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Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim team up with The Eternal Smile
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From the publisher
Perhaps one of the most impressive works of 2007 was Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, which received an astounding amount of praise and awards, including a Printz and an Eisner (and a National Book Award Finalist to boot!), and now he’s back with his next graphic work from First Second. The Eternal Smile, written by Yang and drawn by Derek Kirk Kim (of the Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz winning Same Difference and Other Stories) follows in the footsteps of the collaborators’ previous works by containing a few separate stories. The first, “Duncan’s Kingdom”, is the story of a teenage knight sent on a quest by the princess he loves; the second, “Gran’pa Greenbax and The Eternal Smile”, follows a very Uncle Scrooge-esque frog on one of his commercial exploits in cartoonish fashion, until Greenbax murders his assistant in a fit of rage; the concluding story, “Urgent Request”, depicts a woman who falls for an online scheme, in which a man claiming to be a Nigerian prince swindles her out of her savings.
The quick pitch makes each story seem entirely different than the others, which is supplemented by the variant layouts and styles Kim chooses for each, but, as American Born Chinese directly ties its trilogy together, the stories of The Eternal Smile fit with one another as well. Each of the stories depict the protagonists’ existential revelations that result from the events of their respective tales, while depicting a number of the surrogates someone might use to make up for a wide range of deficiencies, from self-confidence to self-actualization. The book as a whole serves as a nice introductory piece to the Allegory of the Cave, with all three taking on slightly different spins on the subject. Each story (particularly the first two), maintains the charmingly absurd and occasionally downright bizarre style of Yang’s previous works, each with a bit of the authorial insight that Yang is praised for. A standout example (I’ll try to remain spoiler free) is Greenbax’s reflexive but defiant urination to escape from the godlike figure that literally plucks him from his environment. Hearkening back to fairy tales through the use of physically regressive acts as a means of ‘child’ liberation, the scene simultaneously serves as a delightfully self-conscious depiction of creative force and naturalism with a helping of social and religious commentary, while also providing the reader with a laugh.
“Duncan’s Kingdom” was previously published in 1999 by Image Comics, and in places it reflects a decade less experience. Even so, Yang’s incorporation of creative and occasionally juvenile humor (and I don’t mean that in a bad way), coupled with some explicit commentary, makes the book pitch-perfect for young adults, while containing enough subtlety to provide adult readers with plenty to tackle if they give it a shot.
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