Review:
Moving Pictures by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen

I honestly didn't know what to expect from Moving Pictures. I didn't know anything about it aside from the fact that it's historical fiction. I'm not one to normally seek out historical fiction books, let alone comics, but the cover art is so incredibly striking that I just had to. When I caught Stuart Immonen's name attached to the book, I was taken aback for a second. The Stuart Immonen who does super hero comics? He's doing an indie book? Now I've loved Stuart Immonen since Legion of Super Heroes back in the nineties so I was really intrigued to see his work on this book. I also have to say that I have not read anything by his wife, Kathryn. After reading this book that will have to change.

First off, Moving Pictures follows Ila Gardner, a Canadian art curator in France during the German occupation of World War II. Gardner is swept up in France's attempt to inventory, categorize and hide major works of art and Germany's attempt to do the same. But that's not really even the point of the story, more of a back drop.

To me the story is a study of Ila's different relationships--between her co-workers, her sister, the art pieces themselves and most importantly with German officer Rolf Hauptmann--the man in charge of collecting all the French artwork. The dialogue is very well written and really kept me turning the pages. Even though Ila and Rolf's conversations dominate the book, my favorite are Ila's conversations with her co-worker Marc. Their conversations about people around the city disappearing was particularly haunting.

The artwork here is absolutely stunning. I've never seen Stuart like this before and I really love it. His art in black and white is very striking and perfectly fits the cold and collected atmosphere of the story. The panel set up is perfect, it's easy to read and the story flows effortlessly. I would love to see his super hero work morph into this style.

The graphic novel itself is very nice. It small and compact coming in at 144 pages with French Flaps. I love French Flaps even though I find them nearly pointless except to use as a makeshift bookmark. But they do make a book look snazzy and they do give you the information that you’d normally find on a dust jacket.