Goliath

Goliath

Tom Gauld

Book - 2012

This story reworks the David-and-Goliath myth. Goliath of Gath isn't much of a fighter. Given half a choice, he would pick administrative work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king, he finds himself issuing a twice daily challenge to the Israelites: "Choose a man. Let him come to me that we may fight. If he be able to kill me then we shall be your servants. But if I kill him, then you shall be our servants." Day after day he reluctantly repeats his speech, and the isolation of this duty gives him the chance to banter with his shield-bearer and reflect on the beauty of his surroundings. This is the story of David and Goliath as seen from ...Goliath's side of the Valley of Elah. Quiet moments in Goliath's life as a soldier are accentuated by the author's drawing style, which contrasts minimalist scenery and near-geometric humans with densely crosshatched detail reminiscent of Edward Gorey. Goliath's battle is simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, as bureaucracy pervades even this most mythic of figures. Goliath displays a sensitive wit, a bold line, and a traditional narrative reworked, remade, and revolutionized.

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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor Comics GRAPHIC NOVEL/Gauld Checked In
Subjects
Goliath > (Biblical giant) > Comic books, strips, etc.
Graphic novels.
Genres
Graphic novels
Published
Montréal : Drawn & Quarterly 2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Tom Gauld (-)
Edition
1st Hardcover ed
Physical Description
[96] p. : col. ill. ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781770460652
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Sure, everyone loves the biblical underdog, David, but isn't it time someone had a little sympathy for the big guy? In this hilariously understated revisioning, Gauld turns the brute into a hapless lug doomed by his own meekness and a single, stupid, well-placed rock. With the armies of the the Philistines and the Israelites at an impasse, a Philistine captain concocts a crazy scheme to flaunt Goliath's intimidating size and wage psychological warfare on the enemy. He ignores Goliath's objections (I'm the fifth-worst swordsman in my platoon . . . I do paperwork! I'm a very good administrator!) and has him repeat, day after day, a challenge to single combat, reasoning that no one would be nutty enough to take on such a mountain of a man. Gauld's stylistic toolkit clean lines, simple shapes, and crosshatching so thick it's nearly fabric makes it all a pleasure to behold. He mines comedic gold from deadpan reaction shots so well timed you could set a watch by them and, weirder still, some tragic oomph for the lumbering sucker. After a few clever, heartbreaking scenes foreshadowing the inevitable showdown, you really start to pull for Goliath. Yet here comes some smartass kid with a slingshot to plunk him right between the eyes and cut his head off. What a jerk.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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