"Exit Wounds" is a comic book (or a graphic novel if you prefer) written and drawn by Israeli artist named Rutu Modan. It's her first comic book and she made quite a break with it receiving accolades all over the world and winning an Eisner award for Best New Graphic Novel in 2008. It tells a story of a young man in Tel-Aviv who finds out his father could be dead and embarks on an investigation to find out what happened to him, accompanied by his father's young girlfriend.
At first, the most disappointing part of the story for me was that the father, named Gabriel Franco, turns out to be a sort of MacGuffin. He never appears and although we are informed he's alive, we don't know where he is or why he has done all the things about which we find out throughout the book. But is that really the case? After some thinking about the book and revisiting its parts it became clear to me we find out about the father as much as about any other of the characters and he's just as important. In its essence it's a book about various people who all have one thing in common – the same man shot through their lives and left them exit wounds. Koby Franco, the son, began losing contact with his father five years before the events in the book, when his mother died. Numi, father's young girlfriend, last saw him a month ago and gets worried after seeing the scarf she knitted for him on the site of a bomb explosion. During the quest they embark on, they meet an old lady who was involved in a romantic relationship with Kobi's father as well as another old lady who claims to be his wife. All those female characters have only nice things to say about Gabriel, but of course, they didn't know about one another. The only person Gabriel talked to everyone about is Koby's mother Aviva and it becomes obvious he can't get over her and tries to find bits and pieces of her in various women.
We can say this is a story about two quests. Gabriel's quest to reconcile with the death of his wife and Koby and Numi's quest to find Gabriel. The first one implicit and unfinished, the second one explicit and finished quite unexpectedly (for the characters, not so much for the readers). Trying to find Gabriel, Numi and Koby in the end found each other and decided on trust and forgiveness in spite of all the things they heard, saw and went through in their lives.
It should also be noted that Rutu Modan subtly paints a picture of contemporary Israel in the background of the story. We have characters with different social status, different religious views and different views toward their own society. And there are many current problems presented such as the different treatment of Hebrews and non-Hebrews, the way the amount of material wealth is connected with modern-traditional dichotomy and increased appearance of suicide bombers' attacks.
The book is drawn in simple but evocative style often compared with Herge's (author of Tintin) so called "clear line". The drawings certainly aren't revolutionary but I found them fitting the characters and theme of the book. Ordinary people in, maybe not ordinary, but one of those „it can happen to anyone“ situations are best drawn in a simple way. Opposed to the simple drawings of the characters, the backgrounds are rich and very detailed, making them interesting to look at and find all the things depicted. Something I liked very much was the coloring. Big, flat areas filled with mostly primary (red, yellow and blue) and secondary colors (green, orange and purple) create very interesting color compositions throughout the book, often with not over three colors on the page. Another interesting thing about the coloring is how Modan in each panel contrasts characters and things relevant in that moment, which she draws in a simple way and colors the way explained above, with backgrounds drawn in detail but pale-colored and often monochrome.
With "Exit Wounds" something happened to me that has never happened before, at least as far as I can remember. It was more interesting to think about it and write this review than to actually read it. I don't know if that speaks well of the book or not, but I do know you can give it a shot. Who knows? Maybe it'll shoot you back and leave a wound.
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