Shit is real

by Aisha Franz

Von heute auf morgen wird Selma von ihrem Freund verlassen. Eine gute Gelegenheit für einen Neuanfang, denkt sie, zieht in eine eigene Wohnung, kündigt den Job und macht sich auf die Suche nach sich selbst. Aber wie geht das eigentlich? Anders als geplant lebt Selma ziellos in den Tag hinein und findet einfach keinen Platz in der Welt. Die Anschaffung einer Waschmaschine scheint genauso unmöglich wie die Kommunikation mit ihrer Freundin Yumi, die fest im Leben steht und von der sie sich immer mehr entfremdet. Zunehmend verliert Selma den Bezug zur Realität und landet in einem Albtraum des Scheiterns…

Mit “Shit is real” legt Aisha Franz einen existenziellen Comic-Entwicklungsroman vor, der Unsichtbares sichtbar macht und dabei nicht an Sex, Action und dystopischen Fantasien spart.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comics Manga, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels Manga

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2016

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shit is Real by Aisha Frank is a great graphic novel about a young woman devastated by a break-up. Well, all we know is that she has been dumped, and is dealing with it. She doesn’t identify her emotions or detail anything about the relationship or the process of breaking up, but she is living alone, and—I will say—seems to be hallucinating as a condition of her relationship grief. She sees people with cat faces, people who morph into fish. ? Fish are central in this one, but not as in the cliché, “there’s a lot of fish in the sea,” as it pertains to partners. Fish are what faces melt into it under periods of stress. She travels into space. Which makes me think that science fiction, speculative fiction is part of this. And poetry comics, in that the images convey life experience. Metaphors. The uses of fiction in representing reality. And the cover conveys horror, as in what nightmare am I dreaming, or living through

Is this surrealism? Is she “losing her mind”? I would say this person is in fact losing it a little bit in the way people do when they go through trauma. Hallucination is more common than not, neurologist Oliver Sacks reminds us (Hallucinations). She has a friend she can count on, but when he friend isn’t there, she is back into it, this miasma of melting she goes through. She meets a guy at a pet shop who asks her to a party, they have sex once, he disappears, what? Wait—what just happened? What is real? When she sees him again she tells him an embarrassing thing, that she wondered whether she had hallucinated the whole experience of hanging with him for a time. Uh, strange, he says. Then we seem to know this guy is more real than a cat woman face. . . or is it?! What is real??! Answer: shit is real, and I like the way fine inventive artist Franz conveys the unreality that comes from isolation, grief, trauma. And friendship is real, her one true friend. Awesome book.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I think I enjoyed this even more than Franz's Earthling (that I read very recently).

She's really amazing at exploring human emotion in minor drama pieces. I connected with this one a bit better probably just because it explored a person who's similar to age to me. As opposed to the young girl in Earthling.

I really like the surreal elements of the story... and the fact that the story occurs in some weird futuristic world with animal people... although the parallels to our own digital age was very apparent. She explores relationships within a world of status and technology. How can we connect with others? To fall in love or to have genuine friendships.

[Larakaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird but in a good way

[Jesús · Rating 3 out of 5]

An expressionist comic about a young, disaffected woman living in a city. It’s a very familiar premise, but it does offer at least a few new angles. But because it is such a familiar setup, I would hope to get some self-deprecating irony or humor to offset the cliches. Without that, it’s a fine book, but not one with very many payoffs.

In an era when cartoonists like Leslie Stein are doing much better work with the same approximate material, I have a hard time finding a strong connection to Aisha Franz’s work.

[Sole · Rating 5 out of 5]

después de haber amado planeta tierra aisha franz no me decepciona. shit si real es una historia extraña pero emotiva, tuve la sensación de estar transitando momentos perturbadores y silenciosos, con una atmósfera casi lyncheana. las habilidades para narrar de la autora son dignas de la más justa de las envidias.

[Romany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good visual storytelling. Psychedelic storyline. Still real enough to be kind of heartbreaking.

[Miglė · Rating 3 out of 5]

The style is creative, and the fantasy blends in nicely with reality.
What I found lacking was the story - it is there, but doesn't seem to say something new or more than many stories about post-breakup confusion. I get that this graphic novel is more atmosphere-oriented than story-oriented, but it just didn't make me feel anything, except for the appreciation for the art.

[Kricket · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first: "This book is so weird. I don't get it."
And then: "This book is so weird. I love it."

[Mary Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the drawing style of this a lot - there were like more experimental elements exhibited like time lapse within one panel which was really interesting, mixed with some classic manga elements of things like huge animated exaggerated facial expressions and reactions. Plus Franz’s drawing style on its own is cool, I liked the layout and design of a lot of pages - like full page settings drawn behind floating panels, gutter color changes to signify like dream sequences, and the crazy style of panels when Selma was drunk. I like the character design and how there are randomly just non human characters that I wasn’t sure if some of them are supposed to be costumed humans or just like cat headed-normal human bodied entities / lizard people. Also really liked the style of clothing / aesthetic of the characters.

This story takes place in a technologically advanced future where it’s just like society is even more superficial and tied to their phones, work, appearances, etc. Selma seems to be someone who wants to break free of that society, but at some point she looses sight of that. It’s also a story of female friendship between Selma and Yumi. It was much more interesting than I expected actually and I really enjoyed it.

[amyleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aisha Franz's 'Shit is real', like her first comic, 'Earthling', is weird and slippery. Selma, the protagonist, floats in and out of shifting worlds, unsure of their reality. Worlds populated by fish, by humans morphing into fish, by laundromats, by black cats. The narrative was a bit lacking for me, but it was nice to take a dive into Franz's world once again.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surreal, dream-like story about a depressed, heartbroken woman named Selma who experiences a series of emotional ups and downs while she occupies her traveling neighbor’s apartment. Originally published in Germany.

[Sue Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shit is real...... is .....uh .......confusing.

No lie. I caught myself scratching my head more than once. (seems to be a thing with Aisha Franz's books for me). Re-reading portions helped put it into perspective though. In the end it makes sense that as crazy as life gets, the shit is real, no matter how you spin it.

The drawings are super simplistic - almost childish in many ways - and it helps to add to the chaos. Even with re-reading sections though, I still find it a whirlwind with glimpses of some sanity noted here and there.

Bottom line take away from the book is - look after yourself and your friends as they are the ones who have your best interest in mind.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

so so so good!!

[Laura (ローラ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blurb on the back calls it, "current dystopia". I think that's the best way to describe this. I feel like it 'got' it. Despite the technological "advances" and dream-sequences, this story feels modern and true.

[Anna (RattleTheShelves)]

that was very very weird. I picked it up from the library on a whim. Also, I didn't know it was German but that's pretty cool.

[Essi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and weird.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good graphic, beautifully drawn and rather heartbreaking. Deep story. A great treatment.

[Fadilah]

One day I will understand cryptic graphic novels

[Annie L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Étrange. Univers unique.

[saf · Rating 4 out of 5]

crazy and absurd just how i like it

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

quite possibly a perfect book. a depressed-panicattack-who-am-i-even-now feeling that can only be captured by the way this is drawn blurry and fragmented, i think. i love how water and swimming are used throughout

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selma suddenly got dumped by her boyfriend and has to move into a cheerless new space. While trying to install shelves, she accidentally drills a hole in the wall; a hole that proves to be a portal into another life. Through drunken binges, hallucinations, and vivid nightmares, we experience the visceral sense of loneliness and depression that Selma seems to be going through; it’s super relatable. She occupies her neighbors world, trying to inhabit her put-together life. Will she ultimately discover what works in her own life and pull through?

The art and design in this book is great, definitely want to be part of that future.

[K.W. Colyard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among the many graphic novels that have attempted to capture the distinct feeling of facelessness that our all-digital, social media-minded age presents, Aisha Franz's Shit Is Real may come the closest to accurately portraying that experience. Following Selma — recently single, becoming isolated — as she floats through an increasingly weird landscape of strangers, Shit Is Real fully realizes the utter oddity of young-adult life today.

At 288 pages, Shit Is Real neither lingers too long, nor ends too quickly. Although Selma's story can hardly be marked "resolved" by the end of Franz's book, the series of absurd and unfortunate events leaves the reader feeling that too add anything more would be to stray too far, to intrude upon the protagonist's life. Every decision Selma makes, up to her most questionable — occupying a fashionable neighbor's apartment and assuming bits and pieces of her identity — may be walked back with ease. None of them moves her past the point of no return. Whatever she screws up is fixable, at least insofar as the events that follow will allow her to resume her normal life.

Shit Is Real's nail-biting moments come when Selma is in danger of being found out, when the strange, interim life she has crafted for herself appears to be on the verge of collapse. It is at these times, when Selma sidles up to the morally gray areas of her life, that Franz's graphic novel feels the most real. The reader may cast judgment on the protagonist — for masturbating in another person's bed, say, or for wearing a stranger's clothing — but is ultimately forced to admit that nothing she does is harmful to anyone other than herself. Selma is at least minorly self-destructive, to be sure, but she lacks the flamboyance and flair required to take another person down with her. Instead, she founders and bobs in the water, failing no one but herself. Just when we think the waves have overtaken her, she reappears, and we are reminded of our own, depressing resilience.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

[Rachel Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this!!!!!!!

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was pretty good! not a lot of words so the story moves fast. there’s this vibe that not a lot is going to be explained and it’s just going to keep going and the pictures are going to move it along and that’s okay. it truly did feel like a dream, the pictures weren’t drawn the best (still way better than i could do) but i think that was intentional. it felt like a sloppy trip or hallucination. i was so on edge every time selma was in penelope’s house, i was genuinely so upset at her. like she seriously just wanted this girls life and living in her house wearing her clothes and pursuing her man while she’s away is just creepy. i wasn’t a fan of selma. i wasn’t a fan of her neighbor penelope or anything and i certainly didn’t like her friend yumi who p much bailed on selma when selma needed her post break up bc yumi was too infatuated with her new relationship. it was nice of selma to be there for yumi but she almost didn’t deserve it

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Initial thoughts: This is the weirdest graphic novel I've ever read. Set some time in the future, it was hard to discern what was reality and what was part of Selma's imagination. Was her ex-boyfriend some sort of alien with a reptile head or was that how she saw him after he threw her out of their apartment? In terms of feeling lonely and cut off from friends, peering in from the outside, not knowing what comes next, this book was relatable, though.

The artwork fit the psychedelic vibe of the book. I found the world building blended the familiar and strange pretty well, considering technological advances, our increasing health consciousness, and general ambivalence towards our surroundings. Still, I wish there had been more to the plot, rather than just dreamlike sequences in response to Selma's loss of identity after her break-up.

[tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very surrealist depiction of a very human experience, which is losing your way and sense of self after a traumatizing event. In this book that event is the protagonist losing her job, boyfriend, and apartment all at once. Absolutely gorgeous, the art style is extremely stylistic which is perfect for the extreme use of visual metaphor. Despite the fact that only part of the story is grounded in reality, I never lost track of what was happening, and everything worked together towards the larger theme and plot. Definitely a work which deserves a deep reading. One of the best graphic novels I've read, in how it takes advantage of its medium (gorgeous layouts and pencil drawings which give a very unique experience), the honesty and vulnerability of the artist, and the flagrant disregard for spelling anything out, because it's not necessary.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Late in this graphic novel a nude old man at a party gets into a bed made out of giant lettuce leaves and one of the characters observes: "I don't think I understand art at all!"
Reading this book made me feel the same type of bewilderment as that character. I did not understand this at all. It's a story of a breakup, sort of. It's a story of financial jealousy, of quasi-friendship, of hook-up culture, of technology. But it's also a dystopian nightmare, a book about dreams, a book about lizard and cat people coexisting with humans? I have absolutely no idea.
I also did not love the art and at every turn of the page I felt like I was being dared to give up and walk away. I didn't, I stuck with it, but I don't feel like it paid off for me at all.

[kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

the first 20 pages had me bracing myself for the entire book to be an unending surreal, what-the-fuck-is-even-happening phantasmagoria that lacked substance, but it was not that! while the book is definitely hallucinatory and weird, those sequences don't feel like they're needlessly so. the weirdness is connected to the main character's reality, her emotional unraveling post-breakup as she begins to feel disconnected from and ignored by her best friend. i'm relatively new to appreciating/critiquing graphic novels but i just...can't bring myself to like weirdness for weirdness's sake. i want some story ok!!

[Jessica Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This graphic novel is primarily about the main character's loneliness after she breaks up with her boyfriend and in turn feels neglected by her best friend who is busy in her own relationship. This book is odd and surreal drifting in & out of dream sequences. I read it in under an hour and overall found it enjoyable (and weird).