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Amnesia
Chance Meeting Leads To Weird Circumstances For Two Extraordinary Kindred Spirits; Chloe, a young reporter from Los Angeles, gets the opportunity of a lifetime. She has an interview with Ike Reuben, a film-maker and novelist whose work has been a constant source of inspiration for her since university. This opportunity triggers in Chloe's past a series of flashbacks containing memories that may actually threaten to impede her interview. But Ike has a past of his own to address, manifesting itself in the form of dreams, which are the result of some kind of narcolepsy, or uncontrollable 'sleep attacks'. He is somehow able to slip in between the cracks, laying unconscious in one reality, while living and witnessing another. When the two meet, they discover that their pasts are actually what can set them free, and that the line between memories and dreams is finer than they could ever imagine.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 23, 2019
Too jaunty in story and art. The story jumps recklessly between the past, present and future while the annoyingly blurry art gets even more distorted regularly. Both are obviously on purpose but they didn't work for me.
There is plenty good speculation on the nature of "reality" but the dream explanations are quite spurious.
BUT if you're well acquainted with Charm City you MUST read this book nonetheless because you will enjoy constantly recognizing landmarks and skylines!
There is plenty good speculation on the nature of "reality" but the dream explanations are quite spurious.
BUT if you're well acquainted with Charm City you MUST read this book nonetheless because you will enjoy constantly recognizing landmarks and skylines!
April 9, 2020
A journalist has a meeting with a pop artist, which then plunges into a hallucinatory exploration of their pasts, possible futures, alternate lives, and dead ends. The artist is somehow able to slip between the cracks of reality during his sleep and take residence in the body of his other selves in alternate worlds. The pair discovers their pasts are actually what can set them free, and that the line between memories and dreams is finer than they could ever imagine.
The narrative begins fine with excellent art and a rambling exploration of the first narrator’s life, leading by synchronicity to the point outside of the interview. But it takes a wrong turn, style wise, with part two, which begins to incorporate real-life photography with the art. I understand that this is to demonstrate the various shades of reality that the characters are tumbling through, so much so that no one is quite sure what is real, but the use of actual photos was a poor choice. They didn't translate well with the 2001 technology (when the book was published). The photos are grainy and, worst of all, boring to look at. Perhaps if he had stuck to one or two of them, but at least a quarter of the book is done in photos.
It is a pity because the book had potential, with an interesting take on the nature of reality, or an adaptation of reality. However, it ultimately took a wrong turn. Some criticism states that the art is a rip-off of McKean’s style, and it is similar. However, if you can draw as well as him, I say more power to you.
The narrative begins fine with excellent art and a rambling exploration of the first narrator’s life, leading by synchronicity to the point outside of the interview. But it takes a wrong turn, style wise, with part two, which begins to incorporate real-life photography with the art. I understand that this is to demonstrate the various shades of reality that the characters are tumbling through, so much so that no one is quite sure what is real, but the use of actual photos was a poor choice. They didn't translate well with the 2001 technology (when the book was published). The photos are grainy and, worst of all, boring to look at. Perhaps if he had stuck to one or two of them, but at least a quarter of the book is done in photos.
It is a pity because the book had potential, with an interesting take on the nature of reality, or an adaptation of reality. However, it ultimately took a wrong turn. Some criticism states that the art is a rip-off of McKean’s style, and it is similar. However, if you can draw as well as him, I say more power to you.
June 5, 2010
I've read quite a lot of comics, and I pride myself on having read a good number of quality ones. Malloy's Amnesia is not one of the latter.
The word that comes most frequently to mind regarding this graphic novel from NBM is 'cod': cod-Dave McKean; cod-philosophical; cod-slice-of-life. Amnesia attempts to be many things, but achieves none. I'm sure that I bought this book because it bears an unashamed resemblance to Dave McKean's art, but the resemblance is merely a surface one. While the narrative bears some similarities to the superb Gaiman/McKean Signal To Noise, it utterly lacks that book's heart, concision and beauty. Instead, the story jumps narrative tracks with little logic, between reflections of the main character to anarcho-auto-tyrannic carbombers (really) to the dream and real worlds of the reality-jumping, incomprehensible and unbelievable creative focus character of the tale. The entire thing comes to a climax that is more half-baked philosophic exposition than anything, with a denoument that left me utterly unsatisfied.
I'll keep this book only because I can't imagine where else I'd put it, and will probably return to it in a few years, once I've forgotten how completely crap it is. I'm glad I never heard of John Malloy again after this.
The word that comes most frequently to mind regarding this graphic novel from NBM is 'cod': cod-Dave McKean; cod-philosophical; cod-slice-of-life. Amnesia attempts to be many things, but achieves none. I'm sure that I bought this book because it bears an unashamed resemblance to Dave McKean's art, but the resemblance is merely a surface one. While the narrative bears some similarities to the superb Gaiman/McKean Signal To Noise, it utterly lacks that book's heart, concision and beauty. Instead, the story jumps narrative tracks with little logic, between reflections of the main character to anarcho-auto-tyrannic carbombers (really) to the dream and real worlds of the reality-jumping, incomprehensible and unbelievable creative focus character of the tale. The entire thing comes to a climax that is more half-baked philosophic exposition than anything, with a denoument that left me utterly unsatisfied.
I'll keep this book only because I can't imagine where else I'd put it, and will probably return to it in a few years, once I've forgotten how completely crap it is. I'm glad I never heard of John Malloy again after this.
January 2, 2014
I'm always a big fan of comics that incorporate non-drawing, as I am an aspiring, but non-drawing, comic book creator. Some detractors might find that the art is not polished to a high comic sheen, but as I am also a fan of zines, there's something raw and unadulterated in the art here. The story, slipping as it does through space and time in a non-sci-fi-seeming universe, and pondering questions of memory and identity and existence, incorporates several genres fairly gracefully. I checked this book out from the library, but I will definitely be adding it to my collection and returning to it often for inspiration and contemplation.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews