Daisy Kutter--Reading Journal

Daisy Kutter: The Last Train
By Kazu Kibuishi

I read comic books when I was young; however, I have never read a graphic novel before. I found myself engrossed in the plot line and intrigued by the characters, especially Daisy Kutter. The basic storyline was familiar—a retired outlaw agrees to one last gig; however, it was refreshing to have a female as the Western protagonist. She is a pretty spunky character, too. Kibuishi draws her as an adorably cute young lady—boyish figure, blonde curls, and wispy bangs that fall over her eyes—reminiscent of the flower for which she’s named. In personality, she is independent, trenchant, sassy, confident, strong, and assertive; yet she is far from being a one-dimensional character. She is also impulsive and slightly sentimental. I think this book presents some interesting discussion material; for example, how do girls strike a balance between being feminine and being strong and capable? This book also opens the door for discussions about crossing perceived gender barriers.

I found the mixture of science-fiction with Western refreshing. It reminded me a little of the first Star Wars movies with the desert setting dotted with robots and robotic animals. Kutter’s cannon-strength shotgun was awesome, and the transformer killing machine on the train and the Winters hologram were creative additions to standard Western confrontations.

I’m not sure if Kibuishi purposefully drew the characters as such, but Bloom and Tom had square faces and lines—it seemed complementary to me in that they were both flat, or one-dimensional, characters. Kutter is all sharp angles except her face and hair, which are softer and rounder—all of which fit her personality.

I think it would be difficult to use a graphic novel such as Daisy Kutter as a class novel, simply because so much of the story must be perceived through the pictures. Having said that, I do think using the frames that just show action (with no words) in graphic novels like this one would create a great opportunity to teach students about how important it also is in writing to capture a moment in time with words and create pictures with words. It would be an interesting activity to have students see how effectively they could recreate the final confrontation between Winters and Kutter (pp. 134 – 143) with words and capture the tension and emotion of the moment.

While I enjoyed the novel, I would be very selective of the students to whom I might recommend this book. I think the content is suitable for middle school but not the language. Perhaps it is because of the brevity of written story, but the course language stands out. I realize that Kibuishi probably purposefully gave Daisy’s language a rough edge to support her rough persona; however, I would not use it with students younger than 10th grade.