Freiheit!, Infinitum, and The Black Panther Party Review

Hey what up there Dan here aka the Comic Concierge

and this is one of my graphic thoughts videos

where I pick three graphic novels trades or mangas

and give my thoughts and opinions on them and

don't worry about any spoilers I won't be going

into any minute detail just my general thoughts

and opinions and if you're all worried check

out below because there'll be chapters as well

as times there's for you to make it a little

bit easier but let's get to the books we'll be

talking about this week first up we have Frye

Height our second book is Infinitum And lastly,

we have the Black Panther Party. Let's get to

our first book, Frye Height, and I hope I pronounced

that correctly. It is German. My German is not...

all that great and actually to try to google

it to see if i can get the pronunciation correctly

so hopefully i did okay uh and what is this book

about what is freiheit about it what the german

title it is sorry based in germany during the

nazi occupation during the rise of the nazi regime

and this comes to us from the world of plow comics

and is written and drawn by andrea grosso simponte

and Again, it's about the rise of the Nazi regime,

and it focuses on these three individuals. It's

based upon a true story. And it's about them

attempting to rebel against the rise of the Nazi

fascism. And how do they do that? Do they do

it through force? Not necessarily. They actually

use the power of the written word. One thing

they use a lot are these leaflets. It's actually

the leaflets that they actually produce at the

time, the ones that they would use. their message

to try to break up the propaganda of the Nazi

party are published in the back and it's there's

four separate leaflets and it's just as you read

through them it is it is like reading these historical

documents and you see when they become a little

bit more aggressive throughout as I think they

they realize the plate that they're going through

and you just see them kind of going through This

attempt to fight back against a system that clearly

do not believe in in the dangers that work in

every corner often we look at the how people

can fight against the system in a more physical

sense and I thought this did a really good job

of just captivating how There are multiple ways

to fight back against a system that you don't

believe in and how important just the rule of

information is and how people can control it

and you control information you pretty much control

everything you can control believe you can control

action and how important that part was to. Why

the nazis were able to accomplish what they did

and you know, we often see resistance But usually

the resistance stories we see portrayed are typically

like the french resistance for example Rarely

are people like that are in the heart of it You

actually have people in here that are fighting

against it that also have to become german soldiers

Despite the fact that you know, they don't actually

want to fight for that cause but they really

have no belief and you can see why They are as

fearful as they are, knowing that if they're

found, if they're caught, not only does it put

the danger of themselves, doesn't put themselves

in danger, but their friends, family, anyone.

And the truth is you don't know necessarily who

to trust. For example, a person who plays a key

role in this is a secretary, and there is a trust

in how she basically overheard individuals talking

about what they're doing, turns them in, and

there are some negative repercussions there.

And I look at a nonfiction story like this, or

one that's based upon nonfiction. Some things

I look for is it telling a story that needs to

be told and I feel like this definitely Hits

checks that box because it's one I've never heard

about Personally, despite the fact that it's

pretty remarkable what these individuals did

was their impact wide I don't necessarily it's

hard to actually argue or really quantify that

I would think I think there certainly was some

impact It's hard to really say exactly what it

was. But when you read through this you would

just think what they were doing was a small positive

in a world of the ultimate negative. And beyond

the fact, is it a story that should be told?

How well told is it? You know, it's one thing

to have an interesting story, have a great subject

matter. Just because this can be an important

story doesn't necessarily mean the story that

ends up on the page. is equivalent to that and

I do think looking at the general story was effective

in getting to know these individuals. It didn't

feel dry. You felt like these people were complete

characters. You could remove the fact this was

based upon a true story and it's still an interesting

tale. Looking at the art, Sarah, I did like the

art. One thing that was really apparent and apparent

with this that was the panels were wide and large

and there's just a lot of room on the page. The

coloring design, there's like this weird texture

to it. It was like the entire world had a cloud

over it in a way where everything was a bit fuzzy.

Like nothing was completely clear. Like the focus

was off just a little bit, like a nice little

painterly quality too. And I think it certainly,

I think helped. Emphasize the fact that this

was real events because these characters look

real the world look real but it was still stylized

but not overtly stylized it's a really hard line

to draw when you're talking about events like

this that are extremely serious and you want

to be able to tell them in an artistic fashion

but do it in a way that's appropriate that is

kind of not out of line of the story you're telling

and thinking of something like how Shinya lives

for example like that's all in black and white

except for one scene with a with a young girl

in a red dress it's a stylistic choice, but it's

a powerful stylistic choice. It's not one I feel

like is trying to overly call attention to the

filmmaker. It's calling, I think, attention to

the innocence that's being lost in that moment.

I think that's similar to here. I think the colors

in general are very dark and moody. It can be

a bit dull in that, but I feel like it's purposeful.

If it was bright and kind of caught your eye

in that way, I don't think it would necessarily

correspond with the story that's being told.

But I think generally the art style fits the

story ultimately the most important the most

important thing and as I mentioned the panel

design a lot of wide panels a lot of panels that

kind of fill up the page with these imposing

figures and I think that one scene in particular

when you when you do see these individuals kind

of at times coming in and being put on trial

how they they're often so small on the page just

to showcase the Overwhelming obstacles that they're

facing with how you know this regime is consistently

hanging over them They're always this threat

and then beyond that just the story itself and

we think about it like When you do something

like this the small details like you thinking

oh they're just spreading out these leaflets

are putting messages on them well that's an interesting

story but i think this gets to some of the details

like how hard is it to get paper like when a

big part of this is getting the right type of

paper in order to do this and in order to do

that you have to be relatively mindful of that

because if you're showing up. To a location buying

a lot of paper or buying a lot of materials that

would create something like this It's going to

cause suspicion if people are aware of what's

going on So just every little thing you had to

do in order to you know Do something that in

all honesty didn't necessarily have to do But

they chose to despite what what it led to and

what it could lead to so I would highly recommend

this I know World War two is one of those things

that is represented a lot in both movies television

comics it can be very worn road to travel that

comes to storytelling. But again, I think this

was a little bit different because it's a side

of it. We don't necessarily see, at least on

the western side, we don't necessarily see this

viewpoint all that much. So that made it a little

bit different. And generally, the message being

here, although regarding a specific event, I

think it's relatively universal and I think even

ties into some of the other books we'll talk

about today. So definitely recommend it's one

I think really worth your time. It's generally

a pretty quick read. You can see it's not that

long of a book, but I do think one of the best

parts, I did like the choice of them putting

the leaflets in the back and just reading through

those. So getting context to what they did and

it was really helpful. The next book I'm gonna

talk about is Infinitum. And again, this is a

very different type of book compared to the other

two. This is a fourth, starting with the fact

that it is a fiction book. It's also a very different

type of design. You see the, you know, usually

comics are the other shape. Usually they're like

this, but this one is run in this manner and

it's... more of a comic prose style combination,

prose and comics rather than your typical comics.

This is not a book where you're going to read

it and it has a six panel, nine panel grid. You

have one page attacks typically and another page

of an image, one still but moving image. And

I like that because I like getting different

styles given to varieties and the medium of comics.

It's the type of style I don't see very often

anymore. It was certainly common. It happens

here and there like DC had their Hidden universe

book that was done that talked about things like

black lightning that was done in a very similar

style through black label This is written in

drawn by tim fielder and he does really everything

with this book The story is about king aija uba

and his queen lula and it opens up and they're

basically around the time it almost seems like

ancient egypt era And they're ruling over this

land But what happens is lula is unable to bear

children in order to kind of keep their power

going the king Uses a another individual basically

this this witch Sorceress to help birth a child

and during that process when the child is born

they take it from her and In the process she's

killed and actually levies a curse on the king

and the curse kind of causes him to become immortal

He lives forever. He lives to see his son die.

He lives to see his kingdom fall He lives to

see his wife die And what starts in the basically

ancient Egypt area has a massive scope. He eventually

becomes a wanderer. He ends up becoming a slave.

He empowers individuals during his time as a

slave to go the Underground Railroad. He fights

in wars. It goes into the present day. It goes

beyond that. It goes into the future. It's a

pretty wide scope of a story. When you just look

at time period, it's hard to really... top because

of the amount of time that it's covered in this

focusing on one character and looking at the

art style the art style is it does have it like

an animated quality to the each image typically

striking their Well told. If I had some issues

with the overall imagery of the book, it came

down to the coloring. Sometimes the coloring

was so saturated in dark colors at times, it

really hindered the line work, where you couldn't

see much within the image itself because it was

just so dark and bleak. It wasn't always the

case, but especially on the early on -going,

some of the moments that are meant to be rather

poignant and powerful, I think, are hindered

a bit. Looking at the lettering choice. There's

a lot of stylized lettering within this on a

different pages like it's A stylistically, I

think it kind of looks cool but when it comes

to reading I felt like it hindered it more than

anything because it just Put more obstacles on

the page for you to read rather than just being

you know words on the page I think you know lettering

is a difficult thing to do when you're going

to add a lot of style and things to it it's one

thing if you're like adding style to like a sound

effect or something like that on a page because

you're looking for the impact of that. You're

not necessarily reading that for comprehension,

but when you're putting that type of style, like

different colors and fonts on a page and that's

meant to be what you're reading, it just, I think

it adds, it makes it a little bit more challenging

of a read. It at least did for me. So those were

some of my drawbacks to it. The coloring sources

and then just some of the use of the lettering.

I thought it did more harm than good. It looked

cool from afar, but the actual utility of it

I thought was a little cumbersome in general,

but the story itself is is immersive and I was

I didn't know where this was going at all when

I picked it up. I kind of like displaying reading

things. Just this is a new book. Now we try it

out. I didn't even know what format was in at

all. I didn't know it was like this. And the

first thing I was stricken by was was the overall

art. I did think it was it's very digital. It's

a very digital look to it. And that might draw

some people. But I thought on the emotion side,

just the consistency through it. Was welcoming

and i do like styles like this it's a little

bit more wordy of a read like you are reading

half a book half a comic but i thought when you

consider how much time is being. Covered within

this it made a lot of sense and i think it really

started going for me once it got into the fact

that you had him going into the slaves trade

and seeing him kind of react to becoming a part

of the underground railroad and then to. You

see although he's immortal. He can't be inflicted

with wounds wounds can hurt him and then that

challenge I thought that was a nice little wrinkle

too because unlike something like Berserker for

example or Wolverine that they know they're immortal

because they can kind of heal themselves that

necessarily isn't the case exactly with with

this character and at times like he has to overcome

like many wounds and over a lifespan of being

this kind of impressive warrior that has taken

on all challenges from all different types of

the world at all different time periods those

wounds start to kind of add up And I thought

that I went seeing him deal with that. But then

again, when it gets into the future, like that,

I'm like, oh, wow, we're actually going this

far. It hits it into another gear entirely. So

despite my quibbles, I did like it. Like I said,

I do think it's a work that you can have to let

wash over you a bit. kind of escape into this

world. But once I did that, I was relatively

impressed with the craftsmanship. And again,

I love seeing comics being approached through

different methods and through different techniques.

Craftsmanship is something I really look for

when it comes to how I appreciate comics. And

I thought the craftsmanship here was unique.

I mean, it didn't always work for me. It took

a lot of chances. And sometimes chances pay off.

Sometimes they don't. But I'd rather... See someone

take a chance and it failed and then be something

that's just generally mundane and uninteresting.

So it's a good balancing act that I thought Overall

when it came to balancing I enjoyed much more

than I dislike when it came kind of to a fighting

oppression as I talked about this Overcoming

impossible odds again. This goes back to him

being thrown into a system. It's a good like

microcosm of the issues that we've seen the United

States dealing with race because he is this African

individual that is being Treated despite the

fact that he was literally a king now being treated

low of the low But not stopping there fighting

it back against that because of this curse that

he now has he has that ability But again, we

see despite the fact that he you know is fighting

these odds those scars Really impact him and

they are they are there for a long time and I

think that is certainly something that I don't

think is at all an accident you know indicating

that those wounds that have been suffered and

those wounds that started way back in the 16

and 1500s are still relevant today and seeing

King Aja being the individual that connects all

those made a lot of sense but then again it went

into even further beyond that so just to see

what people thought of this I haven't heard many

people talk about this which I think is a shame

because there's a lot here to talk about there's

a lot here to dissect on all different levels

maybe because it's outside the norm of style

people are Just a bit missing it. But again,

I would have advice checking out and see what

you think of it last this week We have the Black

Panther Party. And again, this is a nonfiction

take on the history of the Black Panther Party

It is written by David F Walker with art by Marcus

Kwame Anderson, and I'm a huge fan of David F.

Walker as a writer. I feel like he's relatively

really underrated in the world of comics, and

he's done his Power Man and Iron Fist run with

Sanford Green was great. He's part of Bitter

Root as well. He's part of that writing team.

That's been fantastic. His work on Nighthawk,

he was a co -writer on Naomi, actually even did

a really fun cable in Deadpool one shot back

when the movie was coming out a few years ago

that was like, wow, he has a versatile style

that is something that you don't see nearly enough

because I think he can really approach a variety

of different characters. I wish he got a little

bit more chance to tell bigger stories. Unfortunately,

a lot of his books end up being really good but

don't necessarily have the longevity they should.

Like his Nighthawk won't run, unfortunately got

cancelled way too soon. But it's great seeing

him doing a book like this, you know, with Judas

and the Black Messiah coming out. This is a good

one -two punch. This is very different than that.

This isn't necessarily... it is following the

history of the Black Panther Party. But it's

not necessarily a narrative per se. It is much

more an informational take. And I thought this

did a really good job of just providing context

to a lot of key elements. The amount of detail

and the amount of information in this is pretty

impressive. And when I look about just the individuals

that they touch upon, the event, this is an endless

balancing act. And I've read a lot of books that

cover important information. It's like, this

is cool things to know. These are important things

to know. and it can be overwhelming at times

or end up being relatively dry where you just

feel like you're reading a textbook. This, I

thought, avoided that for two key reasons. One,

providing a lot of context to how we even get

to the point that five grand third party is even

beginning before we even get there, setting up

the stage. And when you get to the individuals

who started it, like... It shifts focus and you,

it's more like a firsthand account, more like

a classic comic with general conversations happening

with, with some narration. So it feels like you're,

you're there in the moment relatively instead

of outside being an observer. Good example of.

showing, not just talent. So, generally, you

think of a well put together graphic design piece.

For example, you'll get the specific pages when

you have an important figure that's about to

play a key role. In order to introduce them,

you get a page. They often will get a page, and

it will be a striking image, potentially even

linking to some relatively iconic imagery, and

then some key details about that individual,

some key caching boxes to... have an understanding

of who the person is where they're coming from

and what role they play and then as a sword continues

you have that context so when they show up everything

makes a little bit more sense and you can kind

of connect all the dots so that's why the fact

you're getting a lot of information is it's divvied

out in a very helpful and informative way and

i think this is again a very important story

to be to learn because the black panther party

or black panther party for self -defense as it

was first as uh first came up It even gets into

how there were different versions of the Black

Panther Party, some of the controversy behind

them, where they come from, what was their purpose.

A big part of this, too, is the gun debate and

how guns play a key role in the foundation of

the Black Panther Party. And it's interesting

seeing how individuals will kind of change their

role on guns, depending upon who has them. For

example, there's this incident called the Sacramento

incident that deals with Ronald Reagan back when

he was governor of California. And you had the

Black Panther Party show up to a location where

they knew Ronald Reagan would be with weapons,

knowing that they were following the law. They

were very keen on making sure that they were

following the law, not breaking any laws, being

educated regarding their rights, not the rights

that they're told that maybe society tells them,

but the rights that they have in the Constitution

and actual state laws. So then you see the reaction

of individuals and there's this Sequence in which

they're going actually to the ski government

to try to challenge this this lava trying to

enact and they get lost in the commons trying

to find their way and when they finally do. By

mistake instead of going into the place that

they're allowed to by law they come to the wrong

door and unfortunately it causes some problems

there But there's also a lot of tragedy in this

as well And I think it tries to get through the

myths it tries to get through cut through kind

of the what people Talk about the black panther

party and actually what really happened and it's

very educational in that sense understanding

the complete picture of what they did what their

pillars are you learned about the ten pillars

of that that established the black panther party

for self -defense And also how there were a multitude

of different Black Panther Party organizations

that all did different things, that had different

viewpoints, some that weren't as militant as

others and the conflict that kind of ensued within

them, but how they would often still work together.

Looking at the art, I mentioned how it was just

really well designed, well put together. And

I thought the art too, when it came to representing

real individuals on the page, like you felt like

you were looking at real people, but not in the

sense of like it had that uncanny valley where

people didn't look to look too real. They had

a cartooning aspect, and I feel weird saying

the word cartooning with a comic like this, but

they certainly weren't comic book characters

drawn like general comic book characters, but

when you had like striking almost poster -like

images, you saw who they were. It was a good

representation of these individuals on a sense

of understanding that these were real people,

and a lot of people that plainly I never heard

about didn't know their stories. I think this

is a book you could probably put in a school,

and it probably should put in a school, especially

for your high school kids, if you have a high

school kid or even college age, just to see this

information, learn this story, if you enjoyed

Judas and the Black Messiah, and you found that

compelling to get more context, to get more background.

And the amount of information that's covered

here is well -detailed, well -researched, but...

I still feel like at the end of the day, I'm

not just learning. I'm seeing a story being told,

which makes it even that more compelling. And

it tries to get the complete picture. It tries

to, I think, show the bad and the good, the tragedy

that occurred. And the way it ends, too, is just

completely heartbreaking. And seeing how the

message that they were compelling, that their

mission, well, at many times was successful.

clearly is still something that has not been

fully realized yet. So beyond that, looking at

how this compares to something like Freight Height,

where you have individuals utilizing things like

leaflets to dispel the messaging of the Nazi

regime, the Black Panthers as well utilize similar

techniques to cultivate information utilizing

their own newsletter. to put things out there

to educate individuals from everything from voter

registration, just to make people aware of the

rights they have and what they can and cannot

accomplish. If they had a different political

agenda or if they wanted to spud the word about

something just to break down the system of oppression,

information, utilizing that information was just

a powerful tool as the guns they would use to

protect themselves. And what's very different

with this compared to something like Frye Height,

where Frye Height is a narrative. beginning to

add where it's more like base upon a true story.

In this, you know, you have narrative pieces,

like I mentioned, you'll get inserts of individuals

communicating and talking with one another to

divide contacts. I feel like you're you're seeing

in real history and action beyond just the details.

Those narrative pieces were a small portion of

this, though, where it was more about providing

you the information and the detail about what

happened. But in a narrative sense, the narrative

here wasn't necessarily about. The story was

about the history, and I think history is much

more interesting when you can tell it like you're

telling a story. It's not just here's a date.

Here's what happened. Move on to the next thing.

Here's a date. Here's what happened. Here's the

next thing. It's linking all together like you

would as if you were. Telling a story like here's

the beginning here's a man and here's the cause

here's the effect Going in for bit for bit It

does maybe do a little bit of jumping because

you have a lot of ground to cover but because

the way it's told Well, you're not just feeling

like you're being bombarded with dry dates and

details It's much more captivating in in that

sense and david ed walker recently did like a

frederick douglas book and I felt like They were

similar to that where the difference between

here Of course is that you have a wider range

of information ultimately though when I look

at this book I think why I liked it as much as

I did is because again going back to the idea

of information in the power It holds it breaks

down regimes, but also I think it can place us

in bubbles It can put us in places that and we

have certain Viewpoints of individuals like growing

up as a kid like I know I didn't really know

much about the Black Panthers. I think my only

Really information I received or my limited knowledge

was based upon their their minor scene in Forrest

Gump and things like that like the details We

didn't learn about them in history class. My

parents weren't people that were going to talk

about them There were you know, almost mystical

figures in a way and mostly seen in a negative

sense almost like it pseudo terrorist type of

organization, but then you get a book like this

and it can inform the uninformed. It can let

you know about important people that you never

heard of and how they have had such a huge impact.

Like we hear the term Black Power. Well, where

did that come from? And learning that, learning

about people's lives, the sacrifices they made,

but it's also not chiding away the fact that,

you know, there's a lot of tragedy in this story

and the anger that's there and understanding

that anger so you have all the books i read this

week i do think this was by far the best you

know i like the other ones they were they were

they had their moments but on a craftsmanship

level on an important level i just thought this

was far and away the most compelling thing i

read and it was something i think i will go back

to actually did buy this on the other books i

got from the library but i'm glad i bought this

because i feel like it is something i would go

back and reference because there is a lot of

information here. I tried to retain as much as

I could, but there are small details, names,

things like that that didn't immediately stick.

So going back and reading it, learning is, you

know, learning is fundamental to this, I say.

Well, anyways, that's it for me for this week.

I did want to mention that the Comic Concierge

is also on a podcast. So if you'd rather listen

to it that way, just search Comic Concierge in

your podcast app and you'll be able to find it.

And outside of that, just want to thank you for

taking the time to check out this video. Appreciate

that. Let me know what you thought of this book.

What books have you been reading? Let me know

in the comment section below. But just remember,

comics are for everyone. The key is finding the

right one. Until next time, keep reading.