Mail Order Bride

Rating:
Summary: Overlooked treasure
Review: A great piece of graphic storytelling. I'm a lifelong comic fan and take pride in keeping apprised of independent, critically acclaimed works (even if I don't read them all), and I was surprised when I never heard of Mail Order Bride. This book completely flew under many people's radars, I believe, and my opinion is that it would have sold much better with more attention.

The story and artwork are truly beautiful. Mark Kalesniko takes on a subject matter that is rife with stereotypes and cliches, and lends them depth and humanity. The story is moving, the individual panels are rich and emotion-invoking, and Kalesniko makes good use of the sequential panel structure to tell a story without words at many junctures. Most importantly, no character is two-dimensional. True, the premises surrounding each character are stereotypical, but Kalesniko eventually proves that he treasures his creations as individuals and not as plot devices.

Here, the reader is invited into the world of Monty Wheeler, a comic book store owner and lonely man, and Kyung Seo, his mail order bride from Korea. The reader accompanies them from their first meeting through their first awkward months together as husband and wife, observing as they initially try to do nothing but make the other happy. Slowly, their expectations of each other are not met and unhappiness and dissastisfaction results, because their expectations were artificially inflated by preconceived notions of each other.

Ultimately, the star of the book is Kyung, who comes into her own and discovers within herself a strong and independent woman, only to ultimately discover that this is not who she is. A tragic, if curious ending.

The only complaint I had about this book is that the author glosses over details that if included, would lend realism to his story, but inconvenience the plot. For example, Kyung speaks perfect English upon arrival in Canada. She chalks this up to always being good with languages. That's preposterous. Also, there's virtually no culture shock. Although her character is one that is trying to leave her past behind, I don't think that anyone completely can do that without feeling some longing or regret for their home culture. Especially in the case of an immigrant from East Asia to the U.S., the cultural differences are so vast, I don't see anyone adjusting as well as Kyung did. I don't know that the author appreciates this.

However, these small details were easy to overlook because of the touching story and rich characterization.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous example of the modern graphic novel
Review: Complex, believable characters and an unusual, well-conceived plot make this one of my favorite graphic novels. The conflict between the comic book store owner with an Asian fetish and his new Korean mail-order bride is beautifully told in a series of small, telling vignettes, developing slowly as it takes a series of unpredictable turns. Kalesniko's art is, as always, both incisive and gorgeous, and his use of panels and pacing are just brilliant. He obviously has a lot to teach others in the medium of comics. He apparently did work on The Lion King and Mulan, but his wonderfully cinematic storytelling skills have been evident since long before that. I'll admit the ending of the story goes a bit over the top for my taste, but what remains is a dense and fascinating look at a very poignant, very real relationship. I've read it 3 times now and continue to linger over the captivating way Kalesniko tells the story. If you're looking for a graphic novel for people who say they'll never like "comic books," this is one to buy.

Rating:
Summary: funny and brutal
Review: I bought this book quite a while back, but it was only recently I read it. It is the story of a lonely 39 year old comic and toy store owner Monty Wheeler. Who is so desperate for companionship that he gets a mail order bride from Korea. However, the woman he gets, Kyung Seo, is not the petite,deferent Asian girl that he was hoping for, and this is where the story takes off into chaos. The art style is very unique in this book, and the sory telling is top-notch. There is never a trace of love in Monty and Kyung's relationship: Monty has a case of "Yellow Fever" and Kyung was hoping for a better life. They are both met with bitter disappointment that explodes in pure hatred at the end. . .

Rating:
Summary: loved almost all of it
Review: I loved every page of this book up to the great climax, which in my opinion strikes a false note to say the least. the character development is carefully done and plausible up to that point, where two genres seem to collide to the benefit of neither; I'm not familiar with Mark Kalesniko's previous work, but can imagine it to be in a more traditional "comic" style, where such scenes are somewhat more commonplace.

After reading this through I hasten to add that I was deeply impressed and moved by the rest of the book, the artwork as well as the story, and wouldn't want to put anyone off buying it; on the contrary, I seldom got such good value (in terms of time spent reading and re-reading) out of a graphic novel. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Art is superb and story is well told
Review: most of the others reviewers here have told you all you'll need to know about the story of "Mail Order Bride" so I'll leave those details to them.
I'd like to talk about how good the art is in this 200+ page graphic novel. Mark first got my attention back with a mini-series he did called "Alex" which may or may not be available in trade paperback form. His expressive and economical art made me a fan from that first issue, and I eagerly await each new project.
"MOB" shows his skills with sequential art growing even more precise and detailed. He uses many repeated images and wordless panels to great effect, and captures more emotion in a look from his characters than the dialogue ever could.
I'm a big fan of fellow indie creator Andi Watson, and both he and Mark have an economy of line that is so refreshing in today's comics field. Andi's line is thick and minimalist, while Mark's is thin and detailed, but both pack so much feeling into their work that you'll soon be a fan too.
"MOB" is the best $$ I've spent in a comics shop in some time.