Paris

There were certain parts of the book that I was unsure whether they were serious or satirical. However, all the artwork in the book was absolutely beautiful. I loved that there was a little art sequence both at the beginning & at the end with just images. These sequences were gorgeous and set the mood for the book. I also liked that throughout the book, there was a good mix of pages with a lot of dialogue and pages with very little dialogue.

This was a beautiful book! I loved Simon's illustrations of Paris, UK and US, with so many intricate details. I really liked the romance, although I wish it was a bit longer to elaborate more on it! Can't believe this graphic novel is 16 years old, it hasn't aged at all!!

Thanks to Image Comics and Netgalley for this eARC.

As others have noted, this story is light on many areas, namely any deep dives into characters. The art does a lot of the heavy lifting, but it can only do so much. What's there I liked very much, but I wanted there to be more. Let the girls speak a little more than they did, something.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Beautifully illustrated Parisian sapphic graphic novel. A quick read—I was a bit frustrated by the half French/half English and it would’ve been helpful to know there was a translation index at the end before I started.

This was a wonderfully illustrated Parisian sapphic graphic novel. It was a quick read that didn't have much complexity to it but was still entertaining overall. Knowing a bit of French going into it would be helpful to understand some of the phrases but it doesn't take away too much from the story.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A enchanting graphic novel with old style graphics that will have you longing to visit Paris. The storyline was easy to follow and engaging. A wonderful edition to any collector's quarry.

I somehow missed Paris when it was releasing in single issues, but I’m so glad I caught the collection.

I’ve been a fan of Andi Watson since Slow News Day and I was delighted to see this latest offering.

This is my first introduction to Simon Gane’s work, and I’m glad to have him on my radar. His style is a compelling blend of sleek vintage shapes (like Watson’s own drawings) with an added chunkier texture reminiscent almost of Mignola. It adds depth and detail to the scenes without overpowering the characters or the story, and I suspect I’ll find new goodies hidden in the details with every reread.

Paris is the story of two women dissatisfied with their respective destinies who’s lives intersect and are immediately enriched. Without going into too much detail, it’s a queer love story told among the backdrop of art history and 1950s Paris and if it makes you cry, at least I can promise they’ll be very different tears than the queer classic it evokes.

This Manga was cute. I enjoyed the mix of the french language and that there was a translation guide in the back. Their story is sweet. With the art style being different from traditional Asian manga, it helped with the immersion. The whole esthetic of the book was really cohesive. I would not recommend for anyone under the age of 16 due to some nudity.

Love the Lesbian representation and the lesion about following your dreams and being true to yourself. I hated how Deborah’s brother used her for his own gain but I’m glad she got her happily ever after

I really enjoyed this graphic novel set in the 1950s. Juliet is a penniless American art student, studying in Paris, who paints portraits of wealthy debutantes in order to make ends meet. She meets Deborah, a young woman who is about to marry a family friend. Juliet is supposed to paint her and as she does love blossoms between the two women but their love is thwarted by societal duties and the expectation of Deborah’s family. And Deborah very nearly does get married but she discovers something about her fiancé and then she hunts for Juliet who has returned to the USA with a broken heart. But suddenly life takes a turn and Deborah takes a risk on true love. This is a lovely story. Deborah seems so naïve and wanting to bow to societal pressure. Juliet is the supposed wild one but she gives up easily only to find a surprising love.

This is a great story with quirky drawings and a lovely pace. I didn’t like the colouring though and I think it would been so much nicer with more colour!

Fab story though.

The art is so cute and I took my time reading it just so i could appreciate it for what it is. it is a very simple work of art that i would love to see more of.

i thought the text went along with the drawing just fine and i honestly found it quite humorous. anyways give it a read it’s short and quick!

This is a beautiful love story set in 50's Paris. I wish we had more content of the couple once they find each other, but this falling in love story is wonderfully written with unique, gorgeous drawings.

This was beautifully drawn kind of riff before Portrait of a Lady, but in the same vein, and I loved it.

“Paris” by Andi Waston, will require you to deal with lots of chain smoking, lots of nudity, and lots of Google translate.

In a sentence: A struggling art student living in Paris is commissioned to paint a debutante, but antiquated ideas about class and women’s liberation keep either woman from thriving - can they help each other break free?

Themes: class, queer, lesbian, self actualization, LGBTQIA, women’s liberation

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (rounded up)

Art student, Juliet, travels to Paris to study painting. She’s broke. Living in a flat with a broken washer and a thin hanging sheet is all that protect her from viewing her roommates orgasms. Juliet commissioned to paint a portrait of Deborah, a high society young English woman by the model’s snotty classist aunt. Juliet has two weeks to finish the portrait; she desperately needs this commission to pay for art school. Juliet and Deborah push back against what’s expected of them and are hit with blockers at every turn.

The illustrations are truly beautiful. The graphic novel is illustrated in black and white with intricate details on every page. Every scene is filled with interesting background characters that make you slow down and stay on the page. FYI, there’s some nudity.

The story line is short and sweet. You can easily finish the graphic novel in one sitting. The characters were pretty dynamic considering how short the story was. Also, you may need Google translate to read the French phrases integrated throughout.

This was an impulse request for me. I am not a frequent reader of graphic novels but I'm starting to seek them out more. Paris was a charming romp. The art was absolutely gorgeous detailed and evocative. The pictures deepened the simple story about girl meets girl, girl loses girl… etc. The timing seemed all over the place - American girl in jeans at art school, vs horsey debutante conjuring an earlier era but I am not a stickler for logic when it comes to art. This is the kind of book you might return to again and again just to look at the pictures! Would definitely read more from this writer/ illustrator combination: Andi Watson and Simon Gane.
Thanks for the opportunity to read and re iew this charming graphic novel.

A short but sweet sapphic love story filled with art and family drama. Set
in 1950’s Paris, Juliet, an American artist, meets Deborah, an English aristocrat. They both seek to escape the expectations of their families, and find each other in the process.

I loved the art style so much. From first glance, you know who Juliet and Deborah are. Every panel shows the beauty and clamor of Paris, and it was beautifully done. Would love more about their life together, but I’m content to imagine 🫶🏼

Thank you to Image Comics and Netgalley for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The artwork is busy in a way that isn't overwhelming, and the characters are likable. The plot resonated and made me wonder if it was based on a true story. I love the themes behind the story, that there are multiple ways to succeed and that happiness doesn't always look the way people think it should.

Charming, atmospheric, and romantic, Paris is an engaging story that really draws you in to the setting, both in time and place. I enjoyed the inclusion of French in the dialogue; it really made all of the characters' voices clear, especially when contrasted to the prim British characters. Paris was both earnest and playful, and I wished it was a little longer so the story could play out at a more relaxed pace, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I desperately wanted to read this eARC, but my computer and Kobo may not have been able to handle the graphics of this comic because it took forever for each page to load 😅 I also ran out of patience because the first 22 pages of the file were only of the setting and nothing was happening in the story. I kept waiting for something to happen or have a character be introduced, but after 22 pages of lagging page-turns, I just had to move on. I still want to read this though, so I’ll keep an eye out for a physical copy and will update my review when I've read it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really liked it, stuck with me & would recommend

Set in Bohemian Paris of the early 1950s, Juliet, a penniless American art student. To make ends meet, Juliet paints portraits of wealthy debutantes. One of her subjects is Deborah, a young woman trapped in the old social order of her wealthy family. Juliet herself has felt confined in the rigid academic structure of her art education and finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Deborah. And though Juliet wasn't expecting romance, their love for art brings them together, even as their friends and family try to drive them apart.

This quick story was well written and even better illustrated. Paris is definitely another character in the story and very well depicted. The emotions leap of the page both with the words and the drawings. I knew clearly who was speaking and the lettering was easy to read.

I enjoyed this book throughout and feel like LGBTQIA+ stories like this one need to be normalized, especially period pieces.

Thank you to Image Comics, NetGalley, and authors Andi Watson & Simon Gane for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. Paris is out July 12, 2022.

The art style was awesome! Definitely busy, yet still easy to follow. The fact that it was left to just beige and black was disappointing. I wish there was color of some sort to keep this interesting. I wasn't a fan of this creative decision, but it grew on me nonetheless.

This was a sweet sapphic romance set in 1950s Paris with an artist and a debutante. The storyline absolutely had promise, but it ended too quickly and left questions unanswered. I think at least one or two more chapters would have been better for tying everything together.

Juliet, an art student, meets Deborah, a young debutante. Although they are meant to be painter and muse, there's a spark of something special between them, no matter how hard Deb's chaperone tries to keep them apart. But life goes on.

This book is very French. I don't suppose you have to be French or speak the language to appreciate it, but it would likely help. It's also not a children's book (fair warning for all those folks who still think cartoons are only for the childish). I didn't love this book, but I can't help but be charmed by it anyway. The story is convoluted and the humor subtle, but the art style fits it perfectly, creating a whole mood.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

A sweet, atmospheric story that makes me want to go back to Paris right now.

A few reviews have commented on the simplicity of the storyline, but the book is called <I>Paris</I>, not <I>Juliet</I> or even <I>Two Women in Paris</I>. The city is a character, maybe the main character.

When I showed pages to my wife, it wasn't the pages with the story, it was the pages that only showed the city.

If the untranslated French trips you up, there are notes in the back translating it. I didn't have a problem with it even though I know almost nothing of the language.

I look into the struggles if two economic polar opposites. A well crafted story in short form. The illustrations were great, and you were invested in the characters from the start.

Paris is a lovely, quick little read. While the plot didn't immediately grab me, the unique art style made it easy to keep going. I really enjoyed this art style. It is incredibly detailed and pulls from several ideas in art theory / popular artists concurrent with the novel's setting. I also enjoyed the formatting of the artwork - the multipage, busy spreads were well suited to creating a bustling city energy that can be difficult to capture. I appreciate the way Juliet and Debs are characterized - they have quite distinct personalities and never run together as characters. I feel like a bit of their story is missing, but they're so cute I would read an entire graphic novel about them going on Louvre dates. The extras at the end were adorable, especially the one of Debs drawing Juliet. My main critiques are I wish this graphic novel was a bit longer (let me see the domestic bliss!), and I wish the French was translated at the bottom of the page.

A beautifully illustrated, uncomplicated but overwhelmingly charming delight of a read. The cover does not do the illustration of this novel justice

This story is set in the 1950s revolving around a young American artist living in Paris to study art, since Paris is considered the bastion of the masters of fine art. She struggles with the classic academic style of education that has been the norm for centuries. Fun fact: Van Gogh also studied this Parisian academic art and quit because he loathed the lack of creativity and the practice of drawing plaster busts.

The girl ends up being commissioned for a stodgy sit down portrait of the daughter of an affluent British family who are still steeped in the old British pastime of being snobby Francophobes and complaining about anything and everything not British or to their tastes. Including the MC being American and not magically whipping out a completed portrait.

The story takes off when the MC finds that the daughter is trapped in this lifestyle and has her own opinions, wants and needs that compliments the MC’s own.

I loved the jagged fractured lines that provided texture to the artwork, instead of the smooth continuous lines that is used by most comic artists. It adds to the story as it bucks traditional norms like the characters themselves. The characters’ expressions were captured perfectly and riled my own emotions about a lot of the more odious characters.