Remember Persepolis, the graphic novel about growing up in Iran in the 70s and 80s? (I just re-read it in my FourLoko fueled book club.) Two Iranians appropriated artist Marjane Satrapi’s style for an online graphic novel about the recent Iran elections at spreadpersepolis.com.
(I nabbed the source code off their site to embed this below, you can also view it in full screen on Flickr here)
I’m not sure how I feel about this fan art. On the one hand, her stark, black ink dominated panels are associated with Iran for many people after the success of her novels (Persepolis, Persepolis 2, Embroderies) and film (called Persepolis and covering the content of 1 and 2). And it worked for attention, getting Boing Boing coverage.
But they used her characters, which are her family and herself as a child, to portray a modern story that is directly related to her own work. She’s still living in Paris and producing, so it seems a bit like beating her to the punch. My searches didn’t turn up any response from her.
How could I not join a bookclub of super friendly people who let my bbq share their table and who are reading Persepolis and Blankets…AND who have a club initiation where you slam a can of Four Loco (like Sparks)? Right?
