The story of a band who breaks up at twenty going their separate ways only to meet again at thirty and reflecting back on the hard times in between. The story is extremely hard to follow. I didn't know what was going on for several pages at a time. The art, however, is very good. Lu Ming dedicates the book to the great Italian artist, Sergio Toppi, but I found the art more reminiscent of Lee Bermejo and at times Leinil Yu.

This Chinese comic was dedicated to Italian comic maestro Toppi and it shows, but just in the art. The dense, realistic inked linework art is tremendous, but the story is lacking way behind. Some of that may be space - there wasn't enough room to tell more than a shadow of the epic story this tried to be. Too many plot points were elided or condensed to obscurity. There might have been some interesting things to say about dreams, growing up, the futility of individual striving in totalitarian/capitalist China, and it looked like the author was headed that direction. But instead it ended up being a beautiful sketch.

Nearing forty years old myself, its easy to look back at the last twenty years or so, and look at every bit of missed opportunity I had, every bit of wasted potential, and every misstep. It’s important to move forward with one’s life to avoid falling into a trap of a mid-life crisis at best, crippling depression at worst. For the book Hard Melody, we see three guys in exactly the same predicament – having the potential to have been big Chinese Rockstars in the past, their lives have moved on leaving their dreams behind.

Three thirty-year-old friends reunite in Beijing after nearly 10 years apart. They used to be free-wheeling rock-and-rollers without a care in the world, but now, after tasting their own variation of freedom in new China, they are tormented by how unforgiving and unglamorous life had become. Nothing at all like the fame and fortune they dreamed about as kids.

This book is fairly tough due to its subject matter, and there was a bit of Chinese cultural stuff that I was unsure of, but between the mature storyline and the artwork (which is amazing) I was hooked. As a stand alone, this is a great book, and stands as both a societal look at Chinese culture, as well as a way for the reader to think about how they plan to move on with their lives. Many peak far too young, and their later life suffers due to it, hopefully nobody suffers the same tragedy as seen here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Hard Melody. This book is truly artistic, with sweeping illustrations and poetic ruminations of youth, adulthood, death, idealism, community and disillusionment. The friendships between the three main characters are sparingly drawn but clearly present and much of the story is left up to the reader to infer and interpret. There is a lot of graphic violence and intense scenes. Hard Melody is more of an adult comic than for a Teens/YA audience. The focus of the book is also more on the adults and their lives rather than the teenagers they once were. A quick read, yet one that stays with you for a long time.

The appeal of this graphic novel was completely lost to me. And this is quite strange, because I usually truly enjoy comics/stories about music (I know Hard Melody is supposedly not about a rock band, but still...). The story was incredibly difficult to relate to, mainly because I felt no connection with the characters who are just introduced and spoken of as if we know them for as much as they know one another.
The art also doesn't help. Although undoubtedly very beautiful and realistic, there is just a complete lack of sense of movement and life to them. It's as if each and every panel is a still from a movie or maybe even a painting, not a series of connected drawings.

The artwork is captivating and excellent but I think some aspects of the story are lost in translation. At the heart of the story is a reunion of three friends who used to be a rock band ten years ago.

Ten years later they are not the vibrant and idealistic young people that they used to be. They have become weighed down by family expectations, work and responsibility but they decide to revive their band. The story then takes a dark turn when the three of them get involved in a struggle against a government demolition.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/world/asia/china-beijing-crackdown-housing.html

I do think there is a powerful story here but it was hard to follow in some places. Some articles describe this book as a crime novel but I don't think that is an accurate description. It is a fascinating book. The artwork is definitely powerful and makes the story quite hard hitting even with the rather bumpy story telling.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Right so this is basically about three guys who were in a band called “Deep Blue Sky” and this takes place in Beijing. It seems like this graphic novel goes through different years of them from what they are experiencing and it doesn't look good for them. The problem I have with this novel is that it doesn’t seem to deep dive on what each of the band members are going through personally. Art wise - it was rather distracting even though, it was worth the artists try as it does look sorta realistic. That’s in regards with the facial expressions among the characters.

Yeah overall I’m not that hyped about this novel, it has a lot of room for improvements to follow such as its plot and character development.

I appreciate Netgalley, Diamond Book Distributors and Magnetic Press for letting me check out this novel!

This is supposed to be from the master of realist Chinese graphic novels, and certainly there is a lot to be said for this being as far removed from manga and all those other Asian ideas. It's a lot better for it – but it could still do with some improvement for my tastes. We're looking at three guys, who had a rock trio back in the day, and got to do lots of festival daytime slots if nothing else. Now they're a bit rounder, less toned, a bit hard-done-by by life, but they find themselves trying to get back together – first as just friends, then as a group.

Although, as the author's postscript says, "this story isn't really about rock". And what it is about, the particular malaise that comes after following a particular pipe-dream down a section of its path, should be a universal subject, but here comes across as one that's too specific and Chinese to really travel. The way the men find their lives let down by hen-pecking wives is in specifically Chinese fashion, as is the story of the drummer who ends up a border post soldier.

The high drama of what comes after the get-together too may be thoroughly recognisable to someone in that place and time, but felt too bizarre for me to really fit the rest. It's certainly an unusual example of how domesticity and the humdrum post-rock life might fail you. What with too much of the story being presented by disembodied voices – even when we're with the three guys and they're right there on the page the focus might be on their drinks on the table, and we can't attribute speech to the right character – I found myself concentrating on the art. And while this is really quite wonderful at times – a two-year labour of love and cigarettes, we're told – this isn't enough to make this a title I could recommend. Worth a borrow, yes, but I doubt much more.