Viewed: "Blood Song" by Eric Drooker

Viewed: Blood Song: a silent ballad by Eric Drooker, 2002, 015600884X.

Comic book novel with story told in images with no text. I was not into the artwork or the story.

Girl, about 20-years-old, lives in rural village. In morning she leaves her stilt shack and family and goes to the river with her dog to collect water. She returns to see the village being invaded by troops. Troops kill everyone and set the village aflame. Troops see Girl. Girl runs away with dog. Girl reaches shore and takes empty rowboat into the ocean.

Girl survives the open ocean and storms and rows, rows, rows her boat ashore to a major city. Girl walks a lot. Girl runs from cops. Girl still has dog. Girl and dog see saxophone player get mugged by cops who take his saxophone. Saxophone player was giving joy and pleasure to crowd. Saxophone player takes Girl to his rooftop tent and shags her. Girl is pregnant. Saxophone player gets arrested for singing in the street, goes to prison. Girl gives birth in rooftop tent alone. Dog is still there.

Comments:
1. Eye rolling on heavy handed political commentary.
2. Joe Sacco did Introduction and explained some of Drooker's ideas.
3. I think I reserved this after reading a comparison of modern artists - like Drooker - who work in wordless comic novels like Frans Masereel did with woodcuts 80-100 years ago. I only recall this after Sacco mentioned it in the Introduction.
4. Took 5-10 minutes to view. I did not study the paintings, I just followed the story.