Real Change News | A New Realm for Graphic Novels

July 1, 2009
Vol: 16 No: 30

Arts & Entertainment

A New Realm for Graphic Novels

by: Olivia Conner , Contributing Writer

Why I Killed Peter By Olivier Ka, adapted and with art by Alfred, translated by Joe Johnson, ComicsLit, Hardcover, 2008, $18.95

Art by Alfred.

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In the past five years, there has been a rush of movies based on either comics or graphic novels (“X-Men,” “Watchmen,” “Batman” and “300”), and the growing hunger of the masses for films that are bursting with steroid-enhanced crusaders seems to have no end. Beneath this cultural frenzy is a river of written and drawn material that is not new to the world of literature and art: Comics are often traced back to the Egyptians’ hieroglyphics, and graphic novels, which are a longer, plot driven version of a comic book, have been on the rise in the U.S. since Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” debuted in 1980. Although one may automatically think of muscled superheroes when graphic novels are mentioned, “Why I Killed Peter” is a far cry from a typical superhero story.

This pictorial book is different because the author is addressing a very emotional and serious subject: A seemingly fun-loving priest (Peter) urges a young friend (Olivier) to please him sexually. It is evident that it takes the protagonist years to process this moment, and to understand the reality of what really happened. This issue is not new to newsstands, yet it may be new to the graphic novel medium. Thus Ka’s willingness to write a graphic novel about it for the public deserves a standing ovation. And, in the end, one could argue that a hero does emerge.

Although Ka wrote the story, an artist who goes only by Alfred illustrated the book. The reader finds out in the middle of the novel that the two are friends, and have decided to go on a journey to return to the summer camp in France where the inescapable nightmare began. Prior to the journey, the reader is introduced to Olivier (Ollie) at a young age: actually the first chapter is titled “I killed Peter because I’m 7 years old.” Every subsequent chapter that follows is similar in title, different in age, ending at age 35.

The first half of the book is a coming-of-age story where the writer offers ironic quips about a child’s perception of adults like, “I don’t know how they do it, but they manage to talk for hours without making anything clearer.” Ka successfully captures the confusion of childhood while Alfred fills in the large panels with cartoony drawings that oscillate between various styles and colors, depending on the story’s emotional arc. Ollie meets his priest friend in the French countryside where his gypsy-hippie parents live, and he immediately takes to the large, jovial man. It is obvious that Peter is not an average priest either: He is not stereotypically strict, does not wear a throat-choking collar and he loves to hang out around the camp fire. As Ollie puts it: “He’s a funny priest. He plays the guitar during the service, he has a beautiful voice, a big belly, and a beard like a garden gnome.”

The pivotal moment happens in a little cabin, during summer camp, with many other boys and girls sleeping nearby. Peter successfully sweet-talks Ollie into helping him fall asleep, with Ka filling in that gap for anyone who’s ever read about a priest molesting a little boy and wondered how such coercion could begin. Ollie is somewhat confused and horrified, but he handles it in a mature manner — for a seven-year-old, that is — until it begins to haunt him.

Ollie spends the rest of his life trying to understand, forget, get over and purge his emotions about his night next to Peter. Unfortunately, this is a weak point of the book. Ka alienates the reader by alluding to the idea that the novel was written for him alone, as a way to eradicate dark emotions that will not free him: “It’s high time to write out this story … There’s no other way to shed it. I have a chance to get rid of it all through writing. It’s just as effective as psychoanalysis and it saves me tons of money.” One is left to wonder why Ka is offering the book to readers.

Visually, the graphic novel uses various mediums to illustrate each panel of this 112-page novella. Alfred begins by drawing scratchy, hairy figures with thick black lines and what resembles blotchy acrylic paint. Some of his images are straightforward drawings of people, vehicles, and scenery. Some are fairly abstract, like the drawing of a naked woman surrounded by breasts and pubic hair that accompanies Ollie describing how his father likes to sleep with other women and his mom is OK with it. And toward the end of the book, Alfred uses actual photographs taken on a return journey to the fateful summer camp to see if Peter still exists.

Overall this book is imaginative and the ending is a bit surprising. While most graphic novel writers are creating mythic creatures that battle evil, Ka is giving readers a poignant glimpse into the dark underbelly of the Catholic Church. Although he is not the first or the last person to purge his insecure emotions in the graphic novel medium, his book certainly is a good addition to the family.

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