Lucky in Love – George Chieffet & Stephen DeStefano
I was given a copy of Lucky in Love
Although it’s a comic book, it has the feel of an autobiography. Lucky narrates the story, and often reveals his own shortcomings. He’s obsessed with sex; he takes his dad’s work truck out for joyrides, siphoning gas from other cars during the rationing period; he’s a short guy and frequently gets overlooked for that reason. He goes to war but doesn’t pass the pilot test, despite his desire to fly, and returns home a “war hero” though he really doesn’t feel like one.
The illustrations by Stephen DeStefano are cartoony and look like something out of the 1940s. Even the pages of the book have a slightly yellowish color like old newsprint—the combined effect really puts you in Lucky’s world, seeing the events happen as he relates them. There is a bit of sex and nudity, which makes the book inappropriate for kids, but actually not much violence at all. Lucky didn’t really see much action during the war, so neither does the reader.
There were a couple sections that were really heavy on text. The whole book has a lot of narration, but in a few instances the text completely overpowered the drawings, and it felt out of place and sort of shoved-in. Outside of those, however, the story really drew me in and I was eager to see where Lucky went next.
While it’s not a comic for somebody looking for superheroes or action sequences, I might actually recommend it for readers who like biographies and period pieces. It’s a fascinating portrait of mid-century Italian-American culture, even if it’s just a very small window into it.
