Slave Labor Graphics – $12.95
Fehed Said – Writer
Shari Chankhamma – Artist
To be honest, I haven’t read a proper manga in quite some time. Though my girlfriend is rather fond of them, I read quite the pile of American comic books, graphic novels and a fair share of more traditional literature, so anything new has to be scheduled in to my reading list.
Because I’m something of a SLG whore, this one didn’t get too old before I figured out I was missing it. I knew it was out and had read a few blurbs on the SLG board, but I didn’t know much about it and hadn’t seen it in either of the comic shops. Oddly enough, I found this at Bordres in the graphic novels section, but the art is clearly closer to that of Japanese Manga.
The story is essentially about a suicide attempt, what the space between, limbo if you like, is like, and what sort of adventure looms between life, death and the journey back. There’s a bit of a twist ending that I won’t spoil, but it’s definitely worth a read, especially if you are at all into surreal stories, human interest with a quirk or are interested in/suffer from depression. For nearly a 300 page book, it’s an incredibly quick read, forty-five minutes should be plenty of time to enjoy the art, digest the story and fully understand what Said is trying to get through.
That being said, I really love the art in this book, it works incredibly well in the story; it carefully walks the line between humorously dark and the cutesy kind of art featured in books like Inuyasha or Ranma 1/2. The black/white/gray shading work is great and suits the narration well,, often letting the story progress for several pages without any dialog or narration what so ever.
During Clarence’s exodus from the bathroom to life, he encounters a cacophony of characters and situations, seemingly making no sense what so ever. The similarities to Carrol’s Wonderland are striking and are even mentioned by the main character, as Clarence states, “this is no wonderland, this is death.” A short series of adventures happens, where , once Clarence has resolved a situation in one group of people, he is immediately transformed to another location with a new cast of characters and an inevitable problem to deal with. One of my favorite sub-stories is when Clarence confronts a man who has been hanging by the neck from a tree for hundreds of years in a failed attempt at death. He offers Clarence some information on how to get out of Limbo if Clarence can figure out why he can’t die. The resolution Clarence comes to is that, because the man has hung himself out in the open where everyone an see him, no one can forget him, so he can never die. I like the idea that as long as we’re not forgotten, we’re never truly gone, it works for atheists perfectly, but just about anyone of any school of philosophy can appreciate the sentiment that rememberance equates to some some level of partial immortality. Once the man hangs himself in the shadows of the forest, he dies and Clarence moves on to the next person’s problem.
The story isn’t really a new concept, but it’s done rather well and the art is fantastic, overall it’s a quick and enjoyable read.
Buy it from Slave Labor – http://www.slavelabor.com/product-exec/product_id/483/nm/The_Clarence_Principle
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