I am happy to say that my first look at a graphic novel turned out to be a positive experience.
Calamity Jack is about a young man who has schemed all his life, taking from others, figuring if they are stupid enough to be had, then they deserve what they get. He’s a handsome fellow, and easy to like, because he’s more of a misguided youth than a hardened criminal. Still, he shows us what happens to children who start out with funny pranks and practical jokes that don’t cause any lasting damage. If they are not turned around, they end up justifying their selfish behavior and doing more and more damage to others.
Jack is finally forced to turn around. It’s a painful time for him. Being a little overconfident from a life of winning against chumps who have been easy marks and being desperate to do something to make his mother proud, he takes on an opponent that is too big and bad for him. After a conflict with disastrous results, he leaves town with his tail between his legs.
After he meets Rapunzel he returns to his city with big plans to show her what a “man about town” he is. Instead, he is faced with the devastation that his life of petty crime has caused. But he is given a chance to right the wrongs and become the hero he’s always wanted to be.
What I loved about this character was that he wanted so much to impress his mother and his girl. I think he’s a very real reflection of what men want. They want to be respected. They want to protect the women they love. And if they screw up in their zeal to impress and protect their women, we can forgive them, I think. After all, their hearts are in the right place even if the men are misguided.
The authors also make it clear that the women don’t always need to be protected. Sometimes they need to be allowed to help. Sometimes they have wisdom and strengths the men would be wise to draw upon.
What amazes me is that the authors were able to make me see these characters as real people in such a short space with so few words. I cared about Jack. I liked him. I wanted him to succeed. And I’m shocked that I could care about a comic book character on that level. The pictures and the text worked together to give us a sympathetic main character to cheer for. The pictures are wonderful, conveying great emotion for the characters and the text, though sparse, gives enough for us to know exactly how they all feel.
And who can’t relate to the young man who wants to be loved and respected, but who keeps screwing up? Which ones of us haven’t sometimes, even often, felt exactly like Jack felt?
I think the three Hales did a wonderful job of giving us relatable characters and of conveying lots of lessons in a a fun, easy-to-swallow format. It is better to tell the truth than to lie, it is better not to swindle people, when you screw up you don’t have to despair—the people that love you will forgive you. All of these messages were there. But the thing that made the characters real were their longings—their conflicts and struggles. And because they were real we could sorrow in their troubles and rejoice in their victories. And that’s how readers grow. Not by being told that it is better to tell the truth than to lie, but by seeing a character fail and fail and fail and then, finally, succeed.
tags: Calamity Jack, Dean Hale, Graphic Novel, Nathan Hale, review, Shannon Hale
