The Troll King

Kolbeinn Karlsson
The Troll King

Top Shelf, 2010

Retelling the plot of this truly insane book is a thankless job, exposing oneself to ridicule. Presumably the trolls (who knows how trolls really look? I do not know. The book has also no indication that it is trolls, the word "troll" is only in the title.) - underfed sumo wrestlers with the strange bags on their heads - live in a wooden house somewhere in the woods; put on a kind of veil, they go to the supermarket for food, cook pasta and smoke cigarettes. They are watched by another child of the forest, hairy hybrid of a bird and a snowman. After performing the rituals around a fire, they burn the scarecrow, get pregnant (though they look like one hundred percent men), through the anus they give birth to a child, which in the morning all the same bird-snowman presents to them. In the second part the picture changes completely, there is a red bearded man, surrounded by monsters that compel him to eat and drink. In the third part a carrot man appeared, and I think I should stop the retelling of this exciting Swedish delirium.

Actually, it is not so delusional as it may seem: the novel, composed of seemingly disparate parts, will complete in accordance with the logic, which may be in this absurd world Kolbeinn Karlsson invented.

Sweden is one of the countries where black metal flourishes, and this book is almost entirely built on what black metal breathes - on paganism. Narrative is so unusual, so engrossed in the natural essence, that would rather believe that the book written by one of the ancient tribes of Sweden, rather than a modern author.
The book is very skillfully written and drawn; in different parts the author changes the style, perfectly matching color.

«The Troll King» is one of the books in Sweden Invasion series. Judging by this novel, the series is worth paying attention.
Will it be a better compliment to say that this book is yet the most powerful graphic work I've read this year?

Undeleted Scenes

Jeffrey Brown
Undeleted Scenes

Top Shelf, 2010

«Deleted scenes» is called the not included in the film his segments, but are available as a bonus on the DVD. Jeffrey Brown, which American critics call indie comics legend and the genius of autobiographical comic books, named his 350-page book of his best works "Undeleted Scenes", very clearly identified the format. It consists entirely of fragments, pieces, which gradually set in a mosaic, although the fragments seem to be of quite different sources. The general is the life of the author. Besides the title refers to the fact that the fragments are not to be disposed of: some of them are the quintessence on two pages of what might have taken at least 50 from the other.

All the scenes are drawn by Brown himself and quite simple: black and white drawings, only the black lines on white. Technology changes a little throughout the book, but not much.
Brown wrote about that takes place in the life of twenty-with-something year old: the memories of childhood, meeting and parting with the girls, comic books, baby birth, work in the shop.

The book is quite funny: Brown the author puts Brown the hero in absurd situations, making fun of himself. Brown succeeds most in long fragments. In «Don` t Look Them In The Eye » lyrical hero becomes a victim of beggars, tricksters, boor shoppers, street madmen due to his naivety. He is fooled, he wonders, thinks, but in the end not much regrets that he is fooled by all those men who wanted to. «Every Girl Is The End Of The World For Me» is a memoir about girls of the protagonist. At Christmas, Brown manages to tighten almost all of his girlfriends at once, and not finding out who suits him more. Brown the author chose an ingenious method to show the inner world of Brown the protagonist: each of his girlfriends is a mirror to the protagonist himself.

What needs to the book, that is the button "Del": some stories could be removed, they look quite clumsy (it’s the title of one of the previous Brown’s books).
It is not always exciting reading, but here as with life: how it had not been sometimes bored, but nothing could help.