Marjane Satrapi

 I first found a copy of Presipolis in an independent comic book store ten years ago. I sat there reading it until they closed and then went back the next day!

 Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels are her autobiography about growing up in Iran. At the time when I read it, I had never seen an artist draw like that or use comics to tell a serious story. It changed the way that I thought about drawing and inspired me to draw and write about my own life.

Presipolis had many offers to make the book into a movie where she would not have had creative control and she refused them. In 2007 Satrapi received an offer to co-wrote and co-direct Presipolis, and she accepted. Although movies from comic books can be horrible, because she co-wrote and co-directed it the film is beautiful and feels like an extension of the book, not a bad remake.

(Above) images from Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel  Presipolis, 2003.

I fell in love with her beautiful, simple black and white forms and swirling lines. In Presipolis, she uses this graphic style to write about everything from war and politics to the awkwardness of adolescence and her own mixed feelings about her homeland. Embroideries continues her autobiographical, personal storytelling style, focusing on the women in her family and the stories of their lives. 

In Chicken With Plums, (2006) Satrapi tells the tragic story her Great Uncle. 

Because she moved to Vienna, Australia when she was 14, Satrapi primarily speaks French and the movie Presipolis is in French with english subtitles. Take a look at the preview: