THE GOD INTERVIEWS by Natalie d'Arbeloff
REVIEWS - PAGE 4: Press, Media and/or Book Review websites
| Win Wiacek, Now
Read This Comics
Creators Guild June
26, 2007
Natalie d’Arbeloff is an artist, printmaker and author who creates comic strips on her blog featuring, I’m assuming, her semi-autobiographical character Blaugustine. In this book she has a series of chats with God – a friendly, mild-mannered, clean-shaven chap – about the kind of things that you would – if you’d been granted an interview. You know… ‘What’s it all about? Why does bad stuff happen? Are you really there?’ This gently philosophical – rather than theosophical – examination is whimsical and introspective, but never ponderous, delivered in a big, simple cartoon style and vivid, eye-catching colour, reminiscent of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine film. With an easy humour that would be appreciated by older children of all ages with the same questions. There aren’t really any big new answers but to paraphrase Bob Dylan it’s not really about answers, but how we seek them, right?
Jamieson Villeneuve, THE BOOK PEDLER June 24, 2007 Have you ever stopped to wonder who God truly is? Is he a man or a woman? Is he black or white? Maybe she’s purple or yellow? Would he be wise? Would she be menacing? What if we could sit down with God and ask those questions we all have burning a fire inside of us. What if we could actually interview God D’Arbeloff gets to do just that. In a series of comic strips, first featured on Natalie d’Arbeloff’s highly popular blog Blaugustine, her alter ego Augustine gets to interview God and ask him those burning questions. It might be interesting to note that God is a balding black man who is sometimes deep and sometimes evasive. The God Interviews is flat out incredible. Augustine asks God some difficult questions: How do we know that God exists? Why does he allow hate? Why is there evil in the world? What is the most accurate portrayal of God? Why does God allow horrible things to happen? You would think that a collection of comics dealing with such questions would be dark and morose fodder for evangelists everywhere, but d”Arbeloff manages to transcend religion and brings The God Interviews to another level entirely. The book is bright, fun and thought provoking and I found myself awed in quite a few places. The focus in the comics isn’t religion. Instead, each comic focuses on something different and forces us to look within ourselves to view our personal reactions. In reality, each short strip (fourteen in all) is really a short piece of wisdom delivered through pictures and words. Each strip is so subtly simple you don’t realize that it’s affected you until much later I was charmed by The God Interviews. I was moved, awed and impressed. Is it good? No; it’s incredible. I had wondered at the start whether or not a comic strip about God could work and, in d’Arbeloff’s hands, it does. Her simple but colourful art is the perfect compliment to such simple and wonderful wisdom. I’ve read the book three times already and each time, the fourteen comics just speak to me and touch something in me. d’Arbeloff has given us a comic strip with a soul and one I love very, very much If you haven’t had the chance to be charmed by The God Interviews, get yourself a copy, won’t you? It’s a beautiful, lyrical look at life and the world. It will make you laugh, think and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. That is the real power of d’Arbeloff’s work. It stays with you days after the last page has been turned. Truly wonderful and very inspirational and incredibly enjoyable. Don’t believe me? You’ll just have to get your own copy and find out for yourself.
Cheryl Hagedorn, BLOOKING
CENTRAL: COMIC June
12, 2007 The Gospel According to Peanuts In 1965, a 28 year-old pastor named Robert Short turned a popular slide show he'd been presenting while working his way through seminary into a book called "The Gospel According to Peanuts," using [Charles] Schulz's [comic strip] characters to explain the Christian faith. ... A small Presbyterian publishing house (John Knox) published it in hopes of inspiring some Sunday-school teachers to think outside the box, and, behold, their wish was fulfilled. Over 10 million copies were sold. (Amazon review) Forty years later, a woman, born in Paris, raised in South America, the U.S. and Europe, trained as an artist, created "a fictional comic strip character who could never finish her housework because she just had to stop to muse over deep questions of philosophy." (Morning Star) When that woman, Natalie d'Arbeloff, gave her comic strip alter ego, Augustine, a blog, what happened? Heaven and the internet world collided at a place called Blaugustine. The result? A blook called Interviews with God. Unlike Charles Schultz who needed Robert Short, Ms. d'Arbeloff didn't need an intepreter. She took her questions straight to God. From The Velveteen Rabbi [not a spelling mistake!] She doesn't shy away from the tough questions. In chapter four, a teary Augustine says, "I'm sorry, but I have to ask about evil." God explains that free will enables us to choose badly, if we want to, but that God's plan presumes we will ultimately choose love. Augustine is exasperated -- "You mean you're leaving it all to us while you sit and wait for love to rule the world?" No, God replies patiently. "I don't sit and wait. I give interviews. And I look for collaborators." His reply made me smile. At The Cassandra Pages, I found a quote which seems to explain the mass appeal of both d'Arbeloff's blog and the subsequent blook: Augustine allows us to whine, complain, cry, and be cluelessly thick right along with her, while God remains compassionate, funny, patient, unpredictable, maddening, and - at times - wonderfully clear. This identification with the main character is what also made Jeremy Blachman's blog (and eventual blook) work. That d'Arbeloff manages to do it with a comic strip is amazing. I'll be looking at other comic strips that became blooks this week, but I'm curious. Not all of us can draw, but, if you could, what kind of strip would you do? For anyone reading who does have a strip, I'd love to hear if you think there's a blook in your future.
John Rety, MORNING STAR Sunday 29 April 2007 Artist gets God scoop NATALIE d'Arbeloff has been drawing and writing for many years. Born in Paris, she lived in many countries before settling in London. Her main work involves art books, prints and paintings. Her early work was "cyclo-styled" for a limited audience and was based on a fictional woman comic strip character called Augustine who could never finish her housework because she just had to stop to muse over deep questions of philosophy. Exquisitely drawn and at times irrepressibly funny, the duplicated copies were eagerly collected by a small coterie of friends. This present book is a full-colour version, although a bit more serious this time. After all, she is trying to achieve a scoop of interviewing divinity. There is now little time left for housework. When Augustine asks: "Oh God, how do I know I'm talking to you and not to myself?" at least she understands that she is willingly deceiving herself.
Frances & Nicolas MacDowall, THE OLD STILE PRESS April 15, 2007 I take this opportunity to urge anyone who has not yet seen this wonderful book to mend the situation asap! Natalie d'Arbeloff's enterprise with The Old Stile Press has been mentioned on this Blog, together with images of the amazing one-off artist's book we had from her some time ago, but all that is just a drop in the ocean! An exploratory
trip to her website... will undoubtedly lead
to regular return visits BUT, for now, I urge you to
find out more about the entirely life-enhancing The
God Interviews.
Simon Wroe, CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL, London April 12, 2007
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