'An extraordinary memento of a life-changing moment in history, artist Vic Lee’s visually stunning, graphic novel–style personal diary chronicles his experience of the corona-virus pandemic as it unfolded.
'With beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and typography, Vic Lee’s Corona Diary vividly captures what it was like to live through this unprecedented period. Listening to daily news stories, experiencing different ways of living and working as well as adapting to new and necessary social controls, renowned London artist, illustrator and storyteller Vic Lee documents the first six months of the pandemic in real time. An epilogue spread touches on the events of July, August and September.
'Reflect on and process the unforgettable events of the pandemic through an intimate account in images and lettering of the initial news from a place called Wuhan, Italy’s first cases then state of emergency, its spread across the world and the WHO’s declaration of a global pandemic, the lock-down and toilet paper shortages, the economic fallout, the unfathomable numbers of people dead, the immense gratitude to those on the front-line of the health services, the reactions and decisions made by leaders that would affect us all, the anxiety and isolation – all the twists and turns.
'While this work of art is a snapshot of one person’s experience, it conveys events experienced and emotions felt by billions around the world – a permanent record of a time we will never forget.'
Award winning artist Vic Lee brings readers a short graphic novel of his experiences during the year of 2020, a year where life changed in multiple ways as the deadly Corona Virus swept across the world.
Those expecting a traditional comic might be in for a bit of a shock by this book, because it's really quite different to many that I've read, where instead of the pages being separated out into panels that tell a story, it's more like the pages are murals, with some themes and ideas spreading over two page spreads.
Whilst this makes for a very different read, it also makes things a bit more difficult when reading it in a digital form, like I did. For single pages it's fine, but when the artwork is spread across two pages, and the messages it contains flows around the pages it can make it hard to follow when you're having to skip between two pages of art, scrolling back and forth. I'm not marking this against the book in this review at all, but I'm going to point this out to people so that you're aware of it before you go and grab a copy, and I'd advise you to try and get hold of a physical book in order to avoid some of the pitfalls that I went through.
Despite those small issues, the book itself is a very pretty thing, and the artwork is so different from what you find in a regular graphic novel. I can't really think of any other books that quite looked like this, and the stark black and white pallet really added to this. If felt less like a mass produced piece, and more like flicking through Vic's book, seeing the drawings he'd made with pen and ink. The style felt messy and flowing at times, yet always had a neatness and care to quality that it never looked like he'd lost control or just drawn thing because they could; everything on the page had purpose.
Vic is able to cover many of the major events of the last year, both here in the UK and around the world. He's able to capture the likenesses of world leaders and members of the British government so well that despite looking like slightly exaggerated caricatures you always knew who they were meant to be, and never felt unsure just what was supposed to be going on.
There are a few times in the book that things are written from a more personal point of view, and we get to see how Vic saw the pandemic, how he experienced lock down, or the times he saw people in the street not caring about safety or taking care. These were the better parts of the book, and the ones that held the most interest for me. The majority of the book, however, felt more like Vic simply just relaying a basic overview of what was happening in the world at the time. He talked about what major development happened on a certain date, or how the news unfolded, but didn't relate these parts to his own experience.
These segments often left me feeling a bit flat. Despite being presented in this intricate and interesting art form these were still all things that I knew. I knew when the lock down came into effect. I knew how the pandemic began. I knew how the government cocked it up. I knew all of this, this wasn't new information to me, and as such it didn't grab me. If I'd have been seeing how Vic processed this, how he felt when these events happened I'm sure the book would have grabbed me more, but it just felt like a list of dates and facts at the time. This approach might be fine for events that happened a long time ago, but when it's the same year I'm in now, and events I lived through, it felt like the least engaging way to convey this to me.
There's a lot of information in this book, presented in interesting ways. Some of it comes from a personal place, but sometimes it feels more detached and clinical. Because of that, I never ended up loving the book as much as I think I could have; but I do see how this book can go on to be received. This strikes me as a book that is interesting now, but will become even more so as time moves forward. I think that this is the kind of book that will be a useful way to get across some of the events of 2020 to people in the future, to people who are still to young now to fully understand just what's going on, or the global implications of these events. I think this is a book that will go on to become a valuable teaching resource in years to come, and is definitely one to keep an eye on.
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