No Pasaran! Vol. 3 (Max Friedman) (v. 3) [Paperback]

Vittorio Giardino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008 | Series: Max Friedman (Book 3)

The much anticipated conclusion! Max Friedman begins the last stage of his stay in Republican Spain. The Communists are dividing into internecine camps as the red army is gradually losing ground to Franco’s troops. Friedman returns to Barcelona, and continues the search for his friend Treves. But is Treves a deserter, as his communist colleagues stated? Or is he continuing his battle against Franco? This exciting wartime story comes to its climax!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The conclusion of Giardino’s Spanish civil war graphic novel follows its second part by more than five years. Jewish Swiss businessman and spy Max Friedman, hero of later-set, earlier-published Giardino stories, finally learns what happened to Guido Treves, whose worried wife prevailed on Max to return to Spain to find just as things are winding down for the Nationalists (i.e., Communists and anarchists). It would be a crime to give away Max’s discovery; suffice it to say that the most positive developments in the book are the exposure of a Falangist mole and the ending back in Geneva, which confirms the good character Max has shown in his relations with the beautiful journalist Clair. Giardino marries his straightforwardly realist drawing style to dialogue that never sensationalizes or tells more than is necessary to keep the action decipherable. Whether this narrative dryness works as well in a graphic novel as it would in a movie, in which actors’ expressions can convey so much more nuance and emotion, is debatable. What isn’t in question is Giardino’s seriousness. --Ray Olson

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: NBM Publishing (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561635316
• ISBN-13: 978-1561635313
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #970,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The sublime Giardino, January 6, 2010

By 

paul pirate (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: No Pasaran! Vol. 3 (Max Friedman) (v. 3) (Paperback)

If you read graphic novels and haven't discovered the richness of Vittorio Giardino, his writing is an example of "true stories in cartoon form." Actually, "cartoon" as the term is traditionally understood locally demeans his accomplishment.

I hope those who already know his work have found "Hungarian Rhapsody," "Orient Gateway," and the first two volumes of "No Pasaran." If you haven't, find them and read them (slowly) - get the flavor of the 1930s without the usual American inflection on the decade. This is Europe - where the action had been, and would be again. (No Weimar Republic/Berlin cabaret blues to date, either.) Max Friedman (Fridman) is a unique invention: French Jew, tobacco merchant, sadly separated from his wife but with custody of his daughter (who never mentions her mother), former member of the Foreign Brigade fighting on the side of the Spanish Republic under attack from the Nazi-supported Franconistas - and, oh yes, an "amateur spy" of equal parts skill and luck, and a woman magnet. Too good to be true? Well, he's a special kind of hero; as another graphic novelist once described his own work, Giardino writes about reality, only more so.

As per the introduction, the search for a former fellow combatant is the focus of this novel, but there are enough side stories and locales to keep things interesting, with a typical Giardino crew of persons who are rarely what they seem (much like Friedman). Intrigue takes place within a world in which various parties oversee, even control part of the whole, but are themselves often deceived. There are some basics on the in-fighting of the political scene for those of us (me included) who were taught a highly reductive form of modern European history.

Interesting, the Belgian reporter Clair is (I believe intentionally) the least intriguing of Giardino's female characters - immature ("naive") in a way that makes Friedman's caution as much a part of his relationship with her as any ethics on his part. Then again, this does take place later than the previous novels, so perhaps Friedman is older and wiser about things romantic. (I think Ethel from "Rhapsody" would have been the one for him, had he been so inclined. I think he did more than "trust her." But that was then.)

Finally - those who would believe that cinematic versions of graphic novels could outdo the original might wish to consider the history of that genre. So many disasters - whether the story is retained, or altered a bit, or altered a lot, or is entirely new -

and we already have in our minds the characters' faces and movements and feelings, and we each have our own voices for them. Who wants them "fixed" in a "wrong way"? Once in a great while, a book becomes a better film; but graphic novels at their best are so well designed that making them "real" is going to be a letdown. With this story, there would be just too many temptations, both for cutting "minor" but crucial characters and scenes -- and what screenwriter/director could resist embellishing the Friedman/Clair relationship, and even change the novel's ending?

Hey, even four volumes of "A Jew in Communist Prague" (Giardino's major non-Friedman work) left me begging for the next installment (no matter how historically logical the close of it was). Oh well, I assume it's not coming. And whatever is left hanging in "No Pasaran" will stay that way too. I can only hope for a new great story out of Giardino's mind, hands, and heart, and soon!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Pasaran, June 5, 2010

By 

Carlos R. Garcia "Maltina" (Tucker, GA, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Pasaran! Vol. 3 (Max Friedman) (v. 3) (Paperback)

The book was in good shape, the price was right, and the delivery was prompt. Well packacged and sturdy. The shipping cost, however, was more than 50% of the selling price of the item, which makes it inneficient unless you are buying several items.