Title: Initially intriguing but ultimately cloying
Product review: Sometimes the lack of critical distance in online reviews compels me to chip in with a two-star spoiler, if only to temper the five stars rashes that seem to be endemic. When first viewed, Katchor's work has an engagingly ethereal quality: crude yet strikingly filmic illustrations are underpinned by liltingly meandering Magic Realist musings. After a few pages, however, the subtle charm becomes smug, narrative rhythms begin to seem like simple repetitiveness and the whole enterprise appears flimsy and self-satisfied. I realise that these are separate newspaper strips not originally intended for consumption en masse but I still found the collection as a whole to be disappointing and ultimately rather irritating.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
