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Introducing Quinlin Carter Barrett »

City of Glass is a graphic novel retelling of a kind of detective story written by Paul Auster about a detective novelist named Daniel Quinn who gets mistaken for a detective named Paul Auster. It's meta-fiction dressed in Phillip Marlowe like trappings. There is a mystery that Quinn sets out to solve but never really does, instead he gets loses his own sense of identity and place in the world.

Paul Karasik and David Mazzuchelli took a story that (from what I understand having only read about the original short story) is not visual at all and created a graphic novel that is one of the best the medium has to offer. Mazzuchelli is best known for his work with Frank Miller on Daredevil and Batman back in the '80's and unfortunately has been pretty much out of the picture since then. But he definitely delivers quality over quantity. His visual storytelling here is sheer genius. From his use of the 9 panel grid of the comics page as a metaphor for a prison window that holds his characters in to an amazing multi-page zoom down the throat of one character that constantly reveals symbolic objects of the characters state of being.

I can't say that I understood everything that happnened here but that's exactly why I would want to read this again and again.

Posted at September 29, 2005 04:14 PM

OH MY GOD! They made a Graphic Novel of City of Glass?? DAVE MAZZUCHELLI illustrated it! Holy shit! I'm floored! I need to pick this up. Mazzuchelli is a prince, I tell you, a prince!

City of Glass is probably the strangest detective story I've ever read. Its meta-fiction reflected through a prison. I mean, the protagonist meets the author of the story, who was being sought out by the client. And the tower of Babel stuff? I was left absolutely bewildered, but oh baby, did I love City of Glass (non-illustrated version).

Posted by: brent at September 29, 2005 10:56 PM