Shhh!

Seriealbum. 2006.

Mycket gott skick. Ordlösa serier av den norske tecknaren John Arne Sæterøy. Utgivna på JIPPI foreleg A/L ---Sshhhh! is a collection of ten loosely linked silent or wordless black and white comics shorts by comics master Jason. The links are largely made through attempts at form, different ways of telling stories, though recurrent characters emerge.

In One, a street musician with a tin whistle (an anthropomorphic bird) walks through a park, looks at lovers, longs for this himself, throws a rock off a bridge and a woman is suddenly there. Bird man lives in a nest, but they develop a relationship, and go apartment hunting. In one witty image, they –two birds—are watching Hitchcock’s The Birds. She becomes sick, and while there, he draws an adventure of his rescuing her from Death in a castle prison. Then she is hit by a car and dies. We see Death in the crowd that forms. He walks back to that bridge, throws a rock into the water, and looks around for her, for anyone. No one is there. A sad sweet story.

In Two, bird man seems to be accompanied by a skeleton man everywhere.

In Ten, bird man returns to his nest and takes out his tin whistle.

What to make of these stories? Minimalist demonstrations of different subtle tones one can accomplish in stories. Sad, black comedies, pantomimes, tributes to silent films but decidedly not films. Comics.