Emmanuel Guibert first introduced Alan Cope as the gentle, philosophical, flawed American GI serving on the European front during World War II in his graphic biography Alan's War. With How the World Was, Guibert continues Cope's saga by offering an intimate black-and-white portrait of Cope's years growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles during the Great Depression--a more-innocent time before the quiet, picture-perfect landscape became a black-topped metropolis. Despite the scarcity of money, Cope's life is enriched by the constant companionship of his grandparents, the mysterious comings and goings of various relatives, and the insulating and comforting rituals of childhood before the trials and tribulations of adulthood would take their toll.
After Cope's death, Guibert traveled to California, spending much time in Pasadena, to relive the childhood of the man he had come to call a friend. Whereas Alan's War carried an air of gravitas with its confessional tone, How the World Was is tranquil and deferential, Cope's voice dictating the pace. Guibert's delicate details--the inked reproductions of family photos, scenes of spirited conversations at the kitchen table in the company of grandparents--evoke an awed and respectful reverence that could only come from a graphic biographer with considerable insight into his subject's character. The result is a revelatory and fluid documentary not only of an extraordinary man who survived hardship and war to bequeath an up-and-coming artist the gift of his memories, but of the nation's growth during the rise of its Greatest Generation. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant