It is an attribute Lutes wields with expertise. Berlin is drawn almost entirely in black and white, giving a strong visual contrast between light and dark. It is a contrast that Lutes draws out and interrogates extensively: between luxury and blood spilling in the streets.Īll of this is made more impactful by the strength of Lutes’ art. There are massacres and brawls, the latter often involving police and paramilitaries of differing ideologies. The splendor of the artists and their circles is shown to rest uneasily on top of an explosive political situation. You meet artists in their parties (some behind closed doors), political activists and trade unionists. This is not a city that is maudlin and host to only cheap drama Lutes makes Berlin come alive. One interesting subplot involves African American musicians who have come to the city on tour. Many are bohemian and many are working-class, and some are not German. The sprawl is reminiscent of a James Michener or an Edward Rutherfurd novel. There are a good many characters in Berlin. Jason Lutes’ behemoth graphic novel Berlin gives the period between the fall of the Kaiser and the coming of the Führer its due by focusing on the vibrance of the culture that flourished in the German capital. The Weimar Republic is remembered mostly for the carnage that succeeded it, once the Nazis had been able to exploit its contradictions and plunged Europe into genocide and war.
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