Trickster: Native American Tales, a Graphic Collection Edited by Matt Dembicki

 Fulcrum, $22.95 paper (232p) ISBN 978-1-55591-724-1

These 21 folktales, created by pairing Native storytellers with a variety of artists, feature creatures explaining how things came to be, like islands or stars, or animals playing tricks on one another. Often, the trickster, while trying to take the lazy way, outwits himself, especially when it involves Coyote. In other tales, Raven does whatever people tell him not to do, but ends up with a free meal anyway, and Rabbit tricks some buffalo and wolves and is tricked by Fox into losing his tail. Many of the stories, some of which involve tribespeople as well as animals, are told through captions, as though listening to an elder and envisioning the images he describes. Micah Farritor's art in "Coyote and the Pebbles" and Dembicki's in "Azban (Raccoon) and the Crayfish" are standouts in their animal images. The diverse styles are presented in lavish color in this thick, handsome volume. The short collection of contributor bios at the end is a helpful resource for finding more about the artist's credits or the writer's heritage. (June)


 from: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/457156-Comic_Book_Reviews_4_26_2010.php

Welcome

I want to welcome all who would like to see, to read, or to publish reviews of the on-going works related to Trickster.  My intent here is to keep this as open as possible; so there is an available space for discussing trickster work.  I suppose at first I should keep posting of reviews in my control, but at some point later I will open this up to all.  I expect that the exchanges will be constructive, and I hope this site will serve to make connections amongst the community of folks who follow trickster.  I have set up the blog to function with RSS feeds so that anyone following the blog will get notice of new materials.  I have also set up an series of each reaction buttons and wish to invite folks to comment on what is posted here.

A word about the blog title: I chose Trickster's Rear View for a couple of reasons.  One, it is obviously a one-step off of review.  Two, I do think of reviews as looking back.  The rear view of Trickster seems to be appropriate for those of us who suspect that scholarship spends a lot of time looking up its own rear.

If you have a review you wished published or if you have a work you would like reviewed, please send to Dauber at bill.spinks at gmail.com. If you know of someone work on trickster, please mention this site to them, and if you yourself are interested in trickster work, I will be glad for you  to become an author of this site (right now the limit is 100) if you will contact me.  Let us enjoy and play in the fields of trickster.