Karmen - with Keith Lehtinen
This week on Trade School, Keith Lehtinen spotlights Karmen, the hauntingly beautiful Image Comics series by Guillem March. It’s a story about a young woman named Catalina, the reaper assigned to guide her after death, and the emotional weight of looking back on a life too soon interrupted. If you want a comic that is gorgeous, heartbreaking, romantic, and weird in exactly the right way, Keith is here to tell you why Karmen belongs on your shelf.
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Edited by Case Aiken
Scored by Bret Eagleston
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⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:41 Introducing Karmen
01:09 Trigger Warning
01:33 Catalina and Karmen
02:30 Why the Art Works
03:20 The Emotional Core
04:16 Karmen as a Comfort Read
04:55 Keith’s Plugs
05:35 We Have Issues Promo
Transcription
00:00
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it. Hello, I am Keith Lehtinen, host of Certain POV comic book review show, we have Issues, and Certain POV music show Jukebox Vertigo. I am here to talk about one of my favorite comics that I reviewed during the lifetime of we have Issues. And it was one that I really, very much sang the praises of when it was coming out and kind of really got me into an artist that I liked but really got me committed to them. Really made me decide, hey, this is going to be one of my people. This is going to be Karmen.
00:41
Starting with the K. Karmen is the name of the book, and it's written and drawn by a Guillaume March. Now, there's colors by Tony Lopez, translation by Dan Christensen, letterings by Chromatic. But this is very much a Guillaume March book. And for those who don't know, Guillem March has a very distinctive style that I really love. And I think it's beautiful. His. The way he draws bodies, the way he draws faces. There's just so many, like, amazing things that he does so well. And it's so human, I guess, is the best way to put it. It feels very human. I love this book so much. Now, I do need to give a warning really quickly that there I'm gonna. I'm gonna be talking about somebody, a trigger warning of somebody unaliving themselves. It's just an integral part of the story.
01:33
You can't really talk about it without talking about it. So I just want to give a quick trigger warning there. But, yeah, this is the story of a young woman named Catalina. And we learn a lot about her tale as we go into this, and just the tragic story that of the life that she lived and. And we meet her reaper, the person that was, you know, assigned to take her to the afterlife, which is a quirky, very manic, pissy, dream girl type girl in a skeleton suit named Karmen. And Karmen kind of guides her through the transition from living to dead. And it's done in a way that I just think is so fantastical and interesting and like, it's just. It's emotional, but in a really good way. It's, it's. It's about. It's about life.
02:30
It's not about death, I guess the best way to put it for me. And the art is just incredible. The entire time, Catalina feels like somebody I would know, feels like a friend. And that's one of the biggest compliments I can give is that, you know, that you. He makes it so approachable. And the way he draws Catalina. Spoiler alert. She's naked most of the book. Just because she dies naked is the short version. And so. But she's so likable and interesting, and the way she does interact with other people is just also really good. And it's hard for me to really talk about this book. Why I love it so much, because it really is just an emotion. I attach so much to this book because of the way that it makes me feel.
03:20
It's sweet and it's tragic and it's romantic and it's. I hate to say it's like Orpheus, Eurydice. Like, you kind of know how it has to end, but you kind of hope for it to end a different way. And sometimes. And it's just. It's hard to explain. It's just really good. It's really emotional, and I just love it. Okay, that's basically it. This one was a really great entry point for me with Guillaume March's art and again, as I said, becoming obsessed with his work. That led me to Laura and Other Stories, which is such a great book as well. And I highly recommend that one. But I fully recommend. As long as you're okay with the trigger warning to start with Karmen. As long as you're ready for an emotional ride. I just. It's funny.
04:16
I haven't read it in a while, and I'm recording this episode and I'm staring at my copy, and I'm like, I'm gonna read this again when I get done talking to you guys, because I just love it that much. It. Yeah, it's one of those things. You have a comfort movie. You ever have a. Watch a comfort movie and you know that's the one that you put on when you want to feel a certain way. And it's not always happy stuff. Sometimes it's a sad movie. Sometimes you just want to cry. That's kind of Karmen to me. It's a book that really hits me in the right way that I need to hear sometimes. And, yeah, I just highly recommend it. There's a beautiful hardback from Image, so make sure to pick that one up if you can. But, yeah, big recommendation for me.
04:55
Karmen from Guillemarch. That's it for me, as always. You can check me out on Bluesky. You can check me out at we have Issues. Bsky Social. You can check me out also at jukeboxvertigo. Bsky Social. And on Instagram, we have issues pod because someone took my name on there. Other than that, the best place to find me, of course, is always at the certain POV Discord and check me out on there and we can keep up with each other and talk about what we love. Other than that, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Trade School. And happy reading. All right, Josue, let's go through our new comic day stack. We have a lot to review. I know. Maybe we've gone too far. Let's see. Marvel, of course, dc. I got Image, Dark Horse, Black Mask, Boom.
05:48
Idw, Aftershock, Vault, of course. Mad Cave, Ony, Valiant, Scout, Magma, Behemoth. Wow, that's a lot. Well, all we need now is a name for our show. We need a name for. For a show about reviewing comic books every week. Something clever, but not too clever, like a pun. It's kind of cheesy. Yeah. Something that seems funny at first, but we might regret later on as an impulsive decision. A few dozen episodes in. Yeah, we'll think of something. Join Keith and Osway for we have Issues, a weekly show reviewing almost every new comic released each week, available on Geek Elite Media and wherever you listen to your podcast, CPOV certainpov.com.