A thousand images, one story ^ Tanaka's debut graphic novel doesn't look like any other you've seen. Every page follows the same pattern: a four by four grid of black and while panels, drawn in plain lines and solid blacks or grays. It brings to mind the uniform array of cels on movie film, an analogy that points out some of the cinematic techniques used to pull the reader along.
Unlike a movie, this jumps from frame to frame with a syncopation that belies the regular rhythm of the layout. Then, interpolating a story line between these jagged points of data, we follow the wild ups and downs between a young man and woman. A few lovemaking scenes mean this book isn't for kids, and maybe not for some grownups either. It never falls into the "adult" category, though - these passages suggest more than they show, and fit naturally into the lives of handsome young adults.
If you want a new kind of reading experience in wordless graphic novels, give this one a try. The "relationships" aspect widens its appeal to female readership that might otherwise skips over comics; it's look and pace feel like nothing else around. Only Nate Powell's work comes close, but carries itself in a very different way. I look forward to more work by this first-time author, lots more.
Like the tick...tock...tick...tock of the ever present metronome, Veronique Tanaka tells the story of a young musician and his failed relationship.
Left...right...left...right
The cyclical rhythyms and the geometrically inspired art of this wordless book are an art form unto itself. Close up...long shot...close up...long shot. This book could easily be the directorial debut of Tanaka in a short punctuated by the sounds of 4/4 time.
Every panel, every page is symetrical. Every panel is a blink of an eye, or the tick of a second, or the passing of a memory.
This is art. True art. All I can do is stand up and applaud.
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