Dennis D. McDonald (ddmcd@ddmcd.com)consults from Alexandria Virginia. His services include writing & research, proposal development, and project management.
But mysteriously there’s enough recognizable and even semi-linear as narrative here to keep a halfway intelligent or imaginative person interested all the way through.
Have you ever worked by yourself for an extended period of time in a foreign country? If so, you’ll recognize a lot of what author Delisle writes about in Shenzhen.
This graphic novel depicts a two-month visit to North Korea by animator Delisle to supervise children’s TV animation work subcontracted by Delisle’s French employer.
This comic strip depiction of Delisle’s year in Burma as a “house-dad” while accompanying his Doctors Without Borders wife is simultaneously touching, funny, and scary.
The artwork is nowhere near the level of detail and sophistication present in the author’s Buddha graphic novel series, but the story’s scope is vast. It begins in the year 3404 when the human race is decaying. The periodic intervention of the mystical Phoenix is all that stands in the way of total physical collapse of the Earth.
My knowledge of Buddhism and the Buddha is minimal. I approached this 8-volume manga series purely out of curiosity when I saw it sitting on the shelf in the graphic novels section of the Alexandria Public Library.