Munch by Steffen Kverneland (Book)

A few words about one of the most impressive graphic novels I've read so far this year: Munch by Steffen Kverneland.

Unsurprisingly, Munch is a graphic biography of Dutch artist Edvard Munch. Munch was the genius behind The Scream series of paintings, which are among the most recognisable paintings in the world. (Perhaps the most recognisable paintings.)

The first thing that struck me about Munch was its pleasing heft. I love a chunky graphic novel. Despite running at over 300 pages, the book is not in any way padded out, which cannot be said for some graphic novels. Every single page of Munch is crammed full of beautiful panels. No wonder it took seven years to make.

Now, a small confession. For me, one of the major downsides to comics and graphic novels is that if I don’t like the art then it’s very difficult for me to get past this. Initially this meant that I struggled with Munch, because I have to admit that I'm not overly fond of Kverneland’s more grotesque drawings. But his representations of Munch’s paintings are wonderful, and I did fall in love with Munch.

The book’s passion was contagious and I was left wanting to find out more about the artist. This is not to say that Munch suffers from a dearth of biographical information: it’s certainly a graphic novel that’s sufficiently deep to reward further readings. At times the density of information and the number of voices could be a little too much to manage, but I found this to be welcome challenge rather than off-putting.

Kverneland’s decision not to dramatise events but to only include quotes from various sources is something that I think should be applauded. Far too often we are subjected to fictions ‘based on true events’, which usually means that the writer has made certain changes for creative reasons. (I’m not saying that this is inherently wrong, but I truly believe that real life is interesting enough without these shenanigans. If you want to write fiction, write fiction: there is no need re-write fact.)

As such, I can whole-heartedly recommend Munch both to fans of graphic novels and the artist.

Incidentally, I’ve been a big fan of SelfMadeHero’s Art Masters series (of which Munch is one entry) and will be writing some more thoughts on other entries in the series, so stay tuned!