A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting

A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting is a short and hilarious collection of parenting vignettes. I am quite familiar with Guy Delisle's work on travelogues such as Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and Burma Chronicles, where he is quite serious and excellent at observing and reflecting on various countries and their politics. These books are available worldwide in multiple language editions.  I had no idea he was such an excellent gag cartoonist as well.

The small size and layout of this book are reminiscent of a paperback collection of newspaper comics from the 1970s, with a couple of images/panels per page laid out top to bottom. A typical page looks like this:

Probably not a good idea...

The format contains comics that show some questionable and often hilarious parenting situations. Delisle is muddling through parenthood, and he is by no means a perfect authority figure, but he owns his foibles. As a father, he seems very idiosyncratic, alternatively honest and duplicitous with his children. He offers them advice and information, with the intention of being helpful, but sometimes he comes off less than favorably.

For instance if your young daughter has swallowed an apricot pit, perhaps drawing a flip cartoon of a tree growing in her body and then out of her mouth might not seem so funny or comforting to her:

Not at all horrifying.

Or if you were coaching your son to hit a punching bag, you might not offer this advice:

Still, these words are very effective.

Delisle also takes some glee in playing pranks on his kids, wanting to give them experiences to remember for a lifetime:

Also, not at all horrifying.

He can also be selfish and tricky, such as when his daughter wants to try his special Canadian breakfast cereal:

Mmmm additives!

The artwork is relatively simple and iconic, and I think his background in animation shows in the  straightforward storytelling. His story structure is masterful and relatively simple. Even when the tales move over the space of multiple pages he sets the reader up for different emotional beats and punchlines. Impressively, his stark linework conveys the warmth that comes from small, honest moments. Delisle might be a crappy dad sometimes, but he has love and concern for his children. He is trying his best as a father, I feel, and it is refreshing to see such humor and candor conveyed so clearly in an autobiographical comics story.

Reviews I have read about this book echo the enjoyment and positive features I have described above. NPR's Glen Weldon called it "brighter and funnier" than his other work, and added that this book "shares with his previous work a keen appreciation for the clash of cultures; this time, however, the cultures in question are those adults and children, and the damage that ensues is played for a rueful laugh." Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder described it as "funny and truthful." Jeff Bouchard, "a father of two young children...found A User’s Guide to Neglectful Parenting to be relatable and a lot of fun," and he noted that you do not necessarily have to be a parent to enjoy it.

A User’s Guide to Neglectful Parenting was published by Drawn & Quarterly. There is a sizable preview at Publishers Weekly.

Burma Chronicles

This is the third travelogue from Guy Delisle, an illustrator and animator who travels the globe for work and also to accompany his wife who is involved in Doctors without Borders. Thus, he gets around to some very interesting places. He is a Canadian and his primary language, as you can tell from his blog, is French.

This is his most best, most insightful book to me, as it delves into the political milieu in Myanmar as it relates to Doctors without Borders much more than the others. There is much discussion about whether the organization can operate in this country independently in ways that treat those in need or if it is being turned into an instrument of the state that openly discriminates against those the dictatorial regime deems enemies. Added to this political dilemma is the fact that Delisle is for the first time in a country along with his infant son, placing him in everyday contexts and allowing him to see the social conditions as both a citizen and a parent.

Reviews I have read about the book have been very positive. The Guardian's Rory MacLean praised the book, calling it "the most enlightening and insightful book on Burma in years," and adding, "The key to its success are Delisle's whimsical, black-and-white drawings, as well as his endearingly naïve and humorous self-portrait. Together his honesty and minimal line disarm the reader, drawing him or her into Delisle's life, learning as he learns the truth about the struggle for survival under the generals." J. Caleb Mozzocco called Delisle's work "highly evocative minimalism," going on glowingly, "He’s spent a decade in animation, and it certainly shows in his command of the page, and the time and space the panels suggest upon it." Kirkus Reviews called the book an "insightful, illuminating memoir."

This book was published by Drawn and Quarterly. Some preview images and reference material for the book have been provided here by the author.

Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China

The second illustrated travelogue from Guy Delisle, Shenzhen is a record of the artist/animator's trip to the large Chinese city neighboring Hong Kong. Shenzhen is a growing metropolis that attracts many people looking for employment and opportunity, and Delisle was there for three months in the late 1990s to supervise a team of animators. Delisle's descriptions of the city are sometimes harsh, pointing out the filth and omnipresence of government propaganda, but they also include very human observations about local food, entertainment, and constant construction projects. One of the overwhelming feelings the reader gets from his accounts is that he felt pretty isolated and lonely in China.

As I noted in my entry on Pyongyang, Delisle is an illustrator and animator who travels the globe for his work and also to accompany his wife who is involved in Doctors without Borders, so he gets around to some very interesting places. He is a Canadian and his primary language, as you can tell from his blog, is French. This interview sheds some more light on Delisle's feelings on his trips to China and some of the decisions he made in creating this travelogue.

Shenzhen is generally well regarded, and it was nominated for a Wright Award for Best Book in 2007. Paul Karl Lukacs writes a thoughtful review of the book and also notes that he had very different experiences and that Shenzhen has undergone large changes since Delisle's time there. Renee, President and Publisher of Shen's Books, called it very realistic and felt Delisle's experiences were very similar to her own. Reviewer Danya David says that despite its flaws, Shenzhen is a "fast and interesting read" and suggests it may be a good addition to an 11th or 12th grade history or government class.

A preview is available from the publisher Drawn & Quarterly.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

Is creating a graphic novel worth getting blacklisted by an entire country? Guy Delisle might be a good person to ask. He is a French-Canadian animator who spent two months in 2001 (before 9/11) supervising animation work out-sourced to North Korea. While there, he took notes on what he saw and experienced; these became the basis for this graphic travelogue. Apparently the fruits of his labors are not much appreciated by the current regime.

This result may not be so surprising given that Delisle does not paint a positive picture of North Korea in general, and of its capital city Pyongyang specifically. His response may be best understood via his situation there. Sequestered in a lightly inhabited hotel with limited dining options, Delisle was not allowed to travel without an accompanying guide. When he did get to travel, he was constantly confronted by bleak, spare surroundings, omnipresent images of Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Sung-il, and propaganda praising North Korea and decrying its capitalist enemies.

So he paints a depressing national portrait. Most of the North Korean people are shown being fed a constant stream of propaganda through images, song, and film. They are fearful not to say or do anything to appear critical of the state. Stores are full of huge quantities of the exact same items, with hardly any buyers. Electric lights are scarce; fresh fruits and vegetables are only made available when foreign dignitaries are present; there are no traffic lights, and entire sections of the city are kept off-limits. Also, half finished construction projects, including the colossal, 2-decade-old shell of the Ryugyong Hotel and a largely unused opera house, abound.

Delisle has worked as an animator for more than a decade, working in a number of Asian countries. His wife is an administrator for Médecins Sans Frontières (known as Doctors Without Borders in the US), a job that has led to their family living in a number of different countries. Delisle has turned these experiences into other illustrated travel stories, including volumes about China and Burma. This news story from the National Post and this interview with TimeOut Hong Kong shed more light on his reasons for creating these works.

Reviews about this book are a bit mixed. Some reviewers, like Gary Butler see it as a work of activism, giving voice to a people who live in fear and cannot speak for themselves. Andrew D. Arnold speaks about how he is glad to see light shined on a country shrouded in secrecy while being disappointed that Delisle did not delve into how this experience changed him or add any particular constructive insight into the exchange between cultures. This range of reviews from Goodreads goes further with criticisms, with some reviewers calling Delisle racist and condescending to the North Korean people.

Pyongyang was originally written in French but was published in English by Drawn & Quarterly. They publish periodic news updates about his work here. They also have an 8 page preview available in pdf format here.