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'Blue is the debut graphic novel by Australian cartoonist Pat Grant. Part autobiography and part science fiction, the book follows three spotty teenagers who skip school to go surfing and end up investigating rumors of a dead body on the train line. Provincial values and the emotions aroused by immigration clash as the teenagers encounter strange, blue-skinned foreigners that have arrived in their little beach town. Things become even more confronting when the trail leads them to make first contact with a new wave of immigrants to their coastal town, who might be the harbingers of sweeping change.
'Blue is a delicate and affectionate portrayal of an iconic setting and way of life, told with an unerring ear and eye for the vernacular. But it's also a story about difference, fear and change, and the political implications of this for contemporary Australia.
'Pat Grant's approach to cartooning is largely an old-fashioned one, with each page of images painstakingly drawn on large pieces of illustration board with a sable brush and India ink. The images in Blue have been taken directly from drawings collected over many mornings on the beaches of NSW and Victoria; they are inspired by real life but don't lose their cartoonish charm. Combined with Grant's sparse writing the result is a cinematic story telling experience that lends itself particularly to an Australian experience of place and landscape.' (From the publisher's website.)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Cultural Diversity and Australian Comics
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Folio : Stories of Contemporary Australian Comics , December 2021; -
y
Representation and Memory in Graphic Novels
London
:
Routledge
,
2019
27121916
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'This book analyses the relationship between comics and cultural memory. By focussing on a range of landmark comics from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the discussion draws attention to the ongoing role of visual culture in framing testimony, particularly in relation to underprivileged subjects such as migrants and refugees, individuals dealing with war and oppressive regimes and individuals living with particular health conditions. The discussion is influenced by literary and cultural debates on the intersections between ethics, testimony, trauma, and human rights, reflected in its three overarching questions: ‘How do comics usually complicate the production of cultural memory in local contents and global mediascapes?’, ‘How do comics engage with, and generate, new forms of testimonial address?’, and ‘How do the comics function as mnemonic structures?
'The author highlights that the power of comics is that they allow both creators and readers to visualise the fracturing power of violence and oppression – at the level of the individual, domestic, communal, national and international – in powerful and creative ways. Comics do not stand outside of literature, cinema, or any of the other arts, but rather enliven the reciprocal relationship between the verbal and the visual language that informs all of these media. As such, the discussion demonstrates how fields such as graphic medicine, graphic justice, and comics journalism contribute to existing theoretical and analytics debates, including critical visual theory, trauma and memory studies, by offering a broad ranging, yet cohesive, analysis of cultural memory and its representation in print and digital comics.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
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Visualising Risk in Pat Grant’s Blue : Xenophobia and Graphic Narrative
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Textual Practice , March vol. 31 no. 3 2017; (p. 537-552) 'Published in 2012, Pat Grant’s debut graphic novel, Blue, depicts life in Bolton, a fictional Australian town that receives migrants who look noticeably different from the local community. Risk shapes Blue with regard to its aesthetic and formal concerns: the racism in Bolton places the foreigners at risk; Christian’s uneasy nostalgia depicts a community vulnerable to the ravages of time; and the work itself was self-published by Grant as a graphic novel. The genesis of the work arose from Grant’s accidental presence at the 2005 Cronulla riots in Sydney, a clash between Anglo and Middle Eastern Australians that brought to the fore questions about racism and community in Australian society. I argue that comics are highly suited to exploring ‘risky’ narratives because of the medium’s history as well as its formal properties. Comics have thus become popular vehicles for social criticism, frequently in the form of autobiography and memoir. As a highly mediated form, comics map time as space and in this article I argue that the form productively depicts the return of the past in the present – especially for pasts whose remembrance is inherently compromised or prohibited through other form of record in the visual archive.' (Publication abstract) -
Invasion and the Politics of Belonging in Pat Grant's Blue
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Scholar , vol. 3 no. 1 2014; In this essay, Felicity Castagna notes 'the long history of invasion narratives in Australian literature, and how they served to reify the governmental belonging of White Australians inciting nationalism and encouraging vigilance in relation to migration and national security.' (From introduction) -
What I’m Reading
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014;
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Surfer Dudes Take Graphic Route to Make Some Waves
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 March 2012; (p. 20)
— Review of Blue 2012 single work graphic novel -
Surf, Sun and Racism
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 31 March 2012; (p. 27)
— Review of Blue 2012 single work graphic novel -
Gammons, Nahs, and Youzes
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 340 2012; (p. 45)
— Review of Blue 2012 single work graphic novel -
[Review] Blue
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 8 April 2012; (p. 19)
— Review of Blue 2012 single work graphic novel -
Bookshop
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 8 April 2012; (p. 15)
— Review of True North : The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack 2012 single work biography ; Blue 2012 single work graphic novel -
A Pair of Ragged Claws
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 March 2012; (p. 19) -
Memory Palaces
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 79 2012; (p. 48-50) 'Luke Davies on Australia's budding graphic novel scene.' -
Invasion and the Politics of Belonging in Pat Grant's Blue
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Scholar , vol. 3 no. 1 2014; In this essay, Felicity Castagna notes 'the long history of invasion narratives in Australian literature, and how they served to reify the governmental belonging of White Australians inciting nationalism and encouraging vigilance in relation to migration and national security.' (From introduction) -
Visualising Risk in Pat Grant’s Blue : Xenophobia and Graphic Narrative
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Textual Practice , March vol. 31 no. 3 2017; (p. 537-552) 'Published in 2012, Pat Grant’s debut graphic novel, Blue, depicts life in Bolton, a fictional Australian town that receives migrants who look noticeably different from the local community. Risk shapes Blue with regard to its aesthetic and formal concerns: the racism in Bolton places the foreigners at risk; Christian’s uneasy nostalgia depicts a community vulnerable to the ravages of time; and the work itself was self-published by Grant as a graphic novel. The genesis of the work arose from Grant’s accidental presence at the 2005 Cronulla riots in Sydney, a clash between Anglo and Middle Eastern Australians that brought to the fore questions about racism and community in Australian society. I argue that comics are highly suited to exploring ‘risky’ narratives because of the medium’s history as well as its formal properties. Comics have thus become popular vehicles for social criticism, frequently in the form of autobiography and memoir. As a highly mediated form, comics map time as space and in this article I argue that the form productively depicts the return of the past in the present – especially for pasts whose remembrance is inherently compromised or prohibited through other form of record in the visual archive.' (Publication abstract) -
What I’m Reading
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014;
Awards
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