The End.

The other day Anders Nilsen announced that the last issue of Big Questions will be out this fall. A mere fact that makes me want to cry. But supposedly one can expect a forthcoming collection of all 15 issues from Drawn & Quarterly in the future? After all, the first two BQ's are since long out of print. And I need - 

Endings, beginnings; since spring I've mostly been boxing, swimming and reading academic papers. It shows, I know. This fall will, however, be all about Literature, with a focus on gender perspectives. 

Big Questions #14 by Anders Nilsen: Title and Deed

The Idiot. The tears. The drama. 

Next issue will be the last. How will I ever-

Buy/preview.

Big Questions #13 by Anders Nilsen: A House That Floats

Back to the thin paper quality but more life-saving than ever before.

Read two pages here. 

Big Questions #12 by Anders Nilsen: A Young Crowe's Guide to Hunting

Enter the crows.

And I am, as always, in awe of Nilsen's long running series Big Questions. One issue/20-30 pages per year, as it's been the past few, is never enough but still quite - it is with the tiny gestures; the turning of a head, the widening of an eye, that Nilsen's drama becomes what it is. Perfect.

Cover here.

Have a look at his website.

The Next Anders Nilsen!

It's coming! Soon!

And Mr. Nilsen says there are three more issues of Big Questions to go, I thought this would be the last. Fantastic!

Big Questions #11 by Anders Nilsen

Yesterday was a good day.

Got up at 4 to get to the shooting location, had friend J.S. for assistant, had the pleasure to see a very frustrated man get even by running like mad into the shot during a take, wrapped at 2.30, did all the returns, picked up two CdG garments from H&M, had ice cream. And yes, passed by Comics Heaven to get my ordered issue of Big Questions #11 that I've been thinking of since summer.

It is as perfect as ever. I wonder how he does to make a little bird's emotions visible by just a head shake or a tiny line for an eye.

Listen to a newly made interview with Anders Nilsen over at Inkstuds.

Summer Restlessness

Maggie Mui from Read or Die the TV

I am currently sitting in my window, waiting for Anders Nilsen's eleventh issue of Big Questions that's going to be out this coming autumn. In the meantime I'm commenting away at Bokhora, trying to finish my third Jenny Diski in a row, wondering why I've been such a bad fiction reader so far this year - 17% is quite bad, although 50% comics is kinda good.

Female authors 60%, Male authors 40%
Fiction 17%, Non-Fiction 25%, Comics 50%, Poetry 8%
In Swedish 42%, In English 58%
Swedish authors 20%, Others 80%

After a good cleaning my bedroom no longer looks like Yomiko Readman's:



Which I suppose is a good thing.

The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott

Finally the new Thomas Ott (remember the last). I was going to save it for the perfect reading moment, but literally halfway out of bed this morning I figured I could at least have a little look at the first page - and before I knew it half an hour had past and 100 or so pages had ben scanned. Couldn't help it. I blame the genius. Oh, and it seems like it's his first full-length graphic novel, too.

Over at Fantagraphics there's a downloadable chapter for registered users, they also put up this on their Flickr.

By the way, fans of Ott might want to have a look at the wonderful cover for Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle:



That whole Penguin series with favourite artists' jackets I would like to have just to hold. Anders Nilsen, Daniel Clowes, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, it's too much!

Big Questions #6 by Anders Nilsen

Enter Pilot!

Big Questions #5 by Anders Nilsen

"Certainty is a mirage."

Big Questions #4 by Anders Nilsen

The plot thickens.

Big Questions #3 by Anders Nilsen

Since I came back from Antarctica/South Georgia/The Falklands all I seem capable of reading is Big Questions. Luckily I had saved #3-6 that I got from Drawn and Quarterly recently; I'm hoping #1-2 and 8 will be featured in the collection that D&Q will be publishing in the future. Reading the Idiot excerpts reminds me of Jon Fosse's plays and Tarjei Vesaas' The Birds that I got for present in Mallorca '06 and have yet to read.

Monologues for the Coming Plague by Anders Nilsen

Nilsen goes Shrigley, however sequential and very much in his own style.

By the way, that amazingly long Metabunker interview I linked to recently is really really a great introduction to Nilsen's work.

The End #1 by Anders Nilsen

And it goes on.

The End #1 is about surviving the loss of one's beloved; "now every day this other person descends into hell or heaven"; talking to his former self the way he was before he knew, when everything was still well.

More.

Big Questions #7 by Anders Nilsen

Biq Questions is certainly up there on that list of stuff essential for (after) survival that I keep in my head, together with for example Ipoh bean sprouts, char siu bao and dogs who sigh in their sleep (the latter which Anders Nilsen already told a story about in Dogs and Water).

Danish blog Metabunker has a long interview with Nilsen.

Old posts of mine here, here, here and here

Inkstuds Podcast

Inkstuds is a radio show about 'underground' comics I was amazed to find recently - almost one hour long interviews with favourites like Adrian Tomine, Brian Ralph and Anders Nilsen! Here is the complete list of interviewees.

Big Questions 10: The Hand that Feeds by Anders Nilsen

Once again: the finches, the crows, the Idiot, the wild dogs. Anders Nilsen is my hero and probably my favourite comic book artist ever.

More here.
And here.

Dogs & Water by Anders Nilsen

Anders Nilsen's drawings are magical.

This book is fantastic.

Something like Brian Ralph's Daybreak but sad and drawn with a real thin pen.

Big Questions 9: The Lost and Found by Anders Nilsen

I had to get more Anders Nilsen after that last one. It's very seldomly that you find someone who can draw emptiness; this guy can. Big Questions 9 is so loveable it almost hurts.

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow by Anders Nilsen (with Cheryl Weaver)

Spring 2005 Anders Nilsen's fiancé Cheryl was diagnosed with cancer. She passed away later that year. The couple's clippings, letters, drawings, photographs make up a beautiful book that breaks one's heart. It is one of the best things I have read about loss.

Read an excerpt at publisher Drawn & Quarterly.