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\nBy Dennis Wojda<\/b> (Borderline Press)
\nISBN: 978-0-99269-720-4<\/p>\n
\nBy Dennis Wojda<\/b> (Borderline Press)
\nISBN: 978-0-99269-720-4<\/p>\n
Every now and then – but typically, not nearly often enough – the global comics scene throws out a project with the potential to redefine the industry.<\/p>\n
Tintin<\/b>, A Contract with God<\/b>, Ghost World<\/b>, Fun Home<\/b>, Watchmen<\/b>, Love and Rockets<\/b>, Lone Wolf and Cub<\/b>, From Hell<\/b>, Fax from Sarajevo<\/b>, Persepolis<\/b>, Maus<\/b> and some few others reached vast non comics-reading audiences in their time, serving to justify and legitimise a narrative discipline that had claimed since its creation to be an actual Art Form.<\/p>\n
By all accounts author Dennis Wojda – already an established star of the Polish comics establishment – one day decided to do something to creatively stretch himself and opted to turn snippets of his family history into a daily cartoon on his web-page, scheduled to run for the classically significant \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a year and a day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
It proved immensely popular, so much so that publishers expressed interest in a book, but 366 panels weren’t really enough.<\/p>\n
No problem: families always have plenty more history\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
As you’ll see when you read the book, Wojda was actually born in Stockholm on March 13th<\/sup> 1973, before returning to Poland to become a writer, designer and graphic artist.<\/p>\n He’s appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza<\/i><\/b>, Aktivi\u00c5\u203acie<\/i><\/b>, Exklusiv<\/i><\/b>, Bravo<\/i><\/b>, Skate<\/i><\/b>, Ha! Arcie<\/i><\/b>, Arena Comics <\/i><\/b>and Jabber<\/i><\/b>, winning plenty of praise and a few awards for such series as Mikropolis <\/i><\/b>(with artist Krzysztof Gawronkiewicz: collected in two volumes as The Tourist Guide<\/b> and Mohair Dreams<\/b>), Chair in Hell<\/b>, The Supernaturals: Miss Hofmokl’s Shoe<\/b> (with Krzysztof Ostrowski), A European on the Road<\/b> (written by J. Sanecka) and Ghost Kids: the Ribbon<\/b> (illustrated by Sebastian Skrobol) amongst others.<\/p>\n At the end of 2013 British publisher Borderline Press sagely added the now expanded 566 Frames<\/b> to its burgeoning stable of titles, giving English readers the opportunity to see one of the most beguiling and lyrical examples of comics autobiography ever produced\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Mixing time frames and viewpoints – including many wise pronouncements and predictions from his own time as a foetus in the womb – the tale begins and ends with the birth of the author.<\/p>\n In between then Dennis smoothly skips up and down the family tree, describing his pregnant mother’s drive to Sweden so that he could be born with his absent-and-working-abroad father (who was hedonistically trapped being a wandering, semi- failed pop star in Swinging Scandinavia), and the sort-of psychic grandmother who knew how, when and where to meet her\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n There are memories – his and his ancestors’ – of little moments and huge crises, parties and pogroms and many, many conquests – both romantic and geopolitical – as an odd assortment of branches and buds thrive and survive under a variety of invaders and overlords from Tsarist Russians to Hitler’s Nazis to Soviet Russians: always finding that whatever may happen, the music of life plays on\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Don’t be fooled, however. This is no idle panegyric about the good old days. There’s a formidable amount of sex, death, struggle, fear, privation, terror, envy and heartbreak to season the surreal whimsy, diverted daydreams, folksy philosophy and chatty monologue\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n And music: everything from Polkas to Jazz to Jimi Hendrix\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n With only 566 Frames<\/b> Wojda has worked his own brand of visual Magic Realism (as previously best expressed in English language comics by Gilbert Hernandez) and this wondrous, mesmerising, intoxicating invitation to share a slice of other lives and times is a book no lover of the medium or citizen of the world should miss. By Dennis Wojda (Borderline Press) ISBN: 978-0-99269-720-4 Every now and then – but typically, not nearly often enough – the global comics scene throws out a project with the potential to redefine the industry. Tintin, A Contract with God, Ghost World, Fun Home, Watchmen, Love and Rockets, Lone Wolf and Cub, From Hell, Fax from … <\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Dennis Wojda. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"