Manara Library Volume 2: El Gaucho and Other Stories Paperback – July 25, 2017

I came to Manara’s- Manara Library Volume 2: El Gaucho and Other Stories as a price driven decision. I had read his Caravaggio and felt the art work to be wonderful but the story/biography to have been thin. I would have preferred to start these Manara/ Dark Horse Books reprint with Volume I but because of price and my reaction to the book I had pushed me to read out of order. Then again these collections are not in order so maybe this is less of a problem.The combination of Milo Manara and Hugo Pratt (Sharing credit as artists and author) produces very thoughtfully written and historically interesting fiction. Throughout the collection the art work is superior. Some efforthas been given to being historically accurate with levels of detail that make graphics worthy no matter the strength of the story.This collection is in two parts. The first is a nicely told story (El Gaucho) of competing English and Spanish conquests in South America. The predominate point of view is that of a young English drummer boy in love with a prostitute carried over in the invasion fleet for the pleasure of the Officers. Be aware there will be nudity, sex and violence. Some of it in the same sequence. Some will disparage this as fan service teasing. It is consistent with the story line. This is not “costume failure”. Working women work. Others are ruthlessly attacked.These are nuanced story tellers so good and bad tend to ride together, often in the same person. As a story it is long enough to develop complexity, but tends to spread among too many characters and too many plot points. Still the art work is more than enough to carry the experience.The balance of the book is a series of trials charging fictional and historic figures. Most of us would assume that the case against Gen. George Custer would be his many crimes against native peoples. That would have been a fairly easy approach. Instead he is charged with incompetence in leading his men in an attack that had little change of succeeding. This is a more creative approach and one for which a prosecution and a defense can be made. The conclusion for all of the trials is that the reader should vote their conclusion. The writing is relatively even handed such that readers could justify either an innocent or guilty vote.Because of changes in the generations in the readership there are a few visual jokes in the artwork that may be missed. Tucked away in the illustration for the Trial of Custer is a soldier looking a lot like John Wayne. Poor miss Helen of Troy faces several trials, but in all of them she carries a resemblance to a young Brigitte Bardot with perhaps a little of young Jane Fonda.Totaling out at 280 pages there is a fair amount of material collected in Manara’s Manara Library Volume 2. I enjoyed it and will be looking to get more of the collected works. Second hand copies will be good enough.

Volume 2 of the Manara Library continues the high quality offering of master Italian artist Milo Manara translated into English. The volume contains El Gaucho, an historical epic crafted by Hugo Pratt and drawn by Manara together with a series of short stories drawn by the master, featuring historical characters undergoing mock trials.While the quality of this volume is as good as the previous one, fans might leave vol. 2 feeling a little empty. El Gaucho is a dense historical epic with intrigue and tragedy aplenty, but oddly lacking the lyricism of Pratt's previous "Indian Summer" and Manara's delicacy as well. In "Gaucho," Manara's art inexplicably loses some of its fine fluidity and energy, although it remains as detailed as ever and also shines for its incredible clarity. An even darker story than "Summer," "Gaucho" runs the gamut of emotions and has a fairly large cast, but perhaps because of the remoteness of the lead, the complexity of the plot or the fact that the majority of scenes are of talking heads, the story never quite pulls you in completely, and the reader experiences the events unfolding with a level of critical detachment that never quite goes away. Manara's art here too is something of a wonder - it's almost as if a different artist is drawing here than the one who drew for Pratt in Indian Summer. Surely, Manara's art style is more fluid than some would have you believe, and between the stories collected in this volume alone, Manara displays some subtle but nonetheless significant differences in overall style.My major disappointment with the volume however, is that the majority of stories of the second half of the book featuring the mini-trials of historical figures are in black and white, and this was a disappointment to me. Not a purist myself, I would have preferred to have seen these stories colored for this volume rather than left as they were originally published, although I recognize that some might take strong objection to that. I simply would prefer when paying for a volume like this to have it all be in color. The stories containing the mock trials are fairly pedestrian, although they occasionally raise an interesting question or two regarding the historical subjects they cover, but overall they lack the charm and punch of something like "Paper Man" or other Manara works.Overally, this volume was a marked let down from the previuos volume, which was so exquisitely good that I determined immediately on reading it that I had to purchase all nine volumes of this series as Dark Horse publishes it. This volume has forced me to reconsider that intention, since the lack of color for half of the book and the stories themselves are solid but never quite reach the sublime heights of the previous volume. I'll await reviews of volume 3 before purchasing, but that aside, I would strongly recommend every fan of comics own some example of Manara's work, as the artist truly is a master at his craft.

I don’t know if there is a better way to read history than through a graphic novel. Dan Carlin does a good job in his podcasts, but Milo Manara’s drawings really slow down time. Seeing the way people dressed, the ships they sailed in, the architecture. This all had to be researched so extensively. It’s beautiful. El Gaucho is a great story and the short trials are all very nice. I got a couple history lessons reading this one.

First book was pretty good, this one does not disappoint at all. Beautiful illustrations and the last half is a series of modern court cases involving historical figures like Genghis Khan, Helen of Troy, etc...Cannot wait to get volume 3.

Beautiful interesting stories, volume 1 is the best because of "Indian Summer" but this volume is good too.

I love Manara books. The stories may seem weird at first sight, however they provide you with a lesson in the end. Manara's drawing trace is very meticulous and his characters seem to give a live impression for the erotic stories. I recommend Manara's books for those fans of erotic stories!

Manara is a great artist and I am thrilled to finally be able to own this collection of his works from so many years ago!

I,did enjoy this book

Good story and historically reasonably accurate.