Structures 35-45: Patrick Kyle on Nightmarish Visions of a Distorted Reality

Reaching Upwards

As I exit my apartment to go to work in the morning, I look across the street and see a family happily walking by the empty park: a mother and a father, casually walking near the park with their young boy. I turn back toward the door, pull out my keys and lock the door. When I turn back, the father and mother are rapidly crossing the street heading towards me. They are no longer smiling and their teeth have been replaced by razor-like fangs. Their eyes are black but, there are some subtle shades of burgundy running throughout. The older man raises his arms and points his fingers towards me. I stand, unable to move, as they close in a few feet from me and I wake up. It was only a nightmare; albeit a really bad one. One that starts with something familiar and eases its way into unspeakable horrors. It happens quickly or slowly depending on the night. It is that proximity and familiarity that gives those dreams their weight. The unknown is scary, but when the unknown creeps up to replace the familiar, it is terrifying. 

Several people holding hands in a circle in a park somewhere in a neighbourhood in the city you live in but not in the neighbourhood you live in

This is how you will feel when you read Structures 35-45, the fourth mini-comic from Uncivilized Books' series Structures. In this series, various artists are contributing various structures or objects in a mini-comic format. I still haven't seen the first issue (Structures 1-11 by Tom Kaczynski) but I have had the pleasure to read and review the other issues (Structures 12-23 by Vincent Stall and Structures 24-34 from Michael Deforge).

Patrick Kyle creates a world where the familiar is twisted slightly (sometimes drastically) into abstraction. The structure of the book is simple: there is a block of text on the left and an illustration on the right. Kyle casually describes scenes from a distorted reality in his text and we are left to make sense of what his illustration means and how it relates to what is said. He depicts things you can almost recognize, but not quite. Is this a table or a bed frame? Are there sheets or tablecloth floating over it or are they suspended in the air in a chandelier? I am looking at a park? Does it matter? I recognize the lower half of the image, the foundation, but everything above it is distorted. The familiar acting as a pillar to the unknown. It is not horror, just a nightmare. And like the best nightmares, you remember it long after you encounter them.

Structures 12-23: Vincent Stall on Decay, Environmental Destruction and Temporary Solutions

Decay and Solutions

Structures 12-23 by Vincent Stall is the second mini-comic in "Uncivilized Books" series "Structures". In this series, various artists are contributing various structures or objects in a mini-comic format. I haven't yet seen all of the minis (Structures 1-11 by Tom Kaczynski and Structures 35-45 by Patrick Kyle), although I read Structures 24-34 this May. I will seek out the other issues shortly to get a better perspective on this project. Most likely at TCAF 2015. 

Vincent Stall's structures begins with a sort of civilizational collapse. A tabula rasa of some sort, unexplained and incomprehensible, that left the world in ruins. From those ruins, a new grotesque architecture rises to once again stomp on the environment and impose it's will on nature. It was fairly interesting to see this mini. What we see from the beginning is the destruction and collapse of a world order. We can't quite make sense of how it happened. The story and clues aren't straightforward, much like the buildings that make up the world. From there we navigate a world of ruins. Destroyed buildings, ruins and decay are everywhere. What is fascinating is that the residents of this wasteland have been cannibalizing the land and chopping trees to make their temporary habitats. This becomes a recurring motif in the book as each structure is less sustainable than the previous one. One is left to wonder how useful this environmental destruction can really be. If this is what we are doing with nature, creating freakishly deformed houses, perhaps it would be best to leave it alone. And perhaps, going further in this reflection, our own structures are distorted and our mutilation and constant exploitation of nature would look like this to an outsider. 

Decay

Temporary solutions

In 24 wordless pages, Stall forces the reader to reflect on current environmental issues and the very nature of our exploitative ways and environmental destruction. I almost feel bad for reading this on what is, in essence, a tree`s corpse. This is an important book and Uncivilized Books should be very proud to publish such a strong and thoughtful experiment. I have been through this book more often than I ever thought I would. It was a fantastic trip through decay and was really thought-provoking. Excellent.

Book Club Report: A Discussion with Sam Alden on It Never Happened Again

Longing and Belonging

I'll always remember the day I was first introduced to comic books. One of my dearest childhood memories was walking (6 blocks exactly) to the independent video rental place near my family's house in Quebec City. It was a cold but sunny spring day and my grandmother took me there to get one comic book. She was over for the weekend and wanted to encourage me to read in English. My entire family is French. I went to a typical French school, and the English language was not commonly spoken in that part of town, or even in the town in general. She understood the value of learning a second language, even though she never learned one herself. She knew I enjoyed cartoons and figured that I would at least be interested in the medium of comic book.

I must have been no more than 6 years old at the time. We got there and I stared at a single spinning rack of comic books for a while. One comic book felt huge. There were so many to choose from. What was I supposed to pick with all of these 18 choices? I browsed and I picked a Batman comic. I will never remember which one it was, but I will always remember the feelings it evoked. Walking home, my grandmother holding my hand, the sun landing on my cold face and also importantly, the feeling of paper on my fingers. It was the first comic I remember reading and it became an important part of my life. I will always be grateful to my grandmother for it and to my parents who supported this addiction. It changed my entire life. 

This moment was a revelation, both important and fleeting. It happened once and my life was changed forever. I have been chasing down this moment for the past twenty years. Hoping to relive that first high, yet I have never been able to fully recreate it. I'm talking about this because this month, the Ottawa Comic Book Book Club read Sam Alden's It Never Happened Again, and Sam kindly agreed to meet with our group to discuss his book. 

Sam Alden by Sam Alden

Sam Alden is a 25 year old cartoonist and illustrator from Portland, Oregon. He has previously written web comics, comics and graphic novels, which include Haunter, The Man that Dances in the Meadows, Backyard, and many more. Hiw work is generally published online first and printed afterward. His comic Wicked Chicken Queen published by Retrofit Comics, won an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic at SPX a few weeks ago

Fleeting moments

It Never Happened again collects two short stories, Hawaii 1997 and Anime. The first is the story of a Young Sam Alden who is on vacation in Hawaii. He goes out one night to see the beach and the stars and meets a girl. The second is the story of Janet, a girl who feels out of place in her hometwon and plans to visit Japan, where her favourite fictional anime character lives to find her place in the world. The themes of longing and belonging are very much present in this book. The Young Sam will spend the rest of his life trying to find the girl, or some version of her, always yearning to recreate this moment. Janet wishes to recreate the experience of Kiki, or even become Kiki as best as she can. She is also looking for a place where she can belong, a goal she may never achieve as the anime paradise she wishes to reach is as fictional as her idol. 

Sam was kind enough to tell us the genesis of Hawaii 1997 and how it was a stepping stone to his current style of drawing. Drawn on notebook pages during a flight back to the U.S, this comic came to life as a sort of personal challenge and as a way to fight the boredom of air travel. The style that came through was, and is, still very distinctive and appealing and Sam embraced it. This took him away from his previous style, a sort of Craig Thompson emulation, and into his own distinctive creative style. We are all the better for it. This book shows Alden's style evolving. The use of pencils is so raw that, as a reader, you try to avoid touching it for fear of scratching or smearing the pencil marks. The look is fantastic and you can find stunning passages nearly everywhere. Of particular interest, when Young Sam puts his head underwater (above) or the map of the unknown town in Japan (below)

In Transit

Language also held an important role in the book. Janet's only silver lining in her otherwise bleak story is when she is complimented by a local man on her mastery of language. We were wondering if language had any influence on Sam's writing. It did in some ways, but not what we were expecting. Language in Anime serves to further reinforce Janet's feelings of isolation. She does not fit in her hometown, she does not fit in in Japan, and even worse, there, the foreign language isolates her from the community even more. This experience was similar to Alden's own trip to Japan when he was younger. The language barrier kept him at a distance from his environment, never quite fitting in. 

Isolation, and the search for a place where she belongs

We were also surprised to hear Sam talk about what influenced him to write this story: a similar trip to Japan with his then-girlfriend as a young adult. Nothing went as planned, not that he had planned much, and the whole fiasco became a real catalyst to the man he grew up to be. Writing Anime also forced Sam to adopt a different point of view on his experience. Our discussion then turned toward gender. By writing a female protagonist, Sam often wondered whether the characters felt true enough. In a way, he distorts his experience and projects them on a woman. In this regard can the text be read as true, as authentic? The group (which consisted that evening of over 80% of women) felt so. 

Haunting

The theme of longing are present, so is another recurring theme in Alden's work: Haunting. The community Backyard is haunted by the wolfchild, the woman is haunted by The man that dances in the Meadows. In this book, Young Sam will be forever haunted by the memory of the girl. Although it didn't appear that Sam did this consciously, the idea that people are haunted by memories, feelings and even their own mind is a recurring theme in Alden's books. The author did confirm that he does not believe in ghosts.

Finally, we were very interested in hearing about Sam's process in writing for the screen and for paper. He explained to us that he had always intended Hawaii 1997 to be printed. The movement of the kids running translates very well online as well, but that was not the primary goal. The pacing and movement also works on the page as it was intended. The Anime story was also conceived for the page and it truly shines this way. He constantly works to improve the layout and searches to find an optimal pace for the story, both for the online/Tumblr audience and for the page. His new webcomic Hollow tries to integrate those two elements. It will be interesting to compare the final results.

Gazing at the unreacheable wonders of the universe

We were lucky to have such an interesting conversation with a talented young comics author. Not only did it help us gain some perspective and knowledge on It Never Happened Again, it allowed us to learn much about his process and his thoughts on making comics. Much like Young Sam's search for an ineffable girl, or my quest for this very first comics experience, our group will keep looking endlessly for a similarly enlightening discussion on graphic novels. In the meantime, we will value our discussion with Sam and recommend everyone to seek out this outstanding work. 

Structures 24-34: Michael Deforge and our national objects

Our National Structures

Returning from the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF) with an interesting mix of books, graphic novels and mini-comics. I'll try to review them all as soon as I can. Let's begin shall we.

Structures 24-34 by Michael Deforge is the third mini-comic in "Uncivilized Books" series "Structures". In this series, various artists are contributing various structures or objects in a mini-comic format. I haven't yet seen the previous minis (Structure 1-11 by Tom Kaczynski and Structures 12-23 by Vincent Stall), but I will seek them out shortly to get a better perspective on this project. 

Deforge's structures are a fantastic showcase of his artistic talent. I would recommend to anyone who have not yet done so to seek out his material, in particular, Lose, Very Casual and Ant Colony. In Structures, Deforge uses a familiar and recurring technique which occurs in many of his previous work, the juxtaposition of the descriptive, emotionless text and strange, inexplicable and esoteric drawings. He used this technique previously in Lose #4 in the story on Canadian Royalties and in Very Casual in The Spotting Deer short story. A clean description, almost like an encyclopedia entry, mixed with unusual, mystifying drawings that both enhances the words and confound the readers. There is a profound disconnect between what one read and therefore expects, and what one sees in the art. It is not however discomforting or disagreeable. It somehow manage to enhance the reading experience. It is engaging, fascinating.

Structures 24-34 is all about Canada's national objects, Chairs, fire places, stairs, etc. There is still a disconnect between what is written and what is illustrated, but it is stripped to it's most basic element. What we read is "National insert something". It allows the artist to expand on what is written and shatter expectations. This constant theme (national objects) allows for countless variations on the mundane objects and amaze the reader. This is very much an art book and it looks absolutely fabulous. 

Michael Deforge's "National Fire Place"
Abstruse...
Intriguing...
Exceptional...

I only wish the book was bigger. At 5.25 by 7 inches, this book is much too small to enjoy the art to it's fullest. Uncivilized books should be congratulated for publishing such a weird little experiment. I just wish I could gaze at this art on a larger page. It would have been impressive. Perhaps it will be if they ever collect the entire Structures.

But perhaps the size is not the point. I was basking in it's glory over 20 small pages. Marvelling at various shapes and forms and for a short little while, I transcended the realm of reality to stare at our national living room, our yards, our ladders, and it was magnificient.