Advaita: The Comic Book

by Ivan Sende

The Comic Book is a wryly humorous and profoundly insightful account of an artist's inner and outer travels. His girlfriend, sometimes unwittingly, provides insights and catalytic obscuration in equal measure throughout. Our hero (is he Ivan himself, or is he "Everyman?") searches for the "Truth with a capital T" across Asia and at home in his native Spain. He goes through stages that you may recognize in yourself or others—often amusing with hindsight, but not always so at the time. To tell you any more would be to spoil your fun—suffice it to say that you may find yourself reading it quite quickly and then going back to re-read more carefully the parts that touched you. Iván Sende has travelled widely in the East. He has wrestled with the concept of no-self and other conundrums of the spiritual search. The "seemingly banal" events that happened in India were (with hindsight) a turning point, but his journey while at home in Spain is as enthralling as anything that happened on his travels in "exotic" countries. Ivan is an artist and illustrator and lives in Spain.

166 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2015

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the drawing style on the front cover that got my attention. The title meant nothing to me, and I didn't recognize the artist's name. The back cover copy didn't really tell me much, but the idea of a spiritual quest type of story sounded intriguing. In a weird coincidence, I had just recently finished reading--actually, hadn't quite finished when I found Advaita at the library--a book on Zen Buddhism. And it turns out that this book is about Buddhism from the Indian end of things. Is the Universe trying to tell me something?

So Iván wanders onto the Buddhist path, starts meditating and has a life-changing experience. It's autobiographical, but also about his spiritual journey. I will say that he draws the single best visual depiction of an enlightenment experience I've ever seen, not that I've seen many, and it's not an experience I've ever had, but I've read about a few, and gosh this sentence is getting long and out of control ...

Anyway, I liked this book. There's a quietness and honesty to it that I find appealing. It doesn't try to force a viewpoint on you. Sende's mission is communication, not conversion. Recommended.

[Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

No soy muy partidario de la autoficción ni tengo en principio ningún interés en el budismo ni la espiritualidad oriental, y sin embargo me ha encantado Advaita y el esfuerzo que ha puesto el autor en plasmar en dibujos y texto su viaje de desarrollo personal y autoconocimiento , algo que imagino muy difícil y sin caer para nada en el proselitismo. Es la primera novela gráfica de su autor tras varios trabajos como ilustrador.

[Jorge Camacho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante como introducción.
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[TJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving it 5 stars because it inspired me to want to look into Advaita again. Cute little story with a nice message at the end.