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Nobrow #9
NOBROW 9: It's Oh So Quiet
As we hurtle along at breakneck speed accompanied by the great cacophony of modern life, we rarely experience a moment of silence. Silence, with its implication of stillness and absolute purity, is increasingly difficult to find. So how does an artist approach such a profound theme? Can an auditory ideal be conveyed through illustration and comics?
Nobrow 9 explores silence with sixteen of the best comic creators and over thirty star illustrators in this unique, international showcase of contemporary illustration and comics art.
Nobrow 9 explores silence with sixteen of the best comic creators and over thirty star illustrators in this unique, international showcase of contemporary illustration and comics art.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2014
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73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 28, 2017
The illustrations are gorgeous and the medium is clever; open the book in the traditional western way and it begins as a collection of comics, flip it over and it's the collection of full, double page illustrations.
The book as a whole is practically wordless, only titles and words on signs, no actual dialogue.
The book as a whole is practically wordless, only titles and words on signs, no actual dialogue.
July 20, 2018
4.5 i loved the theme and the illustrations. Each of the different artists all had really inviting yet strongly varying styles. The colors were incredible and fit in with the theme perfectly.
June 8, 2018
Some of the illustrations were lovely, but none of the (silent) comics particularly struck me. Some of them were hard to follow, a little too experimental. I feel like some introductory commentary might have strengthened the concept.
July 14, 2016
Beautiful stuff!!
January 3, 2018
Nobrow puts together some of the most elegant, well designed, and innovative comics being published today. This was the first anthology collection of theirs that I looked at, and I’m definitely curious to see what other interesting, unique, and dynamic artists they are putting out there. It’s Oh So Quiet is organized around the idea of the wordless comic, rarely so well realized as in the work of the artists collected here, working mostly from the UK and Europe though there are a few North Americans as well.
This collection of mini comics very likely has a little something for anyone’s sequential art tastes. The theme of the wordless comic, a very interesting and challenging form, hinges on the artist's ability to craft a strong short story using only their visuals and It’s Oh So Quiet offers many very powerful and diverse examples of the genre. It is interesting to see how many different styles are used, some surreal and enigmatic, others low key slices of life, but each are great examples of using the power of visuals alone to tell a story.
In addition, the book can be flipped over for another helping of cool one page artworks, paintings and drawings from Nobrow artists. I’m looking forward to checking out more of this series.
This collection of mini comics very likely has a little something for anyone’s sequential art tastes. The theme of the wordless comic, a very interesting and challenging form, hinges on the artist's ability to craft a strong short story using only their visuals and It’s Oh So Quiet offers many very powerful and diverse examples of the genre. It is interesting to see how many different styles are used, some surreal and enigmatic, others low key slices of life, but each are great examples of using the power of visuals alone to tell a story.
In addition, the book can be flipped over for another helping of cool one page artworks, paintings and drawings from Nobrow artists. I’m looking forward to checking out more of this series.
May 8, 2020
Another one I bought when it came out and haven't read until now when I am stuck in my house with no library holds. I love the possibilities of wordless comics and there are some very good ones in this collection, plus a whole lot of dreamy, eerie illustrations on the theme of "it's oh so quiet", sequenced in a way that made me wonder if they were kind of an exquisite corpse where one artist played off of the next.
December 27, 2017
Beautiful art, could use a greater variety though. I understand they have a certain aesthetic but come on.
December 9, 2019
Now I need to read all the others. Existential short stories in graphic novel form that are extremely illustrious, sad, and frightening.
March 24, 2017
Beautiful masters of narratives without words.
May 28, 2015
Ahh, this is one of those books that makes me feel lacking in intellect.
In my line of work, we call these books (not ones that make me feel dumb but books of this format) "Flip books" and "Stories without words" and this book is both of those but this is not a book for little childrens, though most Flip books and Stories without words are for that very audience. No, this is a book for deep-thinking adults (or adults stoned out of their minds) [maybe both]
One half is a collection of illustrated stories, each one contained in several panels that last a few pages. Remember, there is no text (because it is OH SO QUIET!) You have to figure out what's going on by looking at the flow of pictures. Your one clue: Shhhh.
It's like a riddle, a test to see how quick you are, how broad your mind can be, etc.
My mind, it's not that quick nor that broad. I got about half of these tales, was able to suss out what was going on, got something out of them. Most are not complete stories but more slice-of-life (incredibly brief) centered on a single moment or very small, silent space in time. There's often no beginning or end, it's just that one snapshot of panels on a few pages. This is not the case with all the stories; some are complete in that there is a conclusion of sorts, but for the most part, it's all HERE! CATCH!
I think?
Who knows. I probably misunderstood the entire thing.
Then you flip the book upside and backward and you've got a whole 'nuther set of stories. These are single-picture tales. Sometimes the picture takes up one page, sometimes it's across the spread. I was much more comfortable with these. Some are doodles, some are entire narratives, and some evoke feelings. I got most of them, or, at least, I reacted to them and felt I understood what was going on.
The colors are muted (quiet?) mixtures of magenta, cyan, and yellow...which, I guess means it's full-color. But it's not colorful color. I don't know art and I don't know graphics and I don't understand ink so I'm sure there's a term for this that if I just knew what it was, I could say, "It's rendered in X medium with Y colors" and you'd all be, "Mmmm. Yes. I understand" and I would be sucessful in conveying my thoughts. But that is not the case and I'm describing what I saw the best I can.
Because I'm like a little kid who doesn't know anything when it comes to this kind of stuff. All I know is I liked some of the stories, I understood some of the stories, and I was puzzled by the rest.
I should probably also mention, I have never heard of NoBrow so that might be adding to my confusion. Though, you know what? Something like Nobrow, which is lower than lowbrow, yes?, should totally appeal to me, right?
In my line of work, we call these books (not ones that make me feel dumb but books of this format) "Flip books" and "Stories without words" and this book is both of those but this is not a book for little childrens, though most Flip books and Stories without words are for that very audience. No, this is a book for deep-thinking adults (or adults stoned out of their minds) [maybe both]
One half is a collection of illustrated stories, each one contained in several panels that last a few pages. Remember, there is no text (because it is OH SO QUIET!) You have to figure out what's going on by looking at the flow of pictures. Your one clue: Shhhh.
It's like a riddle, a test to see how quick you are, how broad your mind can be, etc.
My mind, it's not that quick nor that broad. I got about half of these tales, was able to suss out what was going on, got something out of them. Most are not complete stories but more slice-of-life (incredibly brief) centered on a single moment or very small, silent space in time. There's often no beginning or end, it's just that one snapshot of panels on a few pages. This is not the case with all the stories; some are complete in that there is a conclusion of sorts, but for the most part, it's all HERE! CATCH!
I think?
Who knows. I probably misunderstood the entire thing.
Then you flip the book upside and backward and you've got a whole 'nuther set of stories. These are single-picture tales. Sometimes the picture takes up one page, sometimes it's across the spread. I was much more comfortable with these. Some are doodles, some are entire narratives, and some evoke feelings. I got most of them, or, at least, I reacted to them and felt I understood what was going on.
The colors are muted (quiet?) mixtures of magenta, cyan, and yellow...which, I guess means it's full-color. But it's not colorful color. I don't know art and I don't know graphics and I don't understand ink so I'm sure there's a term for this that if I just knew what it was, I could say, "It's rendered in X medium with Y colors" and you'd all be, "Mmmm. Yes. I understand" and I would be sucessful in conveying my thoughts. But that is not the case and I'm describing what I saw the best I can.
Because I'm like a little kid who doesn't know anything when it comes to this kind of stuff. All I know is I liked some of the stories, I understood some of the stories, and I was puzzled by the rest.
I should probably also mention, I have never heard of NoBrow so that might be adding to my confusion. Though, you know what? Something like Nobrow, which is lower than lowbrow, yes?, should totally appeal to me, right?
June 13, 2014
Nowbrow 9 is a beautiful anthology for the connoisseurs of comics art and illustrations.
I've met them a few times at various festivals around the world and really like the publisher Nobrow and their emphasis production values and on the art of producing aesthetically pleasing books. Nobrow publish some of the most beautiful books in the comics business right now, and that of course includes their flagship anthology, named after the publisher, or if it was the other way around. The name Nobrow is, I presume, a wordplay on lowbrow and highbrow; appropriate as comics is still by many seen as lowbrow, and what Nobrow publishes is definitely highbrow is both form and content.
Anyway, the ninth volume of the anthology is titled "It's Oh so Quiet" (most probably after the song by Björk) and contains wordless comics and illustrations, presented separatelly from each end of the book as flip covers. OK, so illustrations are most often wordless, but in this volume they are also on the subject matter of silence. This has been interpreted very differently by the participating artists, and I'm surprised at how I'm actually almost more interested in this section than the one with the comics. Normally it's the other way around, as I'm always looking for good, thought provoking stories. But the illustrations presented here are beautiful, covering one spread each, and they also contains stories, making me wonder about what has just happened and what will happen after the snapshot of "reality" that they represent.
The comics are also interesting, and beautiful in their artistic approach to storytelling through the comics media, but also from the interesting printing technique used. The comics are all four pages (two spreads), making it rather obvious that they were made especially for this volume, and the absence of words makes them feel rather like dreams.
The best part of reading Nowbrow 9 was that I had read almost nothing be the participating artists before, giving me several new names to be on the lookout for in the future.
I've met them a few times at various festivals around the world and really like the publisher Nobrow and their emphasis production values and on the art of producing aesthetically pleasing books. Nobrow publish some of the most beautiful books in the comics business right now, and that of course includes their flagship anthology, named after the publisher, or if it was the other way around. The name Nobrow is, I presume, a wordplay on lowbrow and highbrow; appropriate as comics is still by many seen as lowbrow, and what Nobrow publishes is definitely highbrow is both form and content.
Anyway, the ninth volume of the anthology is titled "It's Oh so Quiet" (most probably after the song by Björk) and contains wordless comics and illustrations, presented separatelly from each end of the book as flip covers. OK, so illustrations are most often wordless, but in this volume they are also on the subject matter of silence. This has been interpreted very differently by the participating artists, and I'm surprised at how I'm actually almost more interested in this section than the one with the comics. Normally it's the other way around, as I'm always looking for good, thought provoking stories. But the illustrations presented here are beautiful, covering one spread each, and they also contains stories, making me wonder about what has just happened and what will happen after the snapshot of "reality" that they represent.
The comics are also interesting, and beautiful in their artistic approach to storytelling through the comics media, but also from the interesting printing technique used. The comics are all four pages (two spreads), making it rather obvious that they were made especially for this volume, and the absence of words makes them feel rather like dreams.
The best part of reading Nowbrow 9 was that I had read almost nothing be the participating artists before, giving me several new names to be on the lookout for in the future.
July 20, 2016
Well this was weird but interesting. A magazine, but really a high-end periodical that is more book than magazine. This issue's theme is "silence". The first half of the book is illustrations representing the theme. Then flip the book over and read the second half for a collection of short comics whose theme is also "silence". The illustrators represented are supposed to be well-known but I've never heard of any of them, not that that means much. I much preferred the illustrations half. The comics are all wordless and I don't do well with wordless books in the first place. Some of the comics I didn't get, some I got but couldn't see how they signified silence, and then there were the few I appreciated. However, the illustrations appealed to me. They were all very unique and different from one another. So many different situations were represented from dreams, to fantasies to reality. Some immediately struck you with there silence while others upon first glance seemed busy or noisy but upon further examination the silence suddenly hits you. For example, one of my favourites of the band looks noisy. Then you notice the cork in the french horn, the knot in the tuba, the drum player using feathers instead of sticks, the guitar with no strings and finally the cymbals made of pillows. A strange but interesting piece of visual art.
November 24, 2015
I know I say this in every Nobrow review I write, but their print quality is just sublime. I never use the word sublime, but it's totally applicable here. Everything about the way this book is printed and bound, from the colours to the paper texture to the dust jacket, makes the reading experience a true pleasure. This is number 9 in the series and the issues never fail to be beautiful and thought provoking, even without a single bit of narrative text.
I particularly enjoyed the story about the statue in the garden store. Very calming.
I particularly enjoyed the story about the statue in the garden store. Very calming.
February 8, 2016
i didn't realize this was part of a series, magazines actually, that collect comics and illustrations on a theme. this one's theme of silence was quite incredible. silence means what when there are so many colors to stir the senses? there are some really wonderful illustrations in this book and some crazy ideas happening all over the place. this is the kind of book to play around with. or maybe like a friend of mine pointed out to me, comics are great reading for people who are dyslexic, for people who can't handle words. this would be a great book for people with dyslexia!
October 5, 2014
Weird as hell. Well. Maybe not so much weird as extremely trippy, and frankly, I don't think I'm smart enough to understand the meaning behind half of the art featured in here. I did, however, vastly prefer the illustration side to the comics one!
Read
August 3, 2014Interesting little comics and art journal. If I could subscribe, I would.
Read
July 22, 2015c00L
August 22, 2015
loved the booger friend story
Read
January 28, 2016No rating. I am obviously not this book's target audience.
December 27, 2016
Some of the art is stunning, all of it is innovative. Each story felt genuine, if a bit angsty. Will certainly search out other vols.
January 11, 2017
The quiet comic about the museum after dark is enough to cover the cost of admission.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews