his books. The only problem is that the pacing is way too fast. The pacing in Doug's books has been very fast lately, but it hasn't felt like it takes away from the story until now. He's created this fascinating world of Bigfoots that we barely get a glimpse at and these great two characters that we barely get to know. It feels as if half the story is missing. Perhaps the reason why the book's length is so unfortunate is that what's left out clearly would have been great. I would love to see Flink made into a movie and fleshed out more.

I love Doug TenNapel. Perhaps my platonic love for him borders on obsessive, or maybe my expectations were too high; but either way, I wasn't as excited by Flink as I've been with his other books. It REALLY pains me to say this, but Flink is probably his weakest book to date.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a great read, and Doug's amazing illustrations are well, still amazing. My only major complaint with Flink is the pacing: it seems way too fast. Doug's graphic novels have always been fast-paced and very high-energy, but when your book just barely breaks 100 pages and there's scarcely 20 words to a page (literally), the wild ride through Doug's imagination is over in well under an hour. Fans of Doug's other works should definitely check this book out, as well as kids that haven't yet been exposed to Doug's immense talents.

If you haven't read all of Doug's other graphic novels, I'd recommend starting with Earthboy Jacobus, Iron West, or Creature Tech. Black Cherry is also a great choice, but only for mature readers. Your mileage may vary.