Nilsen, Anders – Big Questions #5

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Big Questions #5

Ever read one of those series where the payoff was nothing compared to the buildup? For the three issues of this series that I’ve read (barring the crazy trippy parts of #2 that still might make sense eventually, I guess), I would tell anybody who asked me that Anders was one of the better small press cartoonists around. I’d still say that, but for whatever reason, this issue left me kind of cold. It was just a lot more interesting somehow before I knew exactly what everything was and what everything stood for. I almost felt that he explained too much here, that not enough was left to the imagination. Haven’t read any other reviews of this, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find that I’m the only one with this opinion. The art keeps improving (it was great to begin with), his storytelling skills are obviously getting exponentially better with each passing issue, and I’m sure that there are plenty of people out there who will love this. It’s not like I hate it. I like it just fine. It’s just that every other issue was such a dramatic step above the one before it, and this one feels like more of a straightforward story than anything else. I might read this all together one day and completely change my mind about this, but for now I’d have to say that while it’s still better than almost everything else out there, it didn’t improve as much as I thought it could. And yes, I’m well aware that that’s way too much pressure to put on anybody. This is $3.95 and it looks beautiful, there’s a new website too, check it out!