The following contains spoilers for the new graphic novel, Admit: the sisters Mitford and meOn sale now from drawings and quarterly
It’s interesting, I thought I had already saved the image of the header of this criticism on my computer (I hadn’t done it), so when I did a search to find it, I rather found an old image file of an old comic legends revealed that I was doing five years ago which really involved the term “Frenemies”, because Betty and Veronica Comics. “Betty and Veronica were in fact one of the first users of the term, but the term had already been invented by the Mitford sisters. As you can imagine, there are really a lot of interesting things to write about the six Mitford Sisters, the members of an aristocratic family in England who ended up living a fairly fascinating life, and, in a certain number of their cases, is why BBC television based on their lives has been named named Scandalous.
In a nice piece of serendipity, just after the television series has become a success, Drawn & Quarterly now has the new graphic novel by Mimi Pond, Admit: the sisters Mitford and meA wonderful mixture between biography and personal memories for pond as to what the MITFORDs meant for her in her life.
Mimi Pond is an award -winning graphic novelist who is best known for her exceptional memories, On easy and the customer is always false. She was also a notable television writer, after writing the very first episode of Simpsons Still, “Simpsons roasting on an open fire” (of course, the Simpsons had existed as part of The Tracey Ullman show Long before this episode was written, and this episode was not even intended to be the first episode of the series, but, hey, it is always a great thing to say that you were the writer of the first episode of Simpsons Never, right?). In this graphic novel, she recounts the life stories of the sisters of Mitford, but also tells stories of her own life, and how some of the same lessons that applied to Mitford also had an impact on her life.
Who are the Mitford sisters?
The sisters of Mitford (and their only brother, Tom) were Nancy, Pamela (“Pam”), Diana, Unity Valkyrie (yes, they went from Nancy to Pamela to “Unity Valkyrie”), Jessica (“Decca”) and Deborah (“Debo”) were born from an aristocratic family, but their father, David ( 2nd Baron “Landage landed that you see on Downton Abbey where they have trouble earning money, and throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Mitfords gradually became poorer. However, they were still members of the upper class, and they were therefore always the types of girls who would be considered beginners.
The family was regularly teasing and nicknames, some, such as Decca and Debo, have become essentially their real names. They would also make fun of their parents (their nickname for their father was “far”).
Nancy continued to try to court the literary whole, but his problem was that so many guys from the literary whole were, well, you know, other guys, and she took a while to get married. However, she would finally become a famous novelist.
Pam was the least public of the Mitford sisters, and she became an expert in agriculture and poultry.
Diana was considered the most beautiful of Mitford, but she fell in love with the founder of the British fascist party, even if she was married. She finally married her, and it made her one of the most hated women in England during the Second World War.
Diana’s links with fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler would end up that unity would become fascinated by Hitler, and in fact moved to Munich where she became a friend close to Hitler (now you know where everything that is “scandalous”). She wrote a letter to the Nazi newspaper proclaiming how a “Jewish hatred” was and how pure England she wanted. She also feared that England to go to war with Germany, and when Germany began the Second World War, it got out of it. She survived, Hitler paying her hospital bills and allowing her family to bring her home, where she lived for a while with her brain ravaged by bullets that developed her to the intelligence of a child.
Unity was closest to Decca, who, unlike her sister, has become an ardent communist, and it is really hilarious that they shared a piece together …
Debo had the most traditional beginner experience. She married the second son of a duke, but after the eldest son was killed during the Second World War, she ended up becoming a duchess.
Tom, the only brother, was killed during the Second World War (he insisted to fight in Burma because he did not want to fight against his friends. Many Nazi sympathizers in this family).
How does Mimi Pond keep the life of the Sisters of Mitford convincing?
I have been noted for a long time in terms of biographies, graphic novels can certainly do a good job, but everything comes down to the way you can be inventive as an artist. Ryan Dunlavey is an expert in this thing in his work with Fred Van Lente.
Pond does well with that, having fascinating layouts that help get his points with Panache …
Like when Diana is imprisoned with her husband during the Second World War because, well, you know, being Nazi sympathizers, Pond does a good job to capture how great this was …
However, to prevent the story from still having too much “then it happened, then it happened”, “Pond mixes in a few moments of his own childhood and her young adult, and Pond is such a big memories hat, she always makes this thing very interesting, even when it was something that was so insignificant. Brodie.
But in general, she does an excellent job to keep the history of the Mitford Sisters who flows easily, while prohibiting her own thoughts on their actions along the way, as when Decca began to write about her life in the 1960s, and became a famous writer, who also disagreed him with his family, and his other famous writer, Nancy (who also wrote on her family, but was much more discreetly) …
It is a strong biography of a fascinating family, and a brilliant introspective look at the life of an artist in the sixties reflecting on his life. It is highly recommended.
Source: Drawing and quarterly