I took it on a rainy Thursday afternoon when work was slow. Then again on a dreary, fog infested Friday night.
Pencilbot is no stranger to drugs with hallucinogenic attributes; cannabis, acid, mushrooms, salvia, peyote, toad-licking and now… In the Flesh by Koren Shadmi. Though toad-licking will always have a soft place in my metal heart, reading In the Flesh is actually quite palatable to my taste receptors while still being able to produce the same psychoactive effects.
See the thing is whenever you take these drugs one usually finds something out about themselves, something deep down that they don’t confront in the everyday spectrum of life. In doing so, one also confronts who others are; why did they touch my electric sheep in my dreams? It must mean something.
As much as I kid, I make no joke about the quality of this graphic novel. It is so surreal, visceral and metaphorically masterful it worries me how bad it will be received by its public. Not because it’s that bad… but because it’s that good. The characters in this book all have a chimera and theme that lends well to it in each short story; a thing that is so there to yearn for, yet so unattainable. In other words, it illustrates many things about objects, feelings and people we sometimes shamefully don’t admit to having or conversely desire to possess; and does so unpretentiously, realistically and at times comedically. If anything of what I said in this paragraph makes sense to you then you may like this book.
I don’t want to over-hype this book, nor do I want to understate its value. So I’ll cut it short by saying this to its potential onlookers: If you have ever been mesmerised and/or wrapped up in the meaning of an absurd yet lucid dream, I believe you will enjoy this book. Each story is potently rich and complex in it’s simplicity in both writing, art and choice of framing…. That’s right, both of those three.
Widely available on February 3rd, 2009 at many bookstore chains and online marts, or you can haggle your local shop to order it if they don’t have it. It’s definitely one you should own.
Similar to, but nothing like:
- Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth)
- Rutu Modan (Exit Wounds)
- Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings)
