Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection [Paperback]

Matt Dembicki (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010 | Age Range: 8 and up

All cultures have tales of the trickster—a crafty creature or being who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. He disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself. In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. The first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, Trickster brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics.

In Trickster more than twenty Native American tales are cleverly adapted into comic form. Each story is written by a different Native American storyteller who worked closely with a selected illustrator, a combination that gives each tale a unique and powerful voice and look. Ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish, these tales bring tricksters back into popular culture in a very vivid form. From an ego-driven social misstep in “Coyote and the Pebbles” to the hijinks of “How Wildcat Caught a Turkey” and the hilarity of “Rabbit’s Choctaw Tail Tale,” Trickster provides entertainment for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Along with compiling and editing the book, artist Matt Dembicki illustrated one of the featured trickster tales. Dembicki is the founder of D.C. Conspiracy, a comic creators’ collaborative in Washington, DC, and has won acclaim for his nature graphic novel, Mr. Big. He currently works as an editor for a higher-education association.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These 21 folktales, created by pairing Native storytellers with a variety of artists, feature creatures explaining how things came to be, like islands or stars, or animals playing tricks on one another. Often, the trickster, while trying to take the lazy way, outwits himself, especially when it involves Coyote. In other tales, Raven does whatever people tell him not to do, but ends up with a free meal anyway, and Rabbit tricks some buffalo and wolves and is tricked by Fox into losing his tail. Many of the stories, some of which involve tribespeople as well as animals, are told through captions, as though listening to an elder and envisioning the images he describes. Micah Farritor's art in Coyote and the Pebbles and Dembicki's in Azban (Raccoon) and the Crayfish are standouts in their animal images. The diverse styles are presented in lavish color in this thick, handsome volume. The short collection of contributor bios at the end is a helpful resource for finding more about the artist's credits or the writer's heritage. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 5 Up—More than 40 storytellers and cartoonists have contributed to this original and provocative compendium of traditional folklore presented in authentic, colorful, and engaging sequential art. The stories are drawn from a variety of Native peoples across North America, and so the trickster character appears variously as Rabbit, a raccoon, Coyote, and in other guises; landscapes, clothing and rhythms of speech and action also vary in keeping with distinct traditions. Realistic, impressionistic, painterly, and cartoon styles of art are employed to echo and announce the tone of each tale and telling style, making this a rich visual treasure as well as cultural trove. Contributors include well-known author Joseph Bruchac, Pueblo storyteller Eldrena Douma, cartoonist and Smithsonian Institution employee Evan Keeling, and many who have not worked in comics heretofore as well as cartoonists with no previous allegiance to telling Native stories with their art. The total package is accessible, entertaining, educational, inspiring, and a must-have for all collections.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555917240
• ISBN-13: 978-1555917241
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Multicultural Stories > Native North & South Americans

More About the Author

Cartoonist Matt Dembicki is the artist/writer of graphic novels such as the award-winning nature parable 'Mr. Big.' He edited the recently released 'Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection' from Fulcrum Publishing. He is about to complete work on his Ignatz Award-nominated 'Xoc' (pronounced "Shock"), an ecological tale about a great white shark. He is also a founding member of the D.C. Conspiracy, a comics creators' collaborative in Washington, D.C.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Trickster is a great example of the graphic storytelling form... May 31, 2010

By Donald M. Wood

Format:Paperback

I picked up an early copy of Trickster at the SPACE convention in Columbus, Oh. in April. I have been reading bits and pieces of it here and there. I think that Trickster is a great showcase of different artists and writers on par with Image comics Comic Book Tattoo and Popgun anthologies. It differs in the fact that it is based on the "trickster" stories of Native Americans being the root theme.

Trickster has a great variety of artists that fit well with each of the different stories. I also think that this book is a great example of how graphic storytelling can reach a greater audience than just the core comic reader.

Each of the stories showcase a different aspect of the trickster persona that makes up a great deal of Native American lore and cautionary tales. The stories vary from cartoony versions of characters, storybook style illustration and fully painted tales.

The production quality of the book is beautiful,the artwork is well represented here. I highly recommend this book!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars About Time!! April 30, 2010

By John B. Mitchell

Format:Paperback

Trickster is a great volume that reaches out to an very different collection of readers. The graphics are incredible and range from very abstract to the traditional comic. The size of the book is well thought out! It's not too big, so you can read each page with 3-5 panels and enjoy the non-busy pages of graphics. The artists have seemed to put a lot of themselves and their feelings into the stories. The Native American writers are unique. They give their geographic trickster life and take the reader on a quick adventure towards some lesson. I Googled the artists and storytellers and there were only a few I couldn't get a lot of information (if any) from. So I can see that most have an impressive track records. Well done!! Get this and learn about this important tradition and oh, you'll find out that Native Americans are still here - their not gone!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Lively and Readable Book June 21, 2010

By GraphicNovelReporter.com TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Folkloric stories are powerful. They can be emotional, funny, uplifting, or scary. But they always have pull to them, and that's why they continue to haunt and entertain people.

While there are special classes in school that teach mythology and folklore, it isn't always easy to find a class on Native American stories. Unfortunately, these stories are often pushed aside just as Native American culture and history can so often get left out of textbooks. Trickster: Native American Tales--A Graphic Collection is a unique remedy for this. In the form of a comic book, it tells 21 Native tales about tricksters. The tales range in style and emotion: Some are straightforward, some are humorous, some are frightening. All of them are interesting.

While the collection is edited by Matt Dembicki, who also illustrated one of the stories, Trickster offers a wide variety of talent. Dembicki explains in his afterword: "For this book, I wanted the stories to be authentic, meaning they would be written by Native American storytellers." He was able to find many talented people to help him make this collection a reality. One aspect that's really interesting is how different the stories are from one another. Even if elements and storylines can be similar, each artist and writer has a unique way of portraying the story. The style of art especially varies: Some stories are dark and realistic; some are comical and outrageous; some look as if they came from the Sunday morning funnies section; some look like the art from children's books; some look like cartoons one might see on television.

The binding thread for all the stories is that each one deals with a trickster. Sometimes the tricksters are animals like Coyote or Rabbit. Other times they're humans.... Sometimes the tricksters are really low-down; at other times, their actions are understandable. Usually their brains help them win the day, even if their methods wouldn't always be considered acceptable.

This could be a great way to learn more about Native American culture through storytelling. Or, if the reader is already familiar with the stories, it could be enjoyable just for the sake of seeing how different writers and artists render the stories. Either way, it's a very lively and readable book that libraries might really want to consider shelving in their folklore sections.

It seems like neglect not to mention the names of all the gifted people who wrote and illustrated these stories; Naming them will also give readers an idea of how many minds worked on this and how many creative differences can be seen. Trickster's contributors are Dayton Edmonds, Micah Farritor, John Active, Jason Copland, James Bruchac, Joseph Bruchac, Matt Dembicki, David Smith, Jerry Carr, Eldrena Douma, Roy Boney, Jr., Michael Thompson, Jacob Warrenfeltz, Jonathan Perry, Chris Piers, Scott White, Tim Tingle, Pat Lew, Elaine Grinnell, Michelle Silva, Mary Eyley, Jim8ball, Greg Rodgers, Mike Short, Joyce Bear, Megan Baehr, Beckee Garris, Andrew Cohen, Dan Jones, Michael J. Auger, Eirik Thorsgard, Rand Arrington, Thomas C. Cummings, Jr., Paul Zdepski, Jimm Goodtracks, Dimi Macheras, Jack Gladstone, Evan Keeling, Joseph Stands With Many, Jon Sperry, John Bear Mitchell, Andy Bennett, Sunny Dooley, and J. Chris Campbell.
-- Danica Davidson Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Tricksy November 23, 2010

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

This year I helped a committee come up with the 100 best books for children. This list has been produced for a while and each year we make sure to include a folk and fairytale section. The problem? With each passing year publishers produce less and less folk and fairytales for kids. In the past this was a serious category, with a variety of different authors and illustrators all battling it out for folktale supremacy. Nowadays, you can read through a big publisher's full catalog for the upcoming season and not find a single solitary folktale gracing their lists. It's sad really. Maybe that's part of the reason that Trickster, as edited by Matt Dembicki, appealed so strongly to me. This isn't just a graphic novel and it isn't just a pairing of smart writers and great artists. Dembicki has come up with a way of collecting a wide variety of Native American folktales into a single source, done in such a way that kids will find themselves enthralled. When was the last time a book of folktales enthralled one of your kids anyway? It's remarkable. Not that it's a perfect collection (there are a couple things I'd change) but generally speaking I hope Trickster acts as a sign of good things to come. I wouldn't call it the ultimate solution to the current folktale crisis but I would call it a solution. And in this day and age of publishing, there's something to be said for that.

Twenty-one Native American storytellers are paired with twenty-one artists. Each storyteller tells a tale about a trickster type character. Coyote, raven, rabbit, raccoon, dog, wolf, beaver, and wildcat all have their day. The sheer range of storytellers is impressive, calling upon folks from Hawaii to the Eastern shore, from Alaska to Florida. Sometimes the stories are told traditionally.... Sometimes they utilize a lot of modern terms (you don't usually run across the term "crystal cathedral thinking" in a book of folktales these days). The final result is an eclectic collection, where each story plays off of the ones paired before and after it. Though oral in nature, editor Matt Dembicki finds a way to make these tales as fresh and spontaneous on the printed page as when they were told to generations of eager listeners.

I liked the sheer array of kinds of tricksters in this book. In some cases they were villains that had to be outsmarted. Other times they were unrepentant bad boys (never bad girls, alas) who always got their way. Sometimes they were wise and powerful, and other times very small and more sprite than single entity. I also enjoyed seeing similar stories repeat in different places. For example, in three different stories a trickster pretends to be dead in order to lure its prospective meal nice and close. These include "How Wildcat Caught a Turkey" as told by Joseph Stands With Many, "Azban and the Crayfish" by James and Joseph Bruchac, and "Ishjinki and Buzzard" by Jimm Goodtracks. Now these are stories from guys from the Cherokee, Abenaki, and Ioway/Otoe tribes, but the similarities are striking. There are people in this world who spend their entire lives tracking how tales move from one group of people to another. Trickster allows you a quick glimpse into that lifestyle.

I tried this book out with my children's bookgroup and it was a big success. Really, the only problem was that a lot of them weren't familiar with the very concept of tricksters and had a hard time figuring out, what they called, the "point" of certain stories. For example, in the tale "Rabbit and the Tug of War" a sneaky bunny manages to get two buffalo to tug on a single rope against one another, thinking they're tugging against him. It's a silly prank, but my kids were puzzled. "Why did he do that?" It's tough being the first person to explain the concept of tricksters and trickery to ten-year-olds. You just sort of assume they know what you're talking about.

The kids also had distinct opinions on the art. I was a little surprised by it, honestly. First off, I'd never heard of a single one of the artists. None of them have really done graphic novels or comics in the young reader sphere, working instead in the realm of adult comics and Eisner Award winning books. None of the artists, as far as I could tell, were Native American either. Now in his notes From the Editor at the end of the book, Mr. Dembicki does say that the text of individual tales was always changed with the full approval of the storyteller. That said, I had to wonder what their opinions of their accompanying artists were. The animal stories wouldn't have had to worry (mostly) but when you see American Indians in headdresses and the usual shtick, you have to parse whether or not someone might be offended. However, after listening to an interview with Dembicki, I learned that the storytellers were allowed to choose their artists, and that makes a huge difference, so my fears were sort of abated. On the kids' part, they paid far more attention to the types of art being utilized. We all loved the art Jason Copland created of "Raven the Trickster" (looking like nothing so much as Arabel's Raven in a slightly different form). They were disturbed by the art Paul Zdepski made for "Puapualenalena Wizard Dog of Waipi'o Valley" (like me). And they were all equally entranced by the work Pat Lewis did on "Rabbit's Choctaw Tail Tale". That Mr. Lewis doesn't have a children's book out yet is nothing short of bizarre. Clearly this is his medium.

For all this, the book is not without its flaws. For example, on a first reading it's impossible to say which story is attributed to which tribe. After some time you will realize that within the biographies in the back of the book the tribe of each of the storytellers is listed alongside that person's name. All well and good, but unfortunately this gives the book the initial impression that all tales are one and the same. I would have also have liked more information in Dembicki's note at the end of the book about why certain artists were paired with certain stories. Ah well.

Of course, the book wasn't really written with a child audience in mind. Librarians in children's rooms have purchased it for that purpose but you can tell that it was initially meant to be for a more adult crowd. Maybe that's the solution to the folktale gap problem, then. If adults start reading folktales and begin collecting books like Trickster here, then perhaps we'll see a resurgence of interest in the publishing industry. In the meantime, supplement your reading of this book with the child-friendly Trick of the Tale: A Collection of Trickster Tales by John and Caitlin Matthews and the more young adult The Coyote Road edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I guarantee your trickster hunger will be well satiated if you happen to do so. You'll probably keep returning to this book, though. There's something new to find within it each time you pick it up.

For ages 9 and up. Read more ›