Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Big Questions, or, Asomatognosia: Whose Hand is it Anyway? by Anders Nilsen YP FIC NILSEN


A staggering, surreal fable in which birds, an owl, a snake, a bomb, a crazed pilot, and an idiot struggle with Big Questions and try not to die too horribly while pondering them.

Asmomatognosia is a disorder in which your brain doesn’t recognize the sensation of one or more limbs. It’s a fitting subtitle to this book in which most every central character loses one’s self or life searching for a greater meaning. This is a 600 page epic of over 15 years work.  The art style is haunting and stark.  Nilsen’s simple designs make his largely animal protagonists indistinguishable from each other, but this has a larger thematic point.  This book uses animals to look at the deepest philosophical questions humankind face, but as the title suggests, this tome contains big questions not big answers. A must read for fans of comics as an artistic medium, but probably a little dry and offbeat for fans of the average manga or superhero comic.  Check it out and give it a chance, it just might wrinkle your brain a bit!

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