Surely those dinosaurs who believed that comics were suitable only for stories of men in tights have all died off. With the popularity of comics growing by leaps and bounds, it is now common knowledge that, like any other art form, they are capable of giving us the news about topics as diverse as the politics of Noam Chomsky, the philosophy of Robert Crumb's Mr. Natural, and the angst of Harvey Pekar. Artists such as Marjane Satrapi in her comics about Iran, Joe Sacco in his work on Palestine and the former Yugoslavia, and Guy Delisle in "Pyongyang" have shown us that comics can also be used to explore other cultures as effectively as the best travel writing and foreign reportage.
Delisle adds another to the shelf of what might be called travel comics with "Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China."
Though it is no secret that China is not exactly a free society, the repression there, particularly in the special economic zones, is negligible compared to that which one finds in North Korea. Thus this book is less political than "Pyongyang" (certainly less so than Satrapi's or Sacco's work). Rather, in Shenzhen, the wit with which Delisle leavens his account of life in the Hermit Dictatorship comes to the fore. It is the endearing persona Delisle creates, an innocent abroad whose honest befuddlement allows for clear (if uncomprehending) observation of the strange land in which he finds himself, that keeps us chuckling as we move from one frame to the next.