I saw the animated film Persepolis last year, after it was nominated for Best Animated Feature, and decided that I was curious enough to read the original graphic novel, to see how they stacked up against one another. I didn't know that author Marjane Satrapi, who wrote and illustrated the autobiographical graphic novel, also directed the film, but it makes sense, now that I see how they mirror one another visually. I was curious to know what was in the comic that was not in the film, but at this point, having finally gotten around to reading the books (the first volume, Persepolis, details Satrapi's childhood, up until she leaves for Vienna as a teenager), whereas the second book, Persepolis 2, details her life as a young woman and adult), I can't even recall whether certain details in the book were in the movie, though I can obviously recall a great deal in the reading.

Persepolis, which was originally published in France, where Satrapi lives today (hence my placement of it here under European comics), is required reading for anyone who wants a picture of life in Iran outside of the stereotypes and selective snapshots seen in the American media. The book humanizes Iranians as diverse human beings of all stripes: fundamentalist and progressive, feminist and sexist, egalitarian and repressive, communist, islamic revolutionist and democrat. One gets the sense that they're getting the first clear picture of what life was like in this country from 1980 to 1994 (though four of the years depicted take place in Europe, to which Satrapi's progressive parents sent her in order for her to be free).

The story is hardly polemical, as the conflict between the outspoken Satrapi's need to live in a free world in which to speak her mind and her native society's demand that she settle down and marry is a dominant motif, as is the pain of loneliness she feels when away from home, in a country that may be free, but foreign and hostile to her, and devoid of familiar faces from her anchor system.

While the artwork essentially looks the same as the designs from the movie, it more easily highlights the limitations of Satrapi's storytelling abilities, as the simple, obvious style sometimes falls short in certain instances, as when characters suddenly stop and break the fourth wall to tell the viewer what their thoughts are. Her drawing ability is also sometimes lacking, as when she depicts people crying by showing multiple teardrops falls from their eyes. While this may be a deliberate choice on her part, I couldn't help but feel that a more realistic rendering would've been more emotionally evocative at times, as when Satrapi was forced to say goodbye to her family at the airport.

While reading the books did not necessarily gain any new insights, as I had already experienced the story on film, I was glad that I satisfied my curiosity. However, if you're curious about Marjane Satrapi's story, and you'd prefer watching a film to reading a comic book, I'd recommend doing so in this particular case, as the film was an accurate adaptation that lost nothing in the process, and whose movement and sound added to Satrapi's story.