18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What is the Signal to Noise?, December 17, 2007
This review is from: Signal to Noise New Edition (Hardcover)
This is a new released version of Signal to Noise graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean -- complete with new jacket art, the original introduction, and some new introductions and notes by both Gaiman and McKean.
Also included in this edition are three separate short stories that led to Signal to Noise's publishing and creation, while a few were made during its process. All three stories deal with the themes of language and communication in terms of barriers, and breaking those barriers down; exploring where the word begins and the individual ends, and, ultimately and especially 'ends.'
The placement of these stories -- from "Hackers" to "Deconstruction" and then "Vier Mauern" lead up to what will transpire, and what is contained within the main piece. This much is clear -- a film director finds out he is dying of cancer. He finds out not long before he is given permission to create his film -- a story about a European village that believes the Apocalypse is coming with the end of 999 AD.
These two events, the one that the director focuses on, and the one that he is experiencing are both "the end of a particular world." The text plays with the concepts of semantics, communication, and memory. The director spends his remaining days alone creating his film in his head, sifting through dreams and memories, and faces. Admittedly, you can get lost in the semantical pastiches that unfold and the experiments in language, yet the garbed trues and mixed up words symbolize the realm of the barely submerged subconscious and the barely awakened mind of the underworld.
Each chapter starts off with these interludes, these alchemical processes -- and somewhere, there is an answer to what the Signal to Noise is. Noise is seen as something superfluous, but something starts it -- something summons it. Semiotics and imagery also play a key role when looking at the mindset of the director -- in which the telephone, the ultimate symbol of the outside world in his flat becomes a monster -- an intrusive thing reminding him of the things that could distract him (a symbol that is very relatable to me), something that is only noise.
As the scenes progress, some of them dreamlike and filled with abstraction, an actual exegesis -- an examination of what an apocalypse is supposed to be, of its history in human culture is explored. The artwork for the four horsemen of the apocalypse is superb and vivid, while the Biblical sections identifying them are written down. Myths and legends are explored and possibilities and, ultimately the "revelation" (this word being the actual definition of "apocalypse") -- that the end of the world is not necessarily a communal event, but certainly an individual one. There are little ends of the world everyday.
And yet, like the Nordic Ragnarok, life continues on. The ending to this story is very quintessentially Neil Gaiman -- there are places where it could end, but it doesn't, which in this case works well. I am still not entirely sure what the Signal to Noise is -- words perhaps or art. Perhaps the signal is thought, and through words on a page, through the medium of the graphic novel ... there is no noise.
It is an interesting book for semioticians, semanticists, but also film students and critics, not to mention comics lovers and anyone who wants to explore a mind dealing with an end, and a voiceless continuance.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe the most touching Gaiman story I've read., August 11, 2008
This review is from: Signal to Noise New Edition (Hardcover)
I can't say enough good things about this book. I'm so happy it's finally been reprinted, and in such a grand format. The tag team of Gaiman & McKean has brought us much over the years, from Violent Cases to their various children's books to the multitude of covers they've worked together on.
This book holds a special place in my heart because it was one of a few books lent to me in the late nineties that got me back into comics. It's incredibly moving. (I could also add that the adapted play by the both of them is also FANTASTIC)
The story delves into the fragile nature of life, the sad happening of coming across the bitter knowledge of your own last days, due to your own body turning against you. The man is a creator, a story teller, and he deals with the information by writing his last great story, even just in his own mind. Maybe as a way to keep the story from being robbed of it's own life.
I won't go into the deeper elements of the story as some of the other reviews have explained them well but it changed the way I viewed how a story could be told in this format.
It's really something else, a work of art. It stands to all the invigorating stories that have been told since and then some.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neil Gaiman's Absolute Best, June 20, 2011
This review is from: Signal to Noise New Edition (Hardcover)
Quite simply, the best graphic novel or comic book that Neil Gaiman's ever done. It's a true collaboration with Dave McKean -- they tossed ideas back and forth, each having input on both the writing and the visuals (not that Gaiman drew anything) resulting in a rich, multi-layered, powerful work that uses the comics medium in a broad and complex way.
A dying screenwriter knows that there's not time for his last idea for a film to be done, so he decides to create the film in his head. McKean seems to have used every medium possible to do the book and it's an amazing artistic achievement.
This book is criminally under-appreciated. Get yourself a copy forthwith.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
