In the world of small press comics, autobiographical comics are fairly common, but biographical comics, stories about people and events from our shared past? Those are rarer. Capote in Kansas, however, is exactly that, a story of Truman Capote's journey to Kansas to write his novel In Cold Blood, in which Parks takes a journey not unlike Capote himself, into the minds of real people to create a fictional account that must bear some resemblance to reality. It sounds potentially dry, the story not of a brutal murder but of a writer trying to craft the story of a brutal murder, but nothing could be further from the truth. With Samnee's amazing artwork and Parks' ability to craft a fully realized world and cast of characters, Capote in Kansas is spellbinding, an Eisner-worthy accomplishment that should be on everyone's reading lists.
Parks has previously tackled the historical genre in his Oni Press graphic novel Union Station, but Capote in Kansas goes a bit further afield of the usual graphic novel offerings. Capote in Kansas centers around a crime, but the telling of the story is in no way lurid or action-packed. Instead, Capote in Kansas is a story of emotional trauma, not physical, of philosophical and intellectual struggles rather than battles to save or destroy lives. The conflict in Capote in Kansas is an internal one, as an arrogant New York writer attempts to find the small town Kansan inside himself to tell the story of a damaged community, a murdered family and their murderers with both a fair-minded, well-researched account and one that is a gripping narrative for those accustomed to reading fiction instead of nonfiction. It's an examination of the art of writing at its most difficult, and Parks conveys that difficulty while making the product we're reading an engaging read.
I confess that upon first reading, I didn't immediately catch on to the nature of Nancy, Truman's ghostly muse who helps him understand the murders and their context. However, upon giving the book a second read, I realized that the relationship between Truman Capote and the imaginary ghost of a murdered girl is quite possibly the fulcrum upon which the entire book turns, at least as far as emotional resonance goes. Truman comes to Kansas looking for a project, but it is Nancy who makes him realize the full scope of what he's doing and gives him some of the strength to do it. And if she really represents an inner hallucination of Truman, it's almost irrelevant, as Parks and Samnee instead make her the physical embodiment of the loss that has been suffered, of the reason that Truman's story is worth telling, and the finale of her story, on the very last two pages of the book, is emotionally effective enough to bring a tear to the eye.
Of course, Nancy is but one of the fascinating characters that Parks creates in the course of Capote in Kansas. In addition to a brief flirtation with some well-known literary figures as supporting cast early on, Parks fleshes out Truman's small circle of trusted friends and lovers, the people who are key players in the town of Garden City and Truman himself very well. Truman's wit and idiosyncratic nature make him a fascinating character, and it's an easily believed persona, as there are any number of great writers who have had such a charming and yet maddening public exterior. While Truman's antics in New York and upon his first arrival in Kansas are entertaining, however, it is the quieter moments, when we see him expressing his love for Jack in a letter, doubting himself in the company of his best friend Nelle or the ghostly Nancy or even struggling with his relationship with one of the killers, that the character truly comes to life. No one in this book is one dimensional, and Parks brings a similar depth of character to Nancy and to Perry Smith, and he also crafts interesting characters in brief screen time, including Agent Dewey, Jack, Nelle and Nancy's boyfriend Bobby.
I was stunned by the artwork of Chris Samnee on this book. My only previous exposure to Samnee's work was on the Silver Age spoof style of Masked Commander, and I honestly had forgotten the name almost entirely when I saw it on the cover of this book, but I won't forget it again anytime soon. Samnee's artwork is amazing, able to convey the intricacies of human emotion, subtle storytelling moments like Truman's shaking hand after viewing the crime scene photos, the conflicted feelings he has upon visiting the execution of the murderers or the change in Capote's demeanor as he starts to work on getting along in Garden City. The style has a lot in common with Parks's frequent collaborator Phil Hester, actually. With this one book, Samnee has catapulted up into the top of my short list of "must read" artists, and his artistic ability is an important component in making Capote in Kansas such a fascinating read.
Capote in Kansas is one of the best graphic novels I've read all year, and with its tie-in to a classic of American literature, it's a shoe-in to get some attention from the mainstream media, libraries and bookstores as well.
