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Gingerbread Girl
by
Paul Tobin (Goodreads Author),
Colleen Coover (Goodreads Author)
There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane. Did Annah invent an imaginary sister named Ginger during her parents' ferocious divorce, or did her mad scientist father extract...more
Deluxe Flexicover, 112 pages
Published
July 5th 2011
by Top Shelf Productions
(first published June 7th 2011)
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Great artwork!
This book perfectly captures the frustration of liking someone, but knowing you'll never be able to get any closer to that person.
I liked the storyline being passed like a hot potato among different narrators. Who knew pigeons had such a grasp of the human psyche!
The ending was unsatisfying...perhaps Part Two is in the works?
This book perfectly captures the frustration of liking someone, but knowing you'll never be able to get any closer to that person.
I liked the storyline being passed like a hot potato among different narrators. Who knew pigeons had such a grasp of the human psyche!
The ending was unsatisfying...perhaps Part Two is in the works?
3 likes · like · see review
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This mostly comes down to a matter of taste. I can't cite any objective reasons for not liking this book. I thought the drawings themselves were pretty beautiful, and the line quality is just incredible, but it didn't fit the story, in my opinion. It's also not the kind of style I want to look at for the duration of something as long as Gingerbread girl. It's a better fit for shorter strips and lighter subject matter, not a character sketch of a girl with deep emotional scars and psychological i...more
In Gingerbread Girl, Tobin and Coover perform a character study of a girl who may or may not be crazy, searching for a twin responsible for feeling her sensations. The story follows her on a date, and observes her from a number of different narrators, including the girl she's on a date with, the boy she stood up to go on the date, and, my favorite, an English bulldog wandering by. Annah is, the kind of person you could lose yourself in. She has a perspective that's so different from the norm tha...more
Gingerbread Girl is a graphic novel whose story is both interesting and uninteresting. Whose main character is both lovable, yet frustrating.
Over the chorus of a single night we are introduced to a plethora of characters each taking their turn to narrate the story of Annah Billips and her "sister" Ginger. With each hand-off, from character to character, we're given more bread-crumbs of what is really going on inside of Annah's brain. As outside observers we're asked to question Annah's sanity a...more
Over the chorus of a single night we are introduced to a plethora of characters each taking their turn to narrate the story of Annah Billips and her "sister" Ginger. With each hand-off, from character to character, we're given more bread-crumbs of what is really going on inside of Annah's brain. As outside observers we're asked to question Annah's sanity a...more
Reading this graphic novel will perplex a good many of its readers. There is a narrative here, and that narrative is delightfully constructed and handles multiple points of view well enough that I would venture to say that the manner that the story progresses is one of the more inventive devices I’ve read in recent years. The only problem that most readers will find is that, much like everything in life, at the end of it all no real clear answers to the pertinent questions are really given. Ther...more
I love a good, challenging novel (or graphic novel) as much as the next guy. Maybe even more. I've spent my fair share plumbing the depths of Kafka on the Shore, The Unconsoled, Savage Detectives, and Duncan the Wonder Dog. Those books are treasured to me and I'll always remember to think of them fondly. There's a certain invigouration that occurs when one puzzles through a tough work and comes out the other end with something that resembles a solution—or even just a partial solution. There is l...more
Gingerbread Girl. I'd seen a few pages of it before and always meant to read this. I was, I admit, heavily attracted by the Vertigo-esque cover design. I remembered Gingerbread Girl existed when I saw that there'd been a review posted on Twitter by the excellent @sarangacomics. I love these moments where a book (and somewhat appropriately for this one) lurks in your head and you can't forget it. The moment I read the review, I remembered the dreamy richness of those preview pages and I went back...more
I don't know what I was expecting. Something lighthearted or sweet or funny, I guess. But this book hit me hard. Despite the Penfield Humunculus storyline, it really hit home, so to speak, having grown up under the same circumstances as the lead character: parents always fighting, feeling alone and scared and what the brain does to protect itself or you. My parents did not divorce nor disappear from my life. Who is to say which is better. All I know is I am still fractured and damaged, in therap...more
What do you really know about a person? Gingerbread Girl (to be published in July, but all available to read online here) explores this question from all possible angles, as a multitude of people try to get a handle on the truth behind Annah Billips, a flirty, fun, yet infuriatingly capricious and quirky 27-year old girl.
Through the course of the evening, the story passes through the hands of a variety of narrators (from Annah's date for the evening to a pigeon they pass along the way), but it n...more
Through the course of the evening, the story passes through the hands of a variety of narrators (from Annah's date for the evening to a pigeon they pass along the way), but it n...more
Gingerbread Girl
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Released on July 12, 2011
ISBN: 9781603090803
Hardcover
112 pages
Paul Tobin (author), Colleen Coover (artist)
Marketing Copy
There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane. Did Annah invent an imaginary sister named Ginger during her parents' ferocious div...more
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Released on July 12, 2011
ISBN: 9781603090803
Hardcover
112 pages
Paul Tobin (author), Colleen Coover (artist)
Marketing Copy
There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane. Did Annah invent an imaginary sister named Ginger during her parents' ferocious div...more
I love books that have completely original premises, and this one certainly fits in that category! It's about a 26-year-old woman named Annah who believes that she has a sister who was created when her mad scientist father extracted the Penfield Humunculus from her brain (!). The comic chronicles how Annah's belief in this possibly fictitious, possibly real sister has impacted her life and relationships. Sometimes the characters who give commentary on Annah's life are people (or dogs, or pigeons...more
'Gingerbread Girl,' set in Portland, tells the story of the long term consequences of Annah Billips dealing with her parents divorce. The homunculus/alter ego/possible sister storyline adds a neat psychological twist to Annah's story. We get to know Annah through her two crushes, a pigeon, and a pit bull. I'm pretty sure I was a lot like Annah at 26 - a crazy tease by all appearances that masked some deep hurts. I would like to meet Annah again at 35 and see how she's put herself back together....more
Gingerbread Girl is a graphic novel with a creative premise that, unfortunately doesn't quite get there. Annah, a twentysomething, may or may not have a sister who was created when her father removed a part of Annah's brain (again, something that may or may not have happened). Annah's quest to find Ginger, her sister, seems mismatched with the casual date the story relays. Though Gingerbread Girl's multiple storytellers give the book a fun feel, the story never really connects, and leaves the r...more
I'm giving this one star because the artwork is good. Otherwise, the story is terrible. It follows a manic-pixie dream girl who is bi-sexual. However, it depicts every bad stereotype about people who are bi-sexual and women in particular: undecided/confused about their sexuality, attention seekers, teases, and, overall, crazy. The protagonist is obsessed with the afro of a woman of color. Not the woman, just her afro. I found it hard to care about her or her story.
This could have been a really...more
This could have been a really...more
Jan 07, 2012
Mark Ballinger
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Mark by:
Boing Boing
Shelves:
graphic-novel
A young woman in Portland traces her inability to connect deeply with others to a missing twin.
Why I picked it up: Character based graphic novels will attract me every time.
Why I finished it: Great art, very cleanly and clearly done. Nicely built characters who have some non-obvious traits to them but still come alive quite well, despite the very brief story given them. An engaging mystery to follow, including being taken on the ride by some unexpected narrators. The ending was too abrupt and un...more
Why I picked it up: Character based graphic novels will attract me every time.
Why I finished it: Great art, very cleanly and clearly done. Nicely built characters who have some non-obvious traits to them but still come alive quite well, despite the very brief story given them. An engaging mystery to follow, including being taken on the ride by some unexpected narrators. The ending was too abrupt and un...more
Hmmm. What did I think? I thought that this book was interesting. I learned a lot about the humonculus, which is well known in the field of neurology, and is commonly referred to as "the little man inside the brain" or in this case, "the little gingerbread girl inside the brain." Ugh. Is the main character a total basket base or is she sweetly, but permanently messed up because of her parents' divorce when she was 9? I do not know. No one knows, because the ending was abrupt to say the least. I...more
Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin is a graphic novel that spans the course of a date between Annah and Chili. Annah lives in Portland, works at Powell's, sushi and men and women. She also believes that her mad scientist father removed the Penfield homunculus and turned it into a twin sister named Ginger. With her sister run off, Annah can't feel the intensity of emotions everyone else can and she's desperate to reunite with Ginger.
The events of Annah and Ginger's lives unfold as the evening progres...more
The events of Annah and Ginger's lives unfold as the evening progres...more
Cute drawings, with a story that was part interesting/thought-provoking and part fluff. I didn't love the main character (not because she's possibly insane, but because she's definitely a jerk), but I loved the idea of the possibility of a second self wandering around. I also liked that the narrator's role was passed along to several characters throughout the book, although some of the dialogue was cringingly cheesy. Not a waste of time, though, as I read it over the course of a commute and a pa...more
This is the most eccentric book I've ever read. I actually gave up on it halfway through, because it was stretching my imagination way too far, but then I checked out some reviews that this book received, and they've all been very strong and positive. So, then I suspended my disbelief real well and got back to reading it. Besides, being a graphic novel, it was easier to decide whether to continue with it or not. Once I was done with it, I wasn't in love with it, but I could see the point of the...more
ARC copy provided by netGalley
This is the story of Annahnette (Annah) Billips...who may or may not have a missing sister. But there are plenty of things that we do know for sure about her. She dates both boys and girls (she really likes Afros), she's 27 years old, like sushi, hates beer breath...and oh yeah her parent's divorced when she was 9. Annah says that her mad scientist father extracted part of her brain, the part that deals with emotions, and great it into a twin sister. In this novel m...more
This is the story of Annahnette (Annah) Billips...who may or may not have a missing sister. But there are plenty of things that we do know for sure about her. She dates both boys and girls (she really likes Afros), she's 27 years old, like sushi, hates beer breath...and oh yeah her parent's divorced when she was 9. Annah says that her mad scientist father extracted part of her brain, the part that deals with emotions, and great it into a twin sister. In this novel m...more
Gingerbread Girl is a sweet story that provides an insight into the craziness we concoct to make sense of the dangers of everyday life. It's delightfully illustrated and a has an approach which is a touch reminiscent of the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, although it fails to live up to his charming quirkiness. The changing narrative viewpoint may annoy some but I thought it added a richness to the plot. I didn't warm to any of the characters, although I empathised with them and was initially thrown...more
What an odd, delightful little book. I'm not sure it left me entirely satisfied -- I'm not sure it INTENDED to leave me entirely satisfied. But Colleen Coover's art is lovely as always, and she and Paul Tobin do absolutely fascinating things with the comic book medium here, playing with point of view in a way I'm not sure would work as well in any other form. It definitely deserves an A for effort and ingenuity, even if I'm not sure it totally hangs together in the end.
Amazing. Like Synecdoche, NY, maybe. It makes you wonder, by giving you many viewpoints and opinions about Annah Billips and her sister Ginger. Everyone has their point of view, and none of them are omniscient. All we know is what we see, and what we're told is often confusing.
Simultaneously pulled toward Annah, full of life, and away from her, inconstant and flighty. The book made me feel as though I were off-balance. Kudos to writer Paul Tobin for that.
Simultaneously pulled toward Annah, full of life, and away from her, inconstant and flighty. The book made me feel as though I were off-balance. Kudos to writer Paul Tobin for that.
This was definitely going to get at least three stars, and more likely four, but for the fact that at the very end the author appears to just dust off his spellin' paws and drop the whole goddamn story. Now I am a lady who loves a mysterious open ended plot please do not misunderstand, but I do not care for the sloppy lazy dropping of all loose ends. You resolve, or you dissolve, but you don't just turn your back. Lame.
The art is cutie bootie.
The art is cutie bootie.
Such a wonderful premise, but such a short book! I'd just started to get invested and it was over.
And more to the point - nothing happens. Its a book purely done in exposition, and you get the the end and realise that pretty much an hour has passed in real time and nothing has happened to advance the story at all. An interesting device, but it needed to be done in tandem with some solid action/conflict/happenings.
Also find it an odd choice of artist. The strange story could have done with less...more
And more to the point - nothing happens. Its a book purely done in exposition, and you get the the end and realise that pretty much an hour has passed in real time and nothing has happened to advance the story at all. An interesting device, but it needed to be done in tandem with some solid action/conflict/happenings.
Also find it an odd choice of artist. The strange story could have done with less...more
A quirky and colorful graphic novel about a young woman named Annah who may have a sister, or not. With some terribly clever POV-hopping as a storytelling device and a main protagonist who is as refreshing as she is frustrating, Gingerbread Girl is an oddly satisfying look at family, divorce, romance, friendship, mental illness and the pursuit of breadcrumbs. Also, panties.
This was a very sweet, charming, and quirky comic. I like that you get to decide what really is the deal with Annah yourself. The art was really good, too. I read one of Colleen Coover's early porn comics, and she has come a long way with her style (not that she was ever bad). She draws really cute women and animals.
Similar to the main protagonist, this slim graphic novel is a "tease." Interesting, shifting point-of-view that was fun to follow along with, but the story ends with kind of a "huh?" The afro might be my favorite character.
This humorous and whimsical graphic novel is more or less a character study of a twentysomething bi woman living in Portland. How others perceive and react to her is more intriguing than the plot itself.
Cute art, interesting exploration of mild schizophrenia, multiple-narrator storytelling somewhat contrived and jarring, mildly unsatisfactory ending. I feel like this would have been better had it been about twice as long; I feel like I was just getting a grip on who the characters were and starting to like them when it abruptly ended without much of a real story having taken place.
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Last week I got an exercise bike, and all my muscles are sore. But in the good way.
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