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Second Thoughts
Jess is a writer living in London. Andrew is a photographer on his way to New York. They do not fall in love -- not exactly -- but their brief encounter in Stansted Airport will impact both of their lives more than they can imagine. In Second Thoughts, the clean, emotional ink-work of Swedish newcomer Niklas Asker guides two characters through modern city life and love, as they struggle separately, yet somehow together.
Lost in Translation meets Stranger Than Fiction! Past and present, reality and fiction overlap in this sweet, haunting, and ultimately inspiring graphic novel of modern city life and love.
Lost in Translation meets Stranger Than Fiction! Past and present, reality and fiction overlap in this sweet, haunting, and ultimately inspiring graphic novel of modern city life and love.
88 pages, Paperback
Published June 9, 2009
1 person is currently reading
129 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
July 21, 2019
La verdad es que no le entendí al inicio. Los personajes me parecieron bastante confusos y planos, así que no disfrute nada la lectura.
January 4, 2014
IS THIS VERY CLEVER OR SIMPLY BAFFLING? There are two storylines sharing one apartment (or flat as we say) - a guy photographer and his rock star girlfriend, and a woman writer and her girlfriend rock musician (who may or may not be the same person). In theory they intersect because the photographer and the writer meet at the airport- but they apparently live in exactly the same flat on the same road with the same furniture (though with some minor differences to the arrangements of pictures and pot plants). This suggests that these are different times- for example that one of the relationships follows the other, but seeing that they just met at the airport and go back to their (same) flat it seems to be in the same time. So what is going on? Is it the same flat because he is reading her book and placing her characters in his own world, is the sameness a metaphor for their parallel lives. Or is that Niklas Asker happened to be living in that flat and just drew it as background for both storylines thinking we would not notice? So it made me think, but I still haven't puzzled it out.
I might add that this is about as real a story of life for creative 20 somethings in London as Friends is real about New York. Soho is hellishly expensive and the taxi to Stansted airport (which they both take) would be £130 ($200!)
I might add that this is about as real a story of life for creative 20 somethings in London as Friends is real about New York. Soho is hellishly expensive and the taxi to Stansted airport (which they both take) would be £130 ($200!)
November 5, 2015
Breu història sobre les vides d’una escriptora bloquejada creativament i un fotògraf que es planteja una fugida endavant que es creuen, breument, en un aeroport.
Reflexions sobre la soledat i la repercussió de les decisions preses (i , sobretot, les no preses) per insignificants que semblin.
Una obra on els silencis prenen tanta o més importància que les paraules dites o que queden per dir, amb un to molt nòrdic.
Dibuix sense pretensions ni sorpreses. Fins i tot es podria dir que contingut (cosa que funciona de meravella a la història) .
L’única pega és que es fa breu.
Molt recomanable.
Reflexions sobre la soledat i la repercussió de les decisions preses (i , sobretot, les no preses) per insignificants que semblin.
Una obra on els silencis prenen tanta o més importància que les paraules dites o que queden per dir, amb un to molt nòrdic.
Dibuix sense pretensions ni sorpreses. Fins i tot es podria dir que contingut (cosa que funciona de meravella a la història) .
L’única pega és que es fa breu.
Molt recomanable.
August 2, 2012
A brief, personal story about the moments when you can see the wheels coming off a relationship that tries to get a little too clever instead of providing emotional resonance. Asker's subtle line-work is definitely the reason to pick this up.
November 23, 2012
Either I'm thick as pig shit or the book was confusing. And if it turns out the book is confusing and that was the authors aim then I dislike it even more. Nice linework though, that's what the stars are for.
Read
May 30, 2014More of a short story than a graphic "novel." It's so quick to read and mostly inoffensive I don't really have any opinion about it, other than I sort of hate reading about writers, especially when the passages from their work included in the book are pretty meh.
June 24, 2009
Well drawn. Not so well written.
June 30, 2011
Good art and story, but comes across like he's trying too hard to be smart and clever rather than just telling the story.
November 29, 2019
al principio no sabia muy bien... incluso llegue a pensar que se entrecruzan de otra forma. Lo he leído de una sentada y ha sido entretenido. pero no me ha dejado nada en si ni he conectado
August 3, 2020
Doble sentido es una obra brillante, donde el autor saca partido a las posibilidades del género de la novela gráfica y nos cuenta una historia que adquiere todo el sentido gracias a la técnica narrativa y visual de este medio.
Jess, se cruza un instate con John en el aeropuerto y a partir de este encuentro crea un personaje para su novela que bebe de su propia historia y de la que imagina puede estar detrás del otro. Realidad y ficción se mezclan de forma sutil sin que como lectores lleguemos a tener la certeza del plano en el que nos encontramos en cada viñeta.
La matrioshka o el juego de espejos permite a Niklas Asker abordar cuestiones fundamentales acerca de las relaciones, el amor y las decisiones que tomamos acerca de cuándo irnos o cuando quedarnos. Los trazos sobrios y el contraste del blanco y negro que el autor utiliza (en la línea de Frederick Peeters) funciona muy bien para la historia.
Jess, se cruza un instate con John en el aeropuerto y a partir de este encuentro crea un personaje para su novela que bebe de su propia historia y de la que imagina puede estar detrás del otro. Realidad y ficción se mezclan de forma sutil sin que como lectores lleguemos a tener la certeza del plano en el que nos encontramos en cada viñeta.
La matrioshka o el juego de espejos permite a Niklas Asker abordar cuestiones fundamentales acerca de las relaciones, el amor y las decisiones que tomamos acerca de cuándo irnos o cuando quedarnos. Los trazos sobrios y el contraste del blanco y negro que el autor utiliza (en la línea de Frederick Peeters) funciona muy bien para la historia.
Read
August 6, 2023(6/27/2023) this was a reread. i last read this a few months ago (or late last year) while doing a pass of books on my shelf to donate/sell, but i've read it at least twice before that.
originally impulse-bought as a used book at a now-defunct local games and comics store in northampton for $5.99.
the POV shifts throughout are interesting and it can be a fun puzzle to figure out what is happening (unless you "recently" read it, like me) and who is who. it's a very short read, though, and there's not much time to get attached to the characters, and they show up kinda like assholes in many scenes. i think i kept the book this long because there's some gay intrigue (back from my "will consume content for breadcrumbs" days) but it's not earth-shattering.
i just put together on this particular readthrough that there were some context clues about a part of the story happening on 9/11. that was a "huh." moment.
originally impulse-bought as a used book at a now-defunct local games and comics store in northampton for $5.99.
the POV shifts throughout are interesting and it can be a fun puzzle to figure out what is happening (unless you "recently" read it, like me) and who is who. it's a very short read, though, and there's not much time to get attached to the characters, and they show up kinda like assholes in many scenes. i think i kept the book this long because there's some gay intrigue (back from my "will consume content for breadcrumbs" days) but it's not earth-shattering.
i just put together on this particular readthrough that there were some context clues about a part of the story happening on 9/11. that was a "huh." moment.
May 4, 2020
Ha pasado una semana en donde no había leído absolutamente nada y ya tenía ganas de leer algo... antes de dormir quería una lectura rápida y así que escogí este librito. ME EQUIVOQUÉ.
Bueno, no me equivoqué respecto a lo rápido que se lee, sino que ha sido una de las peores lecturas de lo que va del año. AY NO 🥺🥺. Siento que le falto más potencial a la historia, y no me quejo que sea una novela gráfica, NOPE, sino que al principio sí me estaba gustando (las primeras 5 páginas (?).
Solo me gusto esta frase ok, “es una sensación terrible cuando descubres que ya no amas a alguien.”
Bueno, no me equivoqué respecto a lo rápido que se lee, sino que ha sido una de las peores lecturas de lo que va del año. AY NO 🥺🥺. Siento que le falto más potencial a la historia, y no me quejo que sea una novela gráfica, NOPE, sino que al principio sí me estaba gustando (las primeras 5 páginas (?).
Solo me gusto esta frase ok, “es una sensación terrible cuando descubres que ya no amas a alguien.”
April 27, 2020
A very tight and well managed plot within an engaging story that appropriately alternates from a harmonious art style to stern and anxious rendering as he weaves between the joys the conflicts.
Asker gives quite a lesson in juxtaposing main characters- he orchestrates tension with wisdom and taut precision.
Asker gives quite a lesson in juxtaposing main characters- he orchestrates tension with wisdom and taut precision.
January 24, 2021
*2.5 Me ha entretenido pero realmente creo que dentro de una semana no me voy a acordar ni de que le he leído. Y realmente también creo que no me he enterado del todo de lo que me quería contar la autora. Me ha dejado un poco indiferente.
February 24, 2023
I really loved the imagery and overall idea of this story. Looking back after reading it, I understood it more and why it was designed the way it was but initially reading it I was confused at times as to why I seemed to be mixing up characters and stuff.
May 14, 2017
Well this was shit, I found the meta duality meaning regarding female protaganists and insecurity cute though hence the two stars instead of one, still a shit book though.
July 23, 2020
Una lectura un tanto extraña y confusa.
March 2, 2021
3,5⭐️
Un punto de vista interesante sobre relaciones de pareja que empiezan de forma fugaz.
Un punto de vista interesante sobre relaciones de pareja que empiezan de forma fugaz.
March 4, 2021
Se lee muy rápido, pero la historia me ha parecido confusa y plana. No he terminado de entender qué quería transmitir la autora.
Read
May 1, 2021"Estoy en el maldito limbo, durmiendo en un hotel en mi propio vecindario".
August 20, 2011
** http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/... **
THE SWEDISH INVASION!
Charlie Kaufman meets Sofia Coppola in this stunning debut from Sweden!
"Niklas Asker's debut hits just the right notes of longing, passion and tender reflection about those other lives and other loves that might have been. Like that special, meaningful album track or rock video, Second Thoughts will win your heart." -- Paul Gravett, author of Graphic Novels:
Stories To Change Your Life
"Niklas Asker is a young artist whose work puts him right in the center of the new transnational comics culture. His comics combine the best traits of European bandes dessinées and American graphic novels, with a bit of Asian manga thrown in for good measure." -- Fredrik Strömberg, author of Swedish Comics History and The Comics Go to Hell
Jess is a novelist without a novel. John is a photographer running away to New York. Though it lasts only a moment, their brief encounter in London's Stansted Airport will transform both of their lives. How do you measure the distance between satisfaction and settling? At what point does wishful thinking take on a life of its own? ... In SECOND THOUGHTS, the clean, emotional ink-work of Swedish newcomer Niklas Asker guides two characters, in two worlds, through modern city life and love. Reality and fiction overlap in this haunting, deceptive, and inspiring graphic novel about the lives we imagine for ourselves, the lives we imagine for others, and the lives we ultimately must live. -- Softcover Graphic Novel with French Flaps, 80 pages, 6 1/2" x 8 1/2", Diamond: MAR09-4429
THE SWEDISH INVASION!
Charlie Kaufman meets Sofia Coppola in this stunning debut from Sweden!
"Niklas Asker's debut hits just the right notes of longing, passion and tender reflection about those other lives and other loves that might have been. Like that special, meaningful album track or rock video, Second Thoughts will win your heart." -- Paul Gravett, author of Graphic Novels:
Stories To Change Your Life
"Niklas Asker is a young artist whose work puts him right in the center of the new transnational comics culture. His comics combine the best traits of European bandes dessinées and American graphic novels, with a bit of Asian manga thrown in for good measure." -- Fredrik Strömberg, author of Swedish Comics History and The Comics Go to Hell
Jess is a novelist without a novel. John is a photographer running away to New York. Though it lasts only a moment, their brief encounter in London's Stansted Airport will transform both of their lives. How do you measure the distance between satisfaction and settling? At what point does wishful thinking take on a life of its own? ... In SECOND THOUGHTS, the clean, emotional ink-work of Swedish newcomer Niklas Asker guides two characters, in two worlds, through modern city life and love. Reality and fiction overlap in this haunting, deceptive, and inspiring graphic novel about the lives we imagine for ourselves, the lives we imagine for others, and the lives we ultimately must live. -- Softcover Graphic Novel with French Flaps, 80 pages, 6 1/2" x 8 1/2", Diamond: MAR09-4429
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2016
Second Thoughts is Swedish illustrator, painter and cartoonist Niklas Asker's debut graphic novel, and it is an interesting one. The story centers around a brief chance meeting at Stansted Airport, London, between Jess, a novelist who is awaiting the arrival of her rockstar girlfriend from the U.S., and John, a photographer who is waiting for a flight to the U.S. in order to escape the clutches of his London life. The two characters' narratives are interconnected on more levels than just this chance meeting, the least of which not being the fact that John is also (somehow) transformed into the main character of the novel that Jess is writing, where he also serves as the author's alter ego. This play with chance meetings, levels of fictionality, and authorial identity more or less inevitably remind Paul Auster.
All in all, an enjoyable enough comic, and definitely a solid debut.
All in all, an enjoyable enough comic, and definitely a solid debut.
August 11, 2019
Jag är väldigt förtjust i att plocka upp böcker på chans som blivit gallrade från bibliotek. Den här plockade jag upp när vi passerade Grums på min födelsedag.
Niklas Asker är en helt ny bekantskap. En positiv sådan.
Asker jobbar med starka kontraster i sina bilder. Det är stora svarta ytor eller för den delen vita. Inte riktigt lika hårt stiliserat som till exempel Frank Miller, men inte långt efter.
Historien löper över 80 sidor och är en skickligt berättad relationshistoria med en snygg metahistoria och en fin knorr på slutet. Även om den går snabbt att läsa igenom finns det många detaljer att stanna upp vid och ett och annat att fundera över när man kommit till slutet.
En snabb googling ger att Asker växlat över till en karriär som målande konstnär och inte gett ut så vansinnigt många fler serieböcker. Sätt att se har publicerats på minst sex språk. Det är inte så illa pinkat och det är boken väl värd.
Niklas Asker är en helt ny bekantskap. En positiv sådan.
Asker jobbar med starka kontraster i sina bilder. Det är stora svarta ytor eller för den delen vita. Inte riktigt lika hårt stiliserat som till exempel Frank Miller, men inte långt efter.
Historien löper över 80 sidor och är en skickligt berättad relationshistoria med en snygg metahistoria och en fin knorr på slutet. Även om den går snabbt att läsa igenom finns det många detaljer att stanna upp vid och ett och annat att fundera över när man kommit till slutet.
En snabb googling ger att Asker växlat över till en karriär som målande konstnär och inte gett ut så vansinnigt många fler serieböcker. Sätt att se har publicerats på minst sex språk. Det är inte så illa pinkat och det är boken väl värd.
October 20, 2014
I never was much of a fan of slice-of-life comics, but I'm finding myself enjoying them more and more as time goes on. I really enjoyed this quick read, a tale of two strangers who have a brief interaction and then seemingly go on with their separate lives. The storytelling does a wonderful job of intertwining these entirely unrelated lives in a way that feels connected.
I will say, I give this book major props. I really felt hopeful at the end. I thought, for one of the characters / couples, that the story would end in a very typical manner. Often in our world and culture, we are told to move on and find something new once the newness has worn off and real life sets in. I was very surprised by this story's message of second chances and forgiveness. Not something you often see in most media and storytelling.
I will say, I give this book major props. I really felt hopeful at the end. I thought, for one of the characters / couples, that the story would end in a very typical manner. Often in our world and culture, we are told to move on and find something new once the newness has worn off and real life sets in. I was very surprised by this story's message of second chances and forgiveness. Not something you often see in most media and storytelling.
July 17, 2010
i picked this up because the art looked serviceable, and i like what i've read of Top Shelf's other Swedish comics (The Troll King, Hey Princess and, to some degree, 120 Days of Simon). Holy god was this bad. Just melodramatic stereotype characters doing melodramatic stereotype shit. It felt like a graphic novel adaptation of some of the worst stories we workshopped in my first beginner creative writing class in college. Not sure why Top Shelf bothered with this one. I didn't get very far into it. I hope for the sake of everyone involved that it just starts out rough and goes somewhere interesting later on, but there were zero indications that that was the case.
July 31, 2012
Remorsos, quem não os têm? Nesta obra singular cruzam-se duas histórias num momento fugaz na transiência de um aeroporto. Numa, um fotógrafo foge da relação com uma música famosa, mas muda de ideias, é assaltado e acaba por, aliviado, descobrir que a namorada de nada se apercebeu. Na outra história uma escritora sente-se em processo de final da relação com a sua companheira, suspeitando ter sido traída noutro fuso horário. Enquanto espera que a companheira regresse a Londres vinda de Nova Iorque tem o encontro fugaz com o fotógrafo que quer partir para esse destino. A curta conversa inspira-a a escrever um livro que, tempos depois, irá mostrar ao fotógrafo o real sentido das suas acções.
May 12, 2009
Niklas Asker's Second Thoughts is a small, personal book that reminded me of Craig Thompson's work. It tells a story of a chance meeting in an airport, and how one conversation can set a person's life in a whole different trajectory. It feels more like a short story than a novel, like one of Miranda July's recent stories. I recommend it.
June 6, 2009
This was ok, a quick read and nice to look at but it didn't blow me away. The art is pretty but the pomo metanarrative twist felt really cliche to me (I think I might have groaned inwardly when I realized exactly how the two main characters lives were going to intersect). Go read some early Paul Auster if that's what you're looking for.
September 13, 2013
Asker's page layout and brush-work looks really nice, but it's perhaps a little too easy on the eye, and the strokes lack warmt and personality. The same can be said about the speculative story that's possibly trying a little too hard to be Kieslowski, rather than just sticking to honest characterisation. Still, it will be intersting to see where Asker goes from here – he is talented.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews