Mr. O

By: Lewis Trondheim Publisher: NBM Publishing Price: $13.95 (USD) Purchase Here.

Seeing as the focus of last week's column was the apocalyptic thriller Falling Sky, it seemed appropriate to review something with a lighter tone; Shoegazing isn't all doom and gloom, although the main character featured in this week's review would probably beg to differ, given the often tragic results of his near-endless struggle to make his way across a small chasm.

Mister O by Lewis Trondheim is a slim, large format hardback that features the exploits of a pinkish O with stick arms and legs in a series of sixty-panel, one page strips. Initially slightly disconcerting in scale, each strip spins a different tale of the eponymous protagonist attempting to beat his nemesis - a chasm - and reach the cliff on the other side of it - always with very amusing and unexpected results. There are no word balloons, no captions; everything is clearly told within the confines of the ultra-simple, minimalist style. The passage of time, for example, is shown to have passed in one panel simply by showing the moon, the sun and a clock. Likewise, if characters speak or think, their words or thoughts are shown as pictures; it's a fantastic device that enables the strips to be totally universal and free of any language whatsoever.

Despite the fact that all of the strips pretty much have the same setup (Mister O walks to the cliff edge, looks across the chasm, tries to figure out a way over, figures something out, tries it, fails), Trondheim keeps things incredibly unpredictable with inventive twists on the basic formula. Proceedings are never less than amusing, and are often laugh-out-loud hilarious. It's impossible to not find yourself willing Mister O to succeed, time and time again. Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Mister O is just a crudely drawn O with the barest minimum of features (two dots for eyes, a line for a mouth and stick limbs), he has been imbued with a tremendous amount of character and a surprising array of emotions; anger, fear, arrogance and surprise are just a few of the vastly impressive range on display. There's also a very twisted undercurrent of gore, but it is presented in such a way that it is highly amusing rather than repellent - the cartoon logic of Mister O keeps our character returning even after several hilarious and wildly different demises. Teleporters, birds, trees and even magic carpets help and hinder our hero over the course of the book.

Without spoiling the outcome, things do come to a (sort of) conclusion with the final strip - but given the mileage that Trondheim wrings from the minimal concept over the course of this volume, it would not be unsurprising (or indeed unwelcome) for Mister O to return for more chasm-based hijinks.



Jason Brown

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