HELEN

Flowers 2013

this book. this book!!!!!!!!!!!

the art and colors are awesome (just flip through turndecassette’s blog to find some samples), the story is awesome (a massive sky whale falls from the sky and you see how the lives of people and creatures change around the various Stages Of the corpse’s Rot over hundreds if not a thousand years), but the best part. is the openness and space around it all. 

the beautiful artwork isn’t bogged down by speech bubbles filled with exposition. there’s only just enough for context. the panels tell the rest of the story. i’m a huge sucker for visual storytelling, and stages of rot does it well. and the lack of text lets the world just breathe, be incredibly loud and completely silent like being in a jungle alone, and it all becomes real. i BELIEVE in the world this book shows you. 

if you like movies/shows with MA, if nausicaa of the valley of the wind is your fav ghibli film, if mushi-shi is your shit, and if you like the quiet calm parts in samurai jack as much as the action parts, if not more, then this is your book. (not that there isn’t any action in this book. there is tons of action in this book.) you’ll read it over and over, get your other friends to read it, point out the things you noticed on your second reading, and build the world up together in your minds. cus it’s huge. 

Maurice Denis (French, 1870-1943)