Tamblyn, Diana – Duty Must Be Done

Website

Duty Must Be Done Now Available! $2

It figures that Time named SPX 2002 as one of the years ten best graphic novels and I thought it was the probably the worst of the bunch. Of course, who knows what other nine books they put on the list? Yes, I know they were probably all great. Why am I bringing this up? Well, besides my innate tendency to ramble aimlessly, this mini is a story from said anthology. It was one of the stronger pieces in the book, but that’s not why I had a problem with the book. This book is about Frederick Banting, the man mostly responsible for insulin and a tireless scientist who just wanted to be an artist. He’s apparently something of a national hero in Canada, and for good reason. Here’s another book from Diana that I liked, mostly because her artwork is tremendous. She obviously takes a lot of care in making everything look just right, although I did have a problem with her depiction of the plane crash. Not that I’ve ever seen a really great plane crash in a comic, but her three panels were pretty bad. First a nervous pilot, then a plane in the snow, then (what looked like, although I knew from the context that it wasn’t) a peacefully sleeping pilot. Still, a minor gripe, it’s just one of those odd things this brain of mine retains while writing a review. Contact info is up there, it’s $2.