Lovely, lovely illustrations. Cardinale's an accomplished artist; he really makes the small town of Rosario come alive. You can practically feel the pulsing vitality of the culture and at the same time, feel the static humdrum of its citizens. Very well-done. Mr. Mendoza was quite a character, and while I didn't understand a fair bit of his social commentary (maybe because I was in a rushing mood, maybe because I'm just naturally dense), I thought he was great as Rosario's resident outcast-rebel-graffiti king. Pretty eccentric dude, but you gotta love him. Urrea's writing was also vivid and complemented the illustrations nicely.At the same time, the story felt disjointed and all over the place. It would jump from one tangent to another and I got mixed up while reading it. It was all very interesting, but I didn't feel that it had a satisfying amount of cohesion. The conclusion, for one, left me unsatisfied.Still, it's a lovely package, and I would recommend you at least check it out for the illustrations alone. Urrea's short story is a light-hearted portrait of Mexican village life in the town of El Rosario. The story is told by old lifelong friends recounting their younger years in the village, particularly as it related to Mr. Mendoza. Armed with a paintbrush, Mr. Mendoza, who deemed himself the "Graffiti King of Mexico," left his clever social commentary in paint on variety on features around town, including on the two boys in one particular instance. "Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush" is filled with Urrea's characteristic humor that doesn't often elicit gut-busting laughs, but rarely fails to make you smile. The story is in the format of a graphic novel with artwork by Christopher Cardinale. I was not the biggest fan of the facial expressions that Cardinale painted on the people in the story. The animals had better expressions in my opinion. Mr Mendoza, whose face was rarely visible, was also drawn very well. The rest of the scene within the frames were very attractively done. The art was a nice complement to Urrea's words and some of the panels were beautiful.
What do You think about Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush (2010)?
I was going to give this two stars, but I really liked the art, so: 3.
—eli
A quirky folk-style tale! A funny and truthful fable.
—JAE
