Mowgli's Mirror

by Olivier Schrauwen

In this wordless tale, the young human boy Mowgli lives alone in the jungle. When he befriends an orangutan, Mowgli thinks he has found his lifemate. But Mowgli still wonders if there any other creatures that look like him. Mowgli sets out on a journey through the jungle, encountering all types of creatures and having numerous adventures. A fantastic use of layout and design by critically-acclaimed Olivier "Ollie" Schrauwen, printed in only orange and blue spot colors.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Art, Belgium, Graphic Novels Comics

44 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2014

About the author

Olivier Schrauwen is a Belgian cartoonist and musician, currently based in Berlin.
Schrauwen was born in 1977 in Bruges, a city in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. He studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, then obtained a master degree in comics at the 'École superieure des Art Saint-Luc' in Brussels.
His works include the surreal Arsène Schrauwen (2014), the six sci-fi stories collected in Parallel Lives (2018), the pirate story Portrait of a Drunk (2019) in collaboration with French cartoonists Ruppert and Mulot, and his slice-of-life magnum opus Sunday (2024).

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

All it’s cracked up to be. Beautiful, large, lush. Funny, queasy, disquieting. Schrauwen can do no wrong. There’s something about the simplicity and plainnes of it that perfectly illustrates the cruel unthinking unfeeling absurdity of imperialism: not only imperialism as a material project or an exercise of power, but also as a kind of creeping desperate narcissism.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful short, and silent, story. Schrauwen's visual pacing, and especially his sense of humor, stand out as markers of his style. And that's evident in this title. We reviewed this for our podcast's spotlight on Retrofit/Big Planet: http://comicsalternative.com/episode-....

[Martha andrade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una historia muda que habla de la necesidad de conectar del humano... buena pero algo rara

[Dani Mexuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caralluti, obviously, calquer curiosade que o arte teña polo salvaxe, e canto máis o salvaxe visto dende ollos ingleses, atopara nel a vangarda.
Porque a vangarda que mola é a que acojona, e nada agoira máis que a selva.

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schrauwen presenteert de hoofdpersoon uit Rudyard Kiplings 'The Jungle Book' als een jongeman op zoek naar een vriend. Dat blijkt nog zo gemakkelijk niet, want de dieren die hij tegenkomt verschillen toch behoorlijk van hem. Schrauwen vertelt dit alles in prachtige, woordloze beelden. De dialoogloze strip is wat mij betreft de hoogste vorm van comic art, maar ook de moeilijkste en ook hier is niet alles wat Schrauwen tekent even duidelijk of volgbaar. Dit neemt niet weg dat 'Mowgli's Spiegel' een mooi voorbeeld is van Schrauwens grote talent.

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the art and the color that the author uses is really beautiful.

[RND · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat surreal, basically silent story most notable for Schrauwen's art and interesting coloring, which takes advantage of what I assume to be silkscreen work. Has a nice '90s indie book feel.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olivier Schrauwen doesn’t even need words to make a fun comic! Very fast read and just a good time with lots of chuckles.

[Giekes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nieuwe Olivier Schrauwen, prachtig boek in alle opzichten. Vele platen en plaatjes kan je zo uit het boek halen als afzonderlijke kunststukjes.
Zeer krachtige beeldtaal. Sterk werk met het geselecteerde kleurenpalet.

[Mark Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The jungle again looms large in this curious “silent” offering from Schrauwen, painted in blue and orange. Unsurprisingly it’s effortlessly flowing, wildly demented and uniquely charming. He’s fast becoming a favourite…

[Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short wordless comic is a simple but thoroughly original and thought-provoking re-imagining of The Jungle Book. With equal parts seriousness and humour, it considers the lonely, confused life of a boy raised by wolves in a forest that's full of animals, but void of other humans. As I've already come to expect of Olivier Schrauwen, the art is gorgeous and the cartooning is masterful.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik snap niet hoe dit gedrukt is, erg coole illustraties.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in my comics collection and had a quick read... Some of the drawings are really nicely done but idk if I would buy this sort of thing anymore, maybe too nihilist for my taste now.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 2 out of 5]

19×22 flexible ¦ blank green spine ¦ A.I. 03/2011 ¦ 15€ = eo
-›"The lateral leaves are not cut. The plates are therefore printed on one side and then assembled in an accordion fashion."(bedetheque translated)

Narrative: **
This is not a "children's" story- it's the same Kipling characters engaging in strictly adult idiocy. It's a bleak freestyle examination of human desperation that gets creepy and made me feel quite uncomfortable.

Visual: **
All that I could see was the gross and sloppy. The background is almost always splashed in streaky slapdash fashion and I couldn't understand whatever he was 'going for' visually with the garish overlaps. Worse yet, filthiness defined the characters image to me because of his zoo...(?) and scat scenes.

I didn't grasp the purpose of all pages being connected at the top either- besides one connection in mine that I haven't even a guess whether it's error or intentional.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always thought of cartoons as the marriage of words and image that together surpass either alone. But what the fuck do I know? The moment a creative act is defined someone will come along and illustrate how its boundaries are far more porous. Olivier Schrauwen does that with MOWGLI’S MIRROR, a comic without words because it doesn’t need them. In bold primary colors and simple but elegant lines, he creates a funny, touching and fully engaging story about a jungle man looking for love. He finds that mate first in a primate, but things don’t always work out as we hope. The story doesn’t need dialogue because the layout, colors, design and drawing all work together to carry the reader though the narrative without pause. It’s as close to a perfect comic book as I’ve read in years.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Retrofit Comics has such incredible taste. This oversized, wordless comic is funny, beautifully rendered and was a joy to read. Please support independent comix companies like Retrofit. I discovered them in 2017 on Kickstarter and I was blown away by books like this on their roster.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schrauwen is a master of the craft. He paints humanity with brushes of humor and horror in equal spades, completely rendered in his simple and sparse style. There's a lot to parse in this short wordless comic, and will make for multiple rewarding re-reads.

[Rakan · Rating 2 out of 5]

رسم جميل قصة متواضعة ملخبطة ماتشد مع مشاهد مقرفة ماكان لها لزمة ابدًا. احترم الفن التجريدي سواءًا كان فيه رسالة او لا. أسلوب الطرح إذا كان يشد يبرر رسم تجريدي لكن ماكان فيه أسس ولا عوامل تساعد القصة ان تكون بهذا الشكل

[Romano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia sobre la tristeza que conlleva el nunca poder ser parte del otro.

[João Teixeira · Rating 3 out of 5]

O autor é eficaz a contar esta história. Mas não deixa de ser uma história estranha.

[Vindersloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

O. Schrauwen is raar. Ik ben jaloers.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

So special. Reminded me why I love graphic novels. Anything is possible.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art was lovely and I really liked how there being no words makes you pay attention to the details of each picture to gain an understanding of what's going on.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant use of Risograph.