As I have no idea about comics, and wanted to stick to my principle of reading as little as possible about the author and their work beforehand, I wasted precious time hesitating over whether this group of albums, gathered in this integral, heavy edition, was self-fiction or real-fiction. Everything these days seems to be self-fiction...!
But no: it is a truly beautiful work of fiction, and I couldn’t have made better use of this summer Sunday than by reading it in just two days, despite its 300-odd pages. After I finished reading, I learnt that the integral volume editor rearranged the chapters in chronological order, as their publishing order was somewhat different, and in perspective, it’s impressive that those flashbacks contain no continuity errors. Everything is where it should be, when it should be (apart from the use of 'gay' in the 1970s, although I only read the Spanish translation and don't know the original text).
The story is a happy one, even if not everything in it is happy. And that happiness is very welcome. Colours, shapes—everything is perfect. Perhaps the album is not very challenging, as the structure is quite simple and easy-going, including the illustrations. It’s all told in a classic, steady rhythm; page after page follows a classic layout, with no breaks in structure. Yet sometimes we don’t need to be challenged: reading a pleasant story is good enough—a story that smells and itches like summer.