It Disappears . . . (Soft Skull ShortLit) [Paperback]

Nate Powell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Soft Skull ShortLit | Publication Date: June 30, 2004

An entry in the new series Soft Skull ShortLit — Pocket Books for a New World, It Disappears follows a boy on a trip that takes him instantly into a terrifying old age and a bizarre otherworld accompanied by a strange mutating animal. A rhapsody on memory and the anticipation of the future dissolving into the receding waters of the past, Nate Powell's second graphic novel dazzlingly traces a journey of self-discovery and the uneasy realization that everything, eventually, disappears. But Powell also offers glimmers of hope that human interaction and history can somehow transcend the corrosive effects of time.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Powell's marvelous first book, Tiny Giants [BKL Ag 03], showed him to be a virtuosic artist, though in black and white only, and not particularly interested in conventional plotting. Both qualities continue to distinguish his second book, consisting of two story lines. In one, a skinny young man climbs a hill in summertime and encounters two talking animals, a doe and a smaller creature, before wandering on through a door in a tree to a land of clouds. In the other, two men, one dark-haired, the other light-haired and perhaps an older version of the hill climber, rummage in a barn in wintertime and find some photos of one of them as a boy. The first story begins and ends the book, in the middle interweaving, panel for panel, with the other. Their themes are the transience of life and the futility of individual human effort, but as in Tiny Giants, Powell's extraordinary artwork makes one feel, rather than read, what the book is about. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 78 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932360379
• ISBN-13: 978-1932360370
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,045,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nate Powell was born in 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and began self-publishing comics in 1992 at age 14. He graduated from School of Visual Arts in 2000.

Powell's work includes "Year Of The Beasts" (written by Cecil Castellucci, Roaring Brook Press, 2012), "The Silence Of Our Friends"(written by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos, First Second, 2012), "Any Empire" (Top Shelf Productions, 2011), "Swallow Me Whole" (2009 Eisner Award winner for Best Graphic Novel, 2008 Ignatz Award winner for Outstanding Debut, and LA Times Book Prize nominee; Top Shelf, 2008), "Sounds Of Your Name" (Microcosm Publishing, 2006), "Please Release" (Top Shelf, 2006), "It Disappears" (Soft Skull Press, 2004), "Tiny Giants" (Soft Skull, 2003), and the self-published "Walkie Talkie" series.

He is also a fill-in writer/artist for the Vertigo Comics series "Sweet Tooth" (by Jeff Lemire) and a contributor to the acclaimed fundraising anthology "What You Wish For: A Book for Darfur" (Bookwish/Putnam, 2011).

From 1999 to 2009 Powell worked full-time providing support for adults with developmental disabilities alongside his cartooning efforts. He managed DIY punk record label Harlan Records for 16 years, and performed in the bands Universe, Soophie Nun Squad, Wait, Boomfancy, Gioteens, and Divorce Chord. He currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Rachel Bormann.

Powell is currently working on three new graphic novel projects to be disclosed at the end of 2011.

www.seemybrotherdance.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Graphic poetry joins the graphic novel, March 10, 2007

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: It Disappears . . . (Soft Skull ShortLit) (Paperback)

No, it doesn't have the rhyme or meter of a literary poem. It does have all the mystery, evocativeness, and tantalizing ambiguity that so many people love in poetry. Powell combines past and present with will-be and never-was. He blends gentle fanstasy with the hard gray facts of a world where success is only ever partial, indirect and transient. Events are kaleidoscopic but there's a narrative deep inside, maybe several of them. The black and white art is simple, varied, and without affectation. It carries the text beautifully.

I'll have to go over this again, and maybe again a few more times to tease all the strands apart. It's worth it. If this is what Nate Powell creates, I want more of it.

//wiredweird

PS to people who don't like buying one story twice: This book's content appears again in Powell's later and larger collection, "Sound of Your Name."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars philosophical innovative graphic novel, September 5, 2004

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It Disappears . . . (Soft Skull ShortLit) (Paperback)

IT DISAPPEARS by Nate Powell, Soft Skull Press, 71 Bond St., Brooklyn, NY 11217; www.softskull.com; [e-mail]. 2004. 78 pp. $9.99 trade paper, ISBN 1-932360-37-9. graphic novel.
Powell's graphic, comic-book-like, panels of varying degrees of white and black convey the uncertain, shifting, grounds of existence. When the white predominates, there's an almost mystic feeling of tranquility. When the black predominates, there's a noir-like atmosphere. Most of the panels are in the middle ground of the proportion of the two colors. A man out camping alone in the wilderness when a snowstorm starts up meets a dog-like creature with a philosophical outlook. Identity, one's place in the universe, and modern society are among the topics the two take up as they search for shelter and other characters move in and out of the story. Powell's unpredictable illustrations and reflective dialogue present different angles on the perennial existential questions.