{"id":16383,"date":"2017-01-17T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=16383"},"modified":"2017-01-17T18:51:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T18:51:10","slug":"snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2017\/01\/17\/snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Benjamin Rivers<\/strong> (Benjamin Rivers Inc.)
\nISBN: 978-0-9813495-8-9<\/p>\n

Life isn’t drama. Life is ordinary: dull, repetitive, anxiety-provoking, tedious, unsatisfactory and just a bit less good than everybody else’s.<\/p>\n

Until it isn’t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

And then we make it a story. In a story you can mould reality into a shape you like and polish it to your own satisfaction. Then again, there are some stories which like to bend their own rules and aspire to being life-like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

If you’re a fan of high-tension thrillers or blockbuster epics, there doesn’t appear to be much going on in Snow<\/strong>: a miniseries-turned-graphic compilation detailing the overlapping and intersection of ordinary people living and\/or working on Queen Street West<\/em>, Toronto<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, that either means you have a very glamorous lifestyle or you spend too much time submerged in fiction and not enough looking and listening to what’s going on around you\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Crafted by illustrator and games developer Benjamin Rivers (who somewhat shoots my argument in the foot by having turned this comics collation into both an Indy movie and computer game), Snow<\/strong> is delivered in stark, monochrome simplicity, centring on Dana<\/em>, a rather nervous young woman who works in a bookstore.<\/p>\n

Economically, times are tough and she’s fixating on the number of shops and businesses that are closing in the locality.<\/p>\n

Dana doesn’t like change and she doesn’t like confrontation.<\/p>\n

However, these days there’s an aura of tension everywhere – even in her former comfort zone at the store. Her co-workers are mostly ok, but old Mr. Abberline<\/em> isn’t looking well and Dana can’t shift the suspicion that soon they’ll all be looking for new jobs. Even best friend Julia<\/em> doesn’t get it though: it seems so easy for her to shut out such concerns and just party\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As she trudges along snowbound Queen Street to work and back, to the bar or the Laundromat, Dana can’t shift an oppressive sense of impending doom. Things come to a head abruptly when she overhears an argument in a closing-down, already shuttered CD store.<\/p>\n

She can just about ignore that and go home, but after hearing a gunshot, Dana, in her unrushed, gradual manner, abandons the instincts of a lifetime and goes to investigate\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

What she finds on entering the shop is the trigger to remaking her entire life, but change is so hard and so comes so painfully slowly\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Appearing cautious and careful, this deceptively simple and elegant saga offers a supremely understated exploration of how folk like you and me react to a shocking event and its aftermath: treating the extraordinary with the dismay and respect it deserves when it impinges on real lives.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, just like life, although there are always questions asked, we seldom get all the answers we want or need before, in the end, life goes on\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Amongst the Bonus Material<\/em> included here is the movie poster for the film adaptation, annotated creator’s notes and sketches, concept-&-character designs, an examination of the drawing process which resulted in the book’s signature visual style and the author’s reminiscent Afterword: Is It Still Snowing?<\/em>, as well as a handy street guide and map of the ‘The World of Snow’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just like life, Snow<\/strong> is better experienced than fed to you second-hand or reprocessed, so please read this graphic novel if you’re looking for something a little different from what comics think of as normal\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2014 Benjamin Rivers. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Benjamin Rivers (Benjamin Rivers Inc.) ISBN: 978-0-9813495-8-9 Life isn’t drama. Life is ordinary: dull, repetitive, anxiety-provoking, tedious, unsatisfactory and just a bit less good than everybody else’s. Until it isn’t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 And then we make it a story. In a story you can mould reality into a shape you like and polish it to your … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Snow”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,212,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-international-comics","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4AFj-snow","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}