Saints

Bought at Garden Books, Shanghai, China.

Title: Saints
Date: 2013
Publisher: First Second Books
Writer: Gene Luen Yang
Art: Gene Luen Yang
Colorist: Lark Pien

Saints is the companion piece to Gene Luen Yang's Boxers (reviewed here), telling the story of the China's Boxer Rebellion, this time from the point of view of a Christian woman whose visions of Joan of Arc lead her into the conflict. The main character in this story appears briefly, but significantly, at two points in Boxers, and Saints brings her story to life.

Vibiana was called "Four Girl" growing up in a household that considered her to be cursed with bad fortune. She finds her refuge and her new name among the Chinese Christian community, and she struggles to understand the visions she has received even as the world around her descends into war.

While the ultimate direction of this volume is as violent and tragic as Boxers was, the beginning has a more witty and sarcastic tone, even as it deals with serious issues of abuse and family.

There is less sweeping story here, but it is more focused and personal.

It does significantly alter the resolution of Boxers, but it does it in a way that I thought added to the story rather than negating aspects of it.

The use of Joan of Arc comes off as odd choice in some ways, and the author has do dance a bit around the issue that she had not actually been canonized at the time the story was set. That being said, the character of Joan is handled well, and the artwork on her scenes is especially good.

This did a nice job of expanding the world of Boxers and deepening the story.

Rating 8.5/10