Customer Reviews

Koko Be Good

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jon is unsure of his life path. He is planning a move to Peru with his much older girlfriend Emily. She's working at an orphanage and doing good things. Jon wants to help her, but she questions his decision because Jon is young and hasn't had a chance to explore his life, to determine what is right for him.

Koko is the quintessential free-spirited screw up. She bounces around from one place to another, one job to another, taking what she wants with sheer disregard for the people around her...until she meets Jon. After a talk, Koko decides she wants to change, to do something purposeful and good with her life.

Faron is an unmotivated slacker. He lives and works with his family and doesn't seem to have any aspirations beyond playing video games and sometimes performing Kung Fu tricks as Koko's sidekick. But his life takes a turn when he gets in trouble with the law.

It's not always easy to tell a cogent story with picture panels and word bubbles, so I tend to be more forgiving with graphic novels, but 'Koko Be Good' suffered from problems with consistency and pacing (which tended toward slow), more than a few of the panels were difficult to follow, and some sections lost their meaning altogether. The overarching story was interesting enough, ultimately asking the reader to consider what "good" actually means, but even as a character study, this book faltered and it could have benefited from another round of edits for clarity and depth.

The artwork on the other hand was excellent. I love Wang's loose, almost unfinished, sketchy style with subdued sepia and umber toned washes. It worked well for the story and its characters. The top notch construction of the book also gave me pause. At first, I thought it might be the ink, but it turned out to be the paper which had an opalescent (for lack of a better word) quality and it made the colors come alive. This is a graphic novel I'd recommend for the artwork and craftsmanship more so than for the story itself.

Jen Wang can draw. There is no question about that. The artwork for "Koko Be Good" is fantastic. Wang's style is loose and frenetic, stylistically solid and beautifully colored (water color? Maybe). There is so much life and energy in her imagery that the pages of the book have a hard time containing it all. Her characters are all circles, and Wang has a great way with facial expressions.

The real question is can Jen Wang write? That same wild energy that appears in the artwork has a hard time being tamed into a compelling story. Koko's introduction into the story is so visually confusing that even when I re-read the five or so pages I realized I had no idea what was going on. But the real problem is that her characters are mostly superficial, and the closing of the story is apparent from the first few pages. There are no surprises, and the book ends exactly like I thought it would. "Typical Hollywood Ending" comes to mind.

The basic story set up starts with Jon, an aimless 20-something recent collage graduate who is planning to move to Peru to be with his 30-something girlfriend who plans to dedicate her life to helping the poor. Jon has no particular dreams or ambitions of his own, and so is just tagging along with his girlfriend. He feels that doing something is better than doing nothing, and simply wants to be with his girl. Jon had dreams once, of playing music, but the fire has left him. The girlfriend on the other hand is ambivalent, afraid that Jon is coming for the wrong reasons and not afraid to tell him so. Suddenly, into Jon's life comes Koko, an explosion of id who acts without thinking, full of strange passion and drive but with no focus at all. Koko is pure impulse, and forget the consequences. The two form a strange friendship, with Koko impressed by Jon's plan to "be good" and Jon finding himself drawn to the impish girl. Koko questions her own life, and sets out on a plan to "be good" without really knowing how, but goes about it in her own way.

Maybe it is my age, but I didn't find either Jon or Koko's journey to be particularly interesting. It is the typical shallow soul-searching that affects most collage graduates; that sort of "what do I do now?" malaise when you realize that your childhood goals have been accomplished, and that soon you will have to look at the world from a more adult perspective. Jon is wishy-washy and directionless. Koko is wild and directionless. Time to grow up, just like we all do. Yawn.

To be honest, I thought that "Koko Be Good" had the wrong main character. Threaded loosely through Jon and Koko's tale is that of a young boy named Faron Lau, who was infinitely more interesting than either Koko or Jon. Faron is Koko's friend and partner in crime, a young boy who was fat and teased as a kid, and so pushed himself to grow up strong and dangerous. However, Faron's secret is that he loves Broadway musicals, and his most treasured possession is a poster from the musical Wicked. Faron was awesome. Faron was interesting. The short seven-page interlude called "The Ballad of Faron Lau" was the best part of the book.

I look forward to more by Jen Wang. Her artwork is truly tremendous, and if you don't demand too much story-wise from your comics, or if you are young enough to empathize and be moved by the characters, then <em>Koko Be Good</em> might just blow you away. Me, I hope Wang teams up with a writer to give focus to her energy. Maybe Wang is a little too much Koko herself, and needs to find a Jon to bring her down to earth a little.

This graphic novel, released by :01 and created by Jen Wang, is something of an enigma for me. On one hand, the story has been done, the characters aren't very likable, and there isn't really much in the way of plot, particularly climax. However, the art is so fetching that I can ignore the previous complaints.

Koko Be Good is about Koko, a young woman in search of herself and willing to do just about any preposterous thing you can think of. She is the classic twenty-something narcissist, a stand-out among the "me-generation." Unfortunately, there is very little character development with her in the way of significant change, and so she fails to ever connect to the reader in a meaningful way. Jonathon is also a young twenty-something, in love with a woman across the coast and about to move to Peru with her. He seems lost, unsure of himself, and unwilling to feel true joy. His quest ends (or begins anew) with a more substantial moment than Koko, but I'm still not sure I like where he finally lands. Of course, Koko and Jonathan cross paths, and both have an effect upon the other, but in the end, I don't think either had as substantive an impact as the story would like us to believe. And if that's the point ... then that's a bummer.

Obviously, I didn't care for Wang's actual story. But, she is a phenomenal artist with a charismatic style and a wonderful sense of color. Her layouts are dynamic, her backgrounds are nuanced without being busy, and her characters are refreshingly quirky in appearance. I would have liked her word balloons to have been more appropriately placed in some panels as they became confusing if reading left to right, but that wasn't a major hurdle to overcome. I truly enjoyed looking at this book.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Koko Be Good on the merit of its story or characters, but I would on the rock-solid artistry.

~Scott William Foley, author of Andropia

I've had this book for review for several weeks and keep trying to get engaged, but sometimes it's just "not your book." The plot lags for me in the characters' ennui and the self-absorbed details of their lives. I guess I'm past that relationship-obsession time of life, and this one doesn't bring it alive for me.

I am so excited that graphic novels are becoming more accepted as a form of fiction, and not just in juvenile literature. Jen Wang's book deals with finding one's way and finding what is "good", which is much more complicated than it seems. The first thing I noticed about her book is the artwork. It is unique and beautifully drawn. The characters had personality and depth. But something was missing. It took me almost 100 pages to care about Jon or Koko. I reread it to try to find what it was but I can't seem to put my finger on it. I can say that I didn't understand the story in the beginning. I had a difficult time following what was going on. About halfway through, it became more clear. But as the story went on, Koko and Jon both had some thought provoking things to say. And their struggles are relatable to anyone who graduated from college or never went and didn't know where to go next. In spite of what I thought was a weak beginning, the ending was satisfying. While this does not rank high on my list of graphic novels, I would be interested in anything else Jen Wang publishes. I would love to see what she does next and how she develops her craft.

The story is a familiar one, especially in current graphic novels: coming of age & trying to make sense of life as the world opens up before you, with everything much bigger & more intimidating than you'd imagined. But this first work by Jen Wang has something more than that going for it. Not only does she take that familiar story & move it in unexpected directions, she does so with impressive art, rendered in a muted palette & just a touch of cartooniness. This combination of a contemplative tone & energetic linework brings the characters to vivid life on the page.

Jon, in his early 20s, is preparing to leave for Peru to join his girlfriend ... but he's not really sure if this is what he wants, even if he can't admit it to himself. He's a little mopey, a little too serious; at the same time, he's aware of that & can laugh at himself, albeit uneasily. The result is someone we identify with, because we all went through the same thing at some point in our lives. He genuinely wants to be a grown-up, and believes he's doing the right things -- but he's still playing a role to some extent.

When Jon meets the frenetic Koko & her friend Faron, everything starts to change. I'm impressed by the author's willingness to make Koko quite annoying & almost unbearable at first, before we start to see the uncertain human being hidden beneath the frenzied, snarky facade. And if her barbs get Jon to start looking at his life in ways he's been avoiding, his basic decency & desire to make something meaningful & real of his life gets through to her as well.

Yes, there's some late-night college philosophizing -- but it belongs here, because it's honest to the characters & their situation. It's easy to dismiss being overly earnest when you're years beyond it; but at the time, it's the way things are, and that philosophizing helps you get through an awful lot. A promising debut!

Overall, her drawings are beautiful. The theme of Koko Be Good is a very late teen, early twenties theme-- finding your way, your purpose, your identity in your own life. She treats this theme with intelligence and delicacy.

Unfortunately I had to read this graphic novel twice to understand the action sequences of this graphic novel. Her drawings do not depict action very clearly (except for the Ballad of Faron Lau chapter). I also had a lot of trouble following her dialogue sequence. I've never had so much trouble following dialogue in a graphic novel.

Her one standout chapter is the Ballad of Faron Lau. This chapter alone deserves 4 stars. This stand alone chapter was clearly sequenced and very clever and funny. It told the backstory of how Faron Lau developed from a doughy outsider into a lean martial arts expert.

Jen Wang's astonishing debut is an assured and heartfelt story of people searching for their place in their world. The fundamental question of "What do you want to be when you grow up?" doesn't end when you actually have grown up, it only becomes more pronounced and real. Wang's characters have passed the precipice of adulthood, but they are still confused about what they want out of life. Jon has abandoned his dreams of making music to follow his older girlfriend to Peru, where she will work in an orphanage and be a force of positive change. Doubts linger in Jon's mind that maybe he's just a tag-along in someone else's existence, a suspicion that is only emboldened when he meets the strange and wonderful Koko.

At one time Koko would have been called a "free spirit," but that has since been co-opted to mean hippy-dippy kookiness. In Wang's hands, Koko is much more than that. She is the rarest of creations, a social gadfly who behaves with the caprice of childhood who doesn't come off as either damaged or obnoxious. She can be a jerk, sure, but she is easy to forgive. She is like a flower trying to break out of the shell of its seed.

It's Koko who challenges herself to be good, which in turn becomes a metaphor for being true to oneself, to one's friends, to whatever passion gave you purpose enough to get this far in life. The joy of Koko's discoveries is the joy of creation itself, and we see it in every page. Jen Wang has clearly put a lot of herself into every panel, and though she masterfully controls the lines of her lively figures, she isn't afraid to let the world around them be loose and shimmery. Her watercolored tones and her easygoing layouts give the book a natural feeling, even though her art has a cartoony flourish. She uses more inventive and complex page construction sparingly, when the scene needs to go flashy or better yet, when an emotional epiphany must occur, such as the double-page spread where Jon's girlfriend realizes he is in a different space than he thinks he is. Her narrative flows naturally, and even when she takes a detour into something more experimental, it doesn't seem forced or gimmicky. The pages turn instinctually.

As a fan of Jen's short work, I am pleased that Koko Be Good has delivered on the promise of those smaller slices. Quite possibly the debut of 2010, if not a contender for the book of the year across the board.

Not your typical graphic novel.

This book tells the story of a guy who thinks he wants to move to Peru with his older girlfriend and befriends a girl named KoKo who tries to be a do-gooder.

Some very touching and funny moments.

The art is fantastic.

I really like this graphic novel and look forward to more from this author.

When I think of graphic novels, I think the Hellboy series. Or I think of the excellent Walking Dead series. Until reading this book I did not think they could be used to discuss youth, and trying to find a way in life. Such is the reading experience of "Koko be good," Jen Wang's first graphic novel. It is reminiscent of the real life "American Splendor' graphic novels by Harvey Pekar. Set in modern day times, it follows the story of Koko, Faron and Jon. These modern young adults are attempting to discover what they want to do. Koko, after a life of lying and stealing, is trying to reinvent herself as a do gooder by engaging in trying volunteer work. Jon is in a long distance relationship with an older, professional woman who has discovered what she wants to do, and she wants nothing more than to share her dream with Jon. Faron is in an abusive family and wants to discover more about himself.

The characters are superb, and very realistic. I was reminded at serveral times of my own youth with the character Koko. Koko is caught between being a child and an adult, and the images of her making tapes about herself and talking about life to her stuffed animals are unique. The pictures are well drawn and add a lot to the story-which is told with very little dialogue. Reading this book is like watching a silent movie at times.

This book can be enjoyed by anyone wanting to reflect back negatively and positively on mistakes and joy they discovered when they were younger.