A&E

This blog gets pretty graphic

by Anna Purdy

The Acadiana Center for the Arts is hosting Kody Chamberlain's book signing for Sweets: A New Orleans Crime Story.

Sweets: A New Orleans Crime Story is an original graphic novel both written and drawn by local Kody Chamberlain. A book release party and paperback book signing will take place during Fall Fest ArtWalk at AcA from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. where fans can appreciate Chamberlain's work by looking at more than 100 panels of Sweets pages in sequential order in this exhibition. His sketchbooks will also be open to look through.

Graphic novels have seen not so much just a spurt in sales growth but respectability growth. Writers like Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, both of whom have seen movie versions of their vision made, have shown how fascinating an illustrated book can be and what artistic merit they have. Sweets pays homage to the pulp noir type of storytelling with its backdrop being a down-on-his-luck detective trying to track a killer down before an impending storm, the likes of which modern New Orleans has never seen, makes solving the crime impossible. The movie version of this would be truly awesome.

The book will be available in wide release on September 13. Chamberlain is the 2011 recipient of the Spinetingler Award for Best Mystery/Crime Comic or Graphic Novel.

Fall Fest ArtWalk begins at 4 p.m. and encompasses all of downtown's galleries, bars, restaurants and retailers.