BLANCAFLOR - Serio Comics 49
BLANCAFLOR written by Nadja Spiegelman, drawn by Sergio García Sánchez, published by TOON Books
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a reading of Seth Fishman’s new picturebook BRANDON AND THE TOTALLY TROUBLESOME TIMEMACHINE.
It was really fun to see how engaged the children were and to talk to some of the parents afterward.
I realized that it might be fun for many of the fellow elder millennial subscribers who have children to have some enthusiasms for books they might want to share with their children.
So I reached out to Seth to see if he’d be interested in doing a Q&A.
We shall see!
Discovering TOON Books
Around the same time, I became aware of Françoise Mouly’s TOON Books, launched in 2008.
Mouly, who pioneered RAW comics alongside her husband, Art Spiegelman (Maus), has been The New Yorker’s cover art editor since 1993. TOON Books is dedicated to creating high-quality comics for kids, vetted by educators to ensure that the language and narratives will nurture young minds, with categories for ages 4+, 5+, 6+, and 7+.
The first TOON Book I happened to receive via my library holds was one by Art and Françoise’s daughter Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez.
Nadja Spiegelman
Nadja Spiegelman is the Eisner Award-nominated author of the Zig and Wikki series of science comics for young children and the editor-in-chief of an international literary magazine. Her memoir I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This was published by Riverhead. She is a contributing editor at The Paris Review and the co-editor of the 2016-2017 project Resist!, a magazine of women’s political comics and graphics.
This is her website.
Sergio García Sánchez
Sergio García Sánchez, a professor of comics in Angoulême, France, and at the University of Granada, Spain, is one of Europe’s most celebrated experimental cartoonists. His work has been published in over forty-five books and translated into nine languages. He lives in Granada with his wife and collaborator, Lola Moral, who colored the art for this book.
This is his website.
The authors’ other collaboration was Lost In NYC: A Subway Adventure also from TOON Books.
BLANCAFLOR
Spiegelman and Sánchez’s BLANCAFLOR was one of the New York Times Best Children's Books of 2021 and it’s a superb graphic storytelling of a classic Latin American folktale, which showcases the invisible labor of women and the contributions of Indigenous cultures, for ages 8-12, grades 3-5.
It’s about finally being seen and being a damsel to the rescue!
Raised by a mean ogre of a father who eats his opponents for dinner, Blancaflor is often told not to show off her own considerable powers for fear of scaring off suitors.
When a prince falls from the sky and wakes up in her lap, she is spellbound and moves heaven and earth to help the endearing, yet not so clever, young man, all while trying not to let him know.
With their trademark magnificent brio, Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez update a classic tale extolling the strength and resourcefulness of women.
Exquisitely Beautiful Art
As many of you know with these enthusiasms, I really don’t ever critique anything as bad or even try to say how good something is compared to others.
But the art in BLANCAFLOR is truly some of the best I’ve ever seen in graphic medium.
There’s an exquisitely lush color palette.
A fantastic whimsy to the elements of nature depicted.
And an expertly experimental page design.
Which is all still very easy to follow and I imagine teaches children creative processing of visual content.
Fairytale Update From The Feminine Perspective
I recently read Circe by Madeline Miller for my sibling bookclub.
And loved the retelling of the Odyssey story from her perspective.
It felt not just a feminist re-telling but an integrative one.
Of masculine and feminine and all energies.
Spiegelman and Sánchez do something very similar with their version of BLANCAFLOR.
They honor the traditional story, not by giving Blancaflor a new masculine adventure.
But by bringing to the forefront the power of her hidden feminine help.
And then adding a moral where she learns to be more comfortable showing who she really is, and her talents, and finding out that fully attracts the person she loves.
Old and New World Styles
Like in the Serio Comics enthusiasm and Q&A with Rex Ogle (Rey Terciero) for his graphic novel DOÑA QUIXOTE.
Spiegelman and Sánchez do a beautiful job showing the influences of the old world of Europeans and the new world of the indigenous people of Mayans, Incans, Aztecs, etc. in this fairytale.
For instance, there’s a bald eagle, which is only Native to the American lands.
Mixed with a prince dressed in European clothes.
And Blancaflor who is dressed and depicted as indigenous.
Native American Culture In THE ENNEAGRAM SUPERHEROES
As I work on finding a traditional publisher for SHOULD WE BUY A GUN?, I’ve also been busy writing scripts for other graphic novel projects and then gathering a few pages of sample art to help with the pitch of securing funding and an artist.
In THE ENNEAGRAM SUPERHEROES, the Enneagram 5 character is a Native American Scientist.
I asked my illustrator from SWBAG?, Gabriel Wexler, to design an Enneagram 5 world where it was as if the Indigenous people were the ones to come up with NASA.
Some of my favorite women in my life are Enneagram 5s.
So I wanted to honor this sometimes seen as a traditionally male cerebral/investigator/scientist archetype in a female form.
Hopefully I get funds to make a version of this story of her and the eight other Enneagram Superheroes soon :)
TOON Books Catalogue
TOON Books has an immense catalogue of other books.
David Sedaris, Ivan Brunetti, and yes, Art Spiegelman, are just some of the other renown artists who have contributed to this imprint.
I highly recommend you checking out their website for more information!
