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| Etgar Keret |
Streets of Rage |
| Comics |
Tel Aviv, Zmora Bitan, 1997. 52 pp.
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Two Comic Books
In Nobody Said it Was Going to Be Fun (Etgar Keret and Rutu Modan) and in Streets of Rage (Etgar Keret and Assaf Hanuka) inventive young author Etgar Keret sets sophisticated new standards in the comic book world. Nobody Said it Was Going to Be Fun presents thought-provoking visual stories in a light, witty manner enhanced by Rutu Modan's colorful and engaging drawings. Despite the basic thread of ironic humor that runs through this collection of 22 sequences, the world is depicted as a nasty place in which cruel and harsh rules prevail. All the protagonists try to realize one fantastic dream after another, but are inevitably doomed to failure. Innovative text and graphics combine to provide a surprising twist at the end of each quest. In the opening story a psychopathic summer camp is the backdrop for a naive romance between a girl and boy. Their touching love survives all the physical and mental tortures of the camp, only to disintegrate subsequently in the face of the boring trivialities of their everyday lives.
In Streets of Rage Etgar Keret and Assaf Hanuka create a world in which hopes are relentlessly dashed. Even when the anti-heroes dare to dream, they invariably forget about their aspirations or abandon them without a struggle. In the first story, the protagonist regrets that his parents weren't murdered when he was a child and that they never beat him; if they had, he might have possessed sufficient rage to become a prizefighter. In another story, the protagonist's mother has just died of cancer and his father is screwing every woman in sight in their Eilat hotel room. A spurt of raw anger is quickly stifled and the story ends with the protagonist indifferently switching on the television set. Assaf Hanuka's stark black and white drawings add drama to the innovative stories.
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About the Book
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Yediot Aharonot noted about Streets of Rage that "as opposed to comics, the book is free of any narrative simplicity, stereotyped characters, archetypal plots and expressional clichés. This is a multimedia work brimming with originality; it achieves refreshing results in terms of characterization, plot construction and expression...the book's most notable achievement is the convincing combination of text and illustration."
Iton Tel Aviv notes, "Those who know how to appreciate the aesthetics of drawing and of street language, exceptionally accurate parodic humor and true street smarts - will love this book." Poet Ronny Someck said about the joint comic book by Etgar Keret and Rutu Modan, Nobody Said it Was Going to Be Fun: "Humor is an essential part of Keret's native landscape, which he has marked with his inimitable fingerprints. He is a person blowing up a balloon, knowing that there is a final exhalation which will make it burst." Regarding Rutu Modan's illustrations, he added: "Her pictures are not just illustrations. She tells the story from the viewpoint of her brush."
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