Big Questions [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Anders Nilsen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 16, 2011

A New York Times Notable Book of 2011, included on Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly, and  NPR’S Best Comics lists

A haunting postmodern fable, Big Questions is the magnum opus of Anders Nilsen, one of the brightest and most talented young cartoonists working today. This beautiful minimalist story, collected here for the first time, is the culmination of ten years and more than six hundred pages of work that details the metaphysical quandaries of the occupants of an endless plain, existing somewhere between a dream and a Russian steppe. A downed plane is thought to be a bird and the unexploded bomb that came from it is mistaken for a giant egg by the group of birds whose lives the story follows. The indifferent, stranded pilot is of great interest to the birds—some doggedly seek his approval, while others do quite the opposite, leading to tensions in the group. Nilsen seamlessly moves from humor to heartbreak. His distinctive, detailed line work is paired with plentiful white space and large, often frameless panels, conveying an ineffable sense of vulnerability and openness.
     Big Questions has roots in classic fables—the birds and snakes have more to say than their human counterparts, and there are hints of the hero’s journey, but here the easy moral that closes most fables is left open and ambiguous. Rather than lending its world meaning, Nilsen’s parable lets the questions wander where they will.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Anders Nilsen

“Nilsen is an exquisite draftsman with incredible patience for textures.” —Glen David Gold, Los Angeles Times

“Anders Nilsen must be a genius.” —Giant Robot

“Nilsen uses spare renderings to create a haunting narrative that will leave you wondering whether you’ve read a book or walked through a dream.” —The Washington Post

About the Author

Anders Nilsen was born in New Hampshire and now lives in Chicago. He has a BFA in painting and illustration from the University of NewMexico in Albuquerque. He is the author of Dogs and Water and Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 658 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly; Limited Edition Signed and Numbered edition (August 16, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1770460446
• ISBN-13: 978-1770460447
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 2.5 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a work of art September 9, 2011

By Stephen Nyktas

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's been a long wait for a collected version of Big Questions. I first read a couple of single issues at a comic store in Evanston, IL, but the early issues were long out of print, and hard to find. Now that I've read the whole story, I can tell you it's fantastic.

Big Questions is an anthropomorphic animal tale, of course, and the real joy comes in seeing the world as these birds do. The birds are endearing, asking simple questions - sometimes they are insightful, but other times they misunderstand the world, and people, in spectacular ways. Ultimately this leads us through a journey that is beautiful, poetic, and often surreal. The illustrations provide an outstanding complement, typically delicate black lines on seas of white.

I got the hardcover, and I will mention one flaw - the binding already had a crease where it'd been opened. However, I got a signed copy, 500-ish out of 1000, so I like to think the author damaged the binding personally. In all honesty, it's a hefty book at about 650 pages, you'll have a hard time not creasing your binding. I also think you'll keep it at home; too heavy to carry around. Still, it is an absolutely stunning book - thick pages and a gorgeous cover; definitely a prized member of my collection.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Questions December 11, 2011

By tripp9009

Format:Paperback

As the product of over fifteen years of work, it is no surprise that Big Questions clocks in at nearly 600 pages, a hefty tome both the size and weight of a classic Russian novel. The intimidating bulk, however, belies the gentle, dreamlike story contained within: a tale of talking birds and a mysterious egg that brews destruction.

At the novel's beginning, drifting through a vast, grassy field populated with a cast of aimless, philosophizing birds--each so visually indistinguishable from the next that I was constantly flipping to the characters index to make sense of who was whom--it seemed as though Big Questions was a series of amusing but unrelated sketches, more a comics anthology than an overarching narrative. The arrival of a dropped bomb, however, jumpstarts Big Questions into full, sprawling-story gear. For some of the birds, the bomb becomes a mystic sign from on-high, and they quickly form an increasingly dangerous cult dedicated to its protection. Other birds find their own obsessions, like Algernon who searches for his missing wife and soon finds himself captive in one of Nilsen's most beautifully rendered spaces: a labyrinth-like snake's den that plunges ever deeper into the earth, hiding at its nadir a mysterious, avian underworld. As the birds discover their callings and forge their alliances, they are pulled into conflict with one another in moments of startling and brutal violence.

Unlike Watership Down, the classic Richard Adams novel Nilsen seems to be channeling, Big Questions derives its existential horror not from its characters' endless fight to survive but from the needlessness of their suffering. Whereas Watership Down's rabbits searched continually for a peaceful warren, Nilsen's birds already live in a paradise of plentiful food and few predators. Their wars, their betrayals, and their misery are the product not of Darwinian struggle but of conflicting philosophies about the world they live in. (Literally philosophies: in one of Big Questions's most humorous moments, one of the birds struggles to articulate his understanding of the current situation and inadvertently summarizes Plato's Allegory of the Cave.)

Like us, the birds of Big Questions struggle to make meaning in a world they can't quite understand, inflicting a lot of pain and suffering on each other in the process. And like us too, their suffering leads still to heroism and self-sacrifice, no matter how pointless the cause. In Big Questions, Anders Nilsen has crafted an epic story spanning the full gamut of emotions--from wistful humor to breathtaking anguish and triumphant compassion--in a beautifully drawn work that asks the largest of questions through the smallest of creatures.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Questions January 25, 2012

By Abraham Jeyakumar

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book starts out feeling like it's forcing some of the deep thought. I wasn't conviced that the questions themselves were earnest, but the book soon builds. The story line seems to have taken about 10 years to complete and the reader can see the change even in the art. The first pages have crudely drawn figures, but as the pages turn, you begin to see better art that snowballs with better detail. Anders seems to have a good idea of human body language and facial expressions. Although he doesn't follow human anatomy accurately, there is something that feels real about his artwork. The story is tragic and still sunny and light. There is love and heroism. There is a certain hint of nihlism and chaos, but you do get the sense that Anders is trying to convey hope in his own way. He is a great story writer. He has definetly spent a lot of time on his art work and storyline.