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McNee, Graeme – Shioya Neko
Shioya Neko
Local comics often have a deeper meaning for the people in the area covered, and that is certainly the case in this book. This comic is the silent story of a cat on its travels through Shioya, which is a small town near Kobe, Japan. Several local stores and buildings are featured, and Graeme was nice enough to include a letter with his feelings on those locations to help me along a bit as a reviewer. It’s clear that they’re near and dear to him, but if you’re one of the people reading this who aren’t familiar with the location (and I’m guessing that’s most of you), you’re in luck! It’s also a completely adorable story about a cat wandering around the city and its interactions with the local animals and people. It starts with its casual escape from its home (it was unclear if it was escaping or just an outdoor cat), as it follows a bird, then a bug, and the stumbles across an ominous larger cat. Not to worry though, no violence here, as it then moves along to a charmed (and sleeping) construction worker, an indifferent smoker and a cranky old man who’s just trying to rake some leaves in peace. I’ll leave the rest of the journey for you to discover, but it’s never anything less than thoroughly charming throughout. If you ever find yourself in this part of the world I’d recommend taking this book and do a little walking tour, as it sure looks like Graeme did his research. I should also mention that this originally started out as an exhibition requested by the city, as they wanted a way to showcase the town, and he (wisely) added the cat (which is “Neko” in Japanese) to it. Hey look, you learned something today!
McNee, Graeme – Ryokan
Ryokan
People who have been reading this website for a long time have probably figured out by now that comics based on poems are usually not my favorite thing. Not always, as very few rules are universal, but mostly that’s the case. Oddly, that rule does not apply to zen Buddhist poets. Who knew? This is a collection of five poems from Ryokan, a man who studied under zen Buddhism but then spent the second half of his life living in a hut, happily interacting with the people around him and, by all accounts, leading a pretty damned great life. It’s great that Graeme went to such trouble to include details about the life of that man, as that information really helped flesh out what would otherwise have been an ephemeral collection of stories. He even includes a self-portrait that the monk did, most likely in the early 1800’s; that smile alone helps show why Graeme was fascinated by the man. Anyway, it’s difficult to review five illustrated poems without telling you exactly what they’re about, so I’ll just say that he wrote about what he knew: life in his hut, his surroundings, and fleeting memories of his past. It’s all very minimalistic, the brief sentences and the imagery, and they go well together. For everybody who wants to go live in a hut by themselves but doesn’t want to be cut off from society completely, check this out and see what it’s like! For everybody else who likes the idea of uninterrupted contemplation time, you’d also enjoy this.
McNee, Graeme – Kumayama Mountain, 1993
Kumayama Mountain, 1993
OK, I’ll admit it: I wandered around the internet for a bit after reading this to find out if the story was true. I couldn’t find anything, which is either my fault for not looking hard enough or this is a fictional book with a very specific title and premise. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! This one starts off with a blurb mentioning three children who disappeared in a forest in 1993. A group of kids are on a field trip and are told to stick to the park, as there are bears in the woods. Most of the kids don’t believe this, but there’s enough doubt about the story to keep them out of the woods, which was probably the point of the story in the first place. A few of the kids trade some bits of their lunches, one of the kids angrily doesn’t want the treats that are being shared, and he storms off into the forest. Two other kids decide that the risk of them getting blamed for losing this kid is worse than the risk of them getting eaten by bears, so they wander off into the forest to find him. From there we get some tense and creepy scenes (including something loud creeping through the shadows), and that’s as far as I can go while still avoiding spoilers. I liked the simplistic way that Graeme drew the kids, and his lingering on the creepier areas in the woods really helped bring home the unease the kids were feeling as they got further and further away from the camp. It’s a really solid story so maybe you should give it a try!
McNee, Graeme – An Afternoon in Ueno
An Afternoon in Ueno
It’s hard for a story to get much more charming than this. It starts off simply enough, with a young boy eating a meal with his family and his father pestering him about various duties that the boy should have performed. All of these questions are answered in the affirmative, but the boy tries telling his father that he has a stomach ache to avoid getting out of band practice. The father doesn’t even dignify this with a response, and he drops his child off at band practice. Once the kid gets inside, however, he learns that band practice is actually next week, and his family is not answering the phone at his house, leaving the boy with an afternoon to kill. He starts off looking a little concerned about this eventuality, but soon realizes what this means for his afternoon and is overjoyed. I’m in danger of telling the whole story again, so I’ll just leave the description there, but again, this whole thing is damned near too charming for words. Graeme has already shown an uncanny knack for the quiet moments with his last book, but this one just cements that reputation in my mind. This isn’t a silent comic, but large chunks of it go without words, as they’re simply not necessary at times. Picking out my favorite moment would be difficult. The hat store? The birds? The jam session on the street? I’ll just go with “all of it” and leave it at that. Check this out, everybody. You won’t be disappointed. But hurry, will you? This only has a print run of 200, and this is one of those cases where I don’t think number will end up being high enough.
McNee, Graeme – Minimal Comics
Minimal Comics
What an absolutely charming comic, and that’s not something I say about comics often. The title really nails the theme, as these are all silent three panel strips. I was a little nervous at first that it would get repetitive, as one early strip is called “Clouds” and it features clouds slowly rolling across the sky, then another early strip is called “Sunset” and it shows a sunset in three panels. You can see why I was getting a little worried, but it turns out that I was way off, and Graeme takes this simple concept to some genuinely innovative places. This will be difficult to talk about without ruining its quiet charm, but a few strips really stand out. There’s “Government,” which shows three different types of politicians (indicated by the colors of the flag they carry) and three consistently angry crowds (indicated by the fact that they always use flags of different colors than the speaker). “Kiss” is just cute as hell and I’m not even going to get into why. “Shy” is beautiful and perfectly done. And there’s lots more, but again, me describing all of these simple strips would ruin the fun of YOU discovering them. Graeme is also nice enough to include a blank page with three panels on it so you can get into the spirit of the comic and make your own strip. Which, honestly, you probably will be by the time you finish reading this. I went from being mildly entertained to hoping that it would go on forever pretty quickly, and I can’t imagine a better endorsement for a comic than that. Not sure about the price, but the guy does live in Japan so it’ll most likely be a few bucks more than most comics. Why don’t you get in touch with the man and find out?
