An interesting story about the evolution of Berlin through the late twenties and early thirties through a vast and varied cast of characters that enable the following of different points of view, ideals, and situations.
This allows for grey morality instead of the more typical black and white which is more common when regarding such conflicting, relevant, and traumatic moments in history.
I especially liked how the author didn't show a way out and made the crisis of the German democracy somewhat inevitable. In this story Communism isn't better or worse than Nazism or Fascism, they are just the result of messed up people in shitty situations trying to stay afloat.
The shinning of light around the homosexual life around this time was unexpected but not unwelcome. It is something that's not talked about too much and was interesting from a purely socio-historical point of view. Similarly, the introduction of Jazz and the different storylines surrounding the members of the band also provided a lot of insight into racial relationships in Germany at that time, something that's not really delved into unless it’s to talk about Jews or the Holocaust.
As far as the characters were concerned, Lutes did a great job balancing likeability and relatability with realism, thus giving us the views of people from all walks of life, from poor to rich, Arians, Jews, Communists, Nazis, etc. Moreover, he managed to avoid “pure evil” characters, which is something uncommon for this particular period (as Nazis tend to be represented as this all-bad, racist and overall horrible society). This was also the case with the real characters like Ossietzky, Ringelnatz, Goebbels, etc. They were given bits of personality and, in the case of the Nazis, not portrayed as cackling villains.
Historical accuracy is something I can’t really rate, as I’m not really versed in pre-war Berlin life (much preferring to focus on the technological advancements of Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan). That said, it did feel very real and plausible and nothing stood out to me as a historically inaccurate.
The plot is very loose, the main focus of the story beeing the evolution and fall of Berlin through the eyes of people who lived there and others who could have. It did have a feel of impending doom (though that may come from outside-the-story general knowledge of the period) that made the book less enjoyable than your more typical, care-free fiction novel. That said, the sense of injustice and unease wasn’t as big as what Joe Sacco’s comics give me, mainly due to them being pure non-fiction and having a very raw approach to journalism and retelling people’s stories.
Jason Lutes art was good but didn’t blow my mind. This is not meant as a criticism, as I do think it fits the story really well, but just on an aesthetic level it’s nowhere near to what artists like Moebius, Bilal, Breccia or Toppi can achieve (though it’s also in a completely different style). His pure black and white art lacks any greys and reminds me a bit of the French “Claire Ligne” style that Hergé (author of Tintin) popularized, though it does have shadows which are uncommon in the former.
Overall, Berlin is a graphic novel I struggle to find faults of and which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Berlin life at the change of the 1920s decade. That said, it is mostly focused on character and is a serious read with injustices and adult content portrayed so don’t expect an all-is-merry fairytale.
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