SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE

Hard to believe, right? I know I didn’t post last week. It was brutal, and I couldn’t find a way to address…things that didn't feel like turning the screw. It’s sort of a rule, for me and this newsletter. Turning the screw in your journal, your head, whatever— that happens. But even in a semi-public forum, right now— that’s not a pile I want to add to.

I tried. It didn’t work. So no post. Apologies.

But here, instead, is a thing I can write about that is 100% awesome. So I am taking that opportunity.

My dear friend Anders Nilsen’s book, TONGUES (vol 1) was released yesterday. If there’s any sense in the world (HA! Come on now. But still…) you should be able to go to any book store (preferably indie) and grab this massive (375 pages!) brick pictured above and dive in for a week.

It is a monumental, astounding book. And yes, it is a “graphic novel” (or comic book). So it’s got drawings and pictures and stuff, all mixed up with the words. But— and I’ll get into this, later— look, folks, I’ve been reading and making (and publishing) comics for almost 40 years. I taught comics for 14 years. For much of my life, I paid way more than a healthy level of attention to what comics are, and do.

And TONGUES is one of the best comics I’ve ever read, period. It’s as dense and realized as any prose novel I’ve ever read, but still does all the things a comic can do that prose can’t. It’s intelligent, humane, emotional, thoughtful, mysterious, pointed, and Anders draws the living shit out of everything, on every page. It’s a god damned masterwork, and you should go get it right now.

I’m not going to pretend I’m not biased, here: Anders is one of my closest friends, and I love the guy dearly. With that said, I’m objectively right about this book, and how good it is.

You don’t need me to tell you; Anders’ books (he works like a maniac) have been all over the place, internationally, for what…20 years now? Dogs And Water. Big Questions. Rage Of Poseidon. Too many to name. All different, all smart, all good.

But TONGUES is another level.

Again, one of the things I’m (somewhat desperately) attempting (and last week, failing) to do, here, is write about…what is this moment, and how did we get to this point. Not as navel-gazing armchair philosophizing, but as a survival-level attempt to understand just what the fuck is going on, here. To not turn from it, but to also not devolve into a puddle of mess.

TONGUES does all of that. Thoughtfully, elegantly, and with care and love in every page. Anders hits it from all angles— political, social, mythological; real, unreal, magical. Sweet, funny, and serious as a heart attack. Joyful and despairing.

It’s what Art does, at its best. Not dipping out, but digging in.

I don’t know about you, but these days it seems like standard operating procedure (socially, politically, etc etc) is throwing shit (and I mean actual hot stinking feces) indiscriminately at all the walls and seeing what sticks. Some does and some doesn’t (no one seems to pay much mind to that part of it, because it takes….yeah, thought and care, and not as satisfying as the “throwing” part) but what’s clear is that it‘s an unbearable amount of excrement, piling up exponentially.

And we’ve grown very used to art as fodder, as entertainment, as distraction. Same shit, different venue and purpose. Sometimes that’s fine, but it‘s not what moves any needles. Seeing attention and care and diligence poured into anything is a cause for celebration. Now more than ever in my life. It means something different, now.

When someone does that, artistically or otherwise, you damn well better pay attention. TONGUES lives there, for 350 pages. Every word counts, every line counts, every element and detail treated thoughtfully and with care and precision.

This volume* is a collection of the 6 comics he self published, about once every 16 months or so, since 2017. Every time he sent me the new one I’d be gobsmacked at the damn thing, but it was a LONG time in between chapters. Reading it all together, in one volume, was a vastly different experience than reading 32-40-some pages at a time; the amount of threads he’s juggling, the complexity of the narrative…it’s shocking.

I don’t know where he’s going, with all this. But I have little doubt he’s going to get there, and bring us with him.

And the fact that he sort of naturally works in some ”formal” stuff that’s never been done in the history of comics, while not disrupting the story, or preciously pointing to his own cleverness— where it all just makes sense, in the service of the story— look, my days of professional jealousy are (let’s hope) pretty far in the past (and good riddance), replaced with a full-throated pride and awe at my pal creating something this unbelievably good. But I will admit, every so often, reading this book…yeah. But it’s the good kind of jealousy. Really. I just love the dude and am so happy for him, and in awe of what it took to get this out into the world, and what we get to read. There is a thing that happens every so often, when an artist (or a sports person, writer, filmmaker, scientist, whatever), just hits their apex. Its pretty indisputable when it happens, and it’s unbelievable to watch unfold in real time.

I’ve also said this to Anders— seeing those self published comics arrive in the mail to me for most of the past decade…it always felt like he was making it just for me. Like when I get a zine from a pal in the mail, or a letter. Personal, and individual. Of course I knew it wasn’t, I'm talking about how it felt to get it in the mail and read it (then probably call him and tell him that he killed it). This volume is a different beast than the individual issues. It’s massive. In scope, execution, and raw heart.

But it still reads like one human did it. It’s like a love letter to humanity.

I could go on and on.

Just go get it.

Better yet, go see him on one of his release tour dates:

I’ll be “in discussion”/ hassling him here in Minneapolis on the 31st. Come on down.

*I remember when he started working on it. Another LONG book, he said, Like Big Questions. How long, I asked. He said: “I think I can do it in 10 issues. 400 pages or so.” Yeah? I said. How long did you think Big Questions was going to be when you started? “Um. 350?” And how long did the book end up being? “Almost 600.”

I said man, you‘re not getting out of this in under 700 pages.

He looked at me (sort of sadly) and said “yeah, you’re probably right”. So yes, this is book is Volume 1, the first half, and it’s almost 40o pages. I WIN, NILSEN!!!