Fluorescent Mud

by Eli Howey

Fluorescent Mud is an art comic that is entirely hand painted in watercolour and gouache. Using a strong visual language of symbols and codes, compositions are accompanied by dialogue and retrospective poetry to flesh out the narrative storytelling. The book follows the main character through a series of seemingly unrelated and unexplainable experiences. These occurrences are communicated in an almost surreal fashion, taking into account the various states of mind, memories/thoughts/feelings and sensory experiences that affect a subjective retelling of events.

Fluorescent Mud attempts to articulate unquantifiable moments that are often overlooked in narrative exploration either because they are non-normative topics or because they are difficult to communicate without the use of text and image based storytelling. The book is built up around the artists' specific visual language, to communicate the nuances of these non-tangible experiences. Its narrative artwork recounts the intricacies of our experiences, to acknowledge the beauty and depth that we get detached from through the monotony of capitalist routine.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Poetry, LGBT

116 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2018

Reviews

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just sinking in how wonderful this book is, I really love it, I think is a masterpiece, if you ever suffered from disassociation this will be a good book to read and the art is just amazing so 6/5.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous but confusing book. The nameless nonbinary main character becomes sleep deprived to the point of hallucination, and on a little-planned and ill-advised trip to a strange city becomes lost in a landscape of ruins and ghosts. The art knocked my socks off, but the tale had little hope and no resolution for the vulnerable protagonist.

[J MaK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazing artwork. However, the hallucinatory narrative left me very confused.

[lola m · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute short story

[Alison Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie, dark, trippy. I loved the art; it was perfectly disorienting.

[Juju · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim because of the mysterious cover that reminded me of the work of Brecht Evens. This is a promising first book by Eli Howley. A dark and disjointed portrait of an unsettled mind wandering the edge of an immense, unspoken darkness. Fluorescent Mud, indeed. While reading this I would flash back to lost times in my early to mid-twenties. When your mind can slowly unravel, while you try to keep your shit together by self-medicating, quitting jobs, hanging out with folks as crazy as you, and staying up for days, wandering. Did I mention the art is darkly gorgeous? So yea, this book is not for everybody, but I'm down to pick up whatever Eli Howley does next.

[Sarah Sloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

love the surrealist story + art. in fact, the art is so stunning, I love how every page has so many tiny details, some being very easy to miss if you don't look carefully. the story was a bit confusing, but I believe it's part of the theme of the story. 4/5

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gave it 3 stars only because maybe it hit too close to home? I was left with an odd sense of "I don't get it" and dread.

[Sakhmet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant view of disassociation

[Romany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art and a strange dream. I hope the protagonist finds sleep and wakes up more real.

[Eli Poteet · Rating 5 out of 5]

BIZARE!!

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and goopy

[Baileigh Limestahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, sad, and important

[Shamli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful and inspiring water color artwork. Very unique color scheme.
Story was hard to follow :/

[Gabriel H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting, overwhelming, compelling/compulsive. Made me want to immediately reread.

[DaniPhantom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork and good POV of dissociation

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nailed disassociation.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, haunting.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty

Didn't really get the plot though

[rose]

not at library

[Tricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't get it. And I'm not that impressed with the art.

[Jessica Vacek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork is what I want every book to be like. The story was loose, but it is about the emotion that the artwork shows. WOWZA

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel watered my crops. I felt like it directly spoke to me, and in such a gentle way, that it didn't matter that many of its experiences weren't what I understood or shared with the protagonist. Howey's oneiric panels are like breaths of worlds floating in and out of themselves, and it's so gorgeous and full.

[Leslie King]

Not sure what to think of this book, but trying to understand dissociation more. And read more graphic novel type things.

[Jenny]

Beautifully, beautifully illustrated and so distressing to read. Really enjoyed!