Kevin Huizenga

I actually thought of Scott McCloud while reading this, the way the main character Glenn Ganges moves through these very interesting frames that depict abstract concepts; that may not be an accurate memory of Understanding Comics et al but it's what came to mind. The artwork is exception, so detailed, such an amazing way of communicating abstract concepts (e.g., as time shifts away from linearity, the panels start to slide around and on top of each other, at one point the page depicts a stack of pages from the book you're supposedly reading, kind of turned to the side, coming out of the book itself. And these strong visual ideas are everywhere. The emotional and intellectual chaos of insomnia is depicted over and over (and over!) again in a visually compelling way.

Narratively, though, the book was repetitive, and didn't go anywhere, and eventually became incredibly dense and complex, with the visual and textual information a lot to plow through with very little payoff.

There is magic and humanity on the very very last page but honestly I was ready for it to end long before then. This is the work of an enormously brilliant and creative person and yet it just didn't fully land for me.… (altro)