Vanishing Act

by Roman Muradov

Written and drawn in thirteen styles, from comedy and confession to prophecy and interpretative dance, Vanishing Act is a polyphonic play of interconnected stories, synchronized in time and space on one melancholy evening. A paranoid man rehearses the upcoming party. A disheveled actor expounds on the conceptual potential of sitcoms. A beloved dog disappears into the Internet and starts a cult. A couple runs their argument in reverse. A bored seagull excretes the entire known universe. Vanishing Act is governed by one looping constraint that unifies all of the disparate threads: each following story starts in the middle of the previous one, overlapping until the end of the night, and back into the beginning of the book.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comics, Art, Fiction

74 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 1 out of 5]

"A vanishing act is impotent and aimless.
it revels in its own futility.
until the subject matter fades from view,
takes with it all measure at reality and leaves you
with a thinning thread."

Thinning thread, indeed! Not nuch thread at all, I'd say, and I'm not exactly a fan of Muradov's faceless art, either. "Impotent and aimless," I'll agree to that. Thirteen almost deliberately disconnected "acts" or anecdotes in different styles and forms that would seem to happen on the same evening. So that sounds interesting, right? But the point is a post-modern one, that all these events are random, that narrative as a sense-making tool is a myth, and so on. Possibly meant to be playfully nihilistic? Well, if you like that kinda thing, go ahead, but let the readers beware.

Muradov says, come on, lighten up, it is

"A love letter to all things avant-garde."

Another Muradov self-blurb: "A book described by its publisher as a maddeningly convoluted postmodern romp."

I'l agree to all that. Was maddened at the deliberate convolution. Romp? My rump! I was bored.

And maybe I was tired, but I wasn't amused as Muradov wanted me to be. He blurbs on the back cover: "A joke." Unfortunately, I thought the joke was on me.

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the table of contents and dramatis personae, but then I got to the story and it was just an avant-garde shitshow.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure this emperor has any clothes …

Vanishing Act has no coherent story that I can discern. There are characters. There are scenes. There's a great deal of artistic talent on display, but this book is consciously Art-y in the “Let's throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks” sort of way.

I have a fair tolerance for capital A Art, but this book strikes me as more of a mess than anything. The fact that it revels in its own lack of a point--see the back cover copy, for instance--doesn't mitigate this nearly as much as Muradov seems to think.

Parts of it weren't bad, but getting to those parts was tedious. In the end, I can think of no better summary than the following quote from one of the characters: “A Vanishing Act is impotent and aimless. It revels in its own futility. Until the subject matter fades from view, takes with it all measure of reality and leaves you with a thinning thread.”

It’s entirely possible that I’m just not getting this. But, as far as I can tell, I’m not missing much. Not recommended.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so much fun to read! A series of interwoven, meandering stories described in a style that gently shifts between acts. I especially liked that it came with a map showing where each story takes place, a list of characters and their roles, and a timeline. There are also the surreal elements you should expect from Muradov, and his beautiful artwork which I could stare at for hours.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

"your average doberman has 12,000 non-owner pettings in it, then it's reduced to a canine pencil."

"so what's the result of all this? - the result is love, which is opposite of romance. It's impotent and aimless. It revels..."

"my vanishing act
is the closest you get to death without the inconvenience of dying. "

"in the process of artmaking the artist must beome redundant,
... and the artwork- a mere byproduct. "

"a vanishing act is impotent and aimless.
it revels in its own futility.
until the subject matter fades from view,
takes with it all measure at reality and leaves you
with a thinning thread.

You need twelve more eternities and already you're out of time.

All similies fall falt,
implode upon themselves into impenetrable abstraction.

Then you give in and close your eyes.
And then at last,
you vanish. "

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman Muradov is always a tough one to review.. His stuff is absolutely gorgeous, mixing styles and techniques. And this one is no exception. Vanishing Act is a collection of thirteen interconnected shorts where time gets diluted and expanded at the turn of a page. Each story has a different visual style, and some even evolve in their couple page lifespan. But the overall esthetic remains cohesive.

As far as the story goes, it's a convulted mess. But an interesting one ! A dog with twelve million instagram followers starts a cult, a bird shits out the universe, all while some mad tv producer puts together an emergency team for his broadcast. I'm not quite sure what the point of it all is exactly, but it's a fun romp through an expertly deconstructed narrative

And again, holy shit what an artist I could look at his art for the rest of my days

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a beautiful object - the art's lovely and varied - but there's not much in the way of a story. There's clever prattle and neat avant garde twists, but for me the best part of this book was the lingering sense of how much fun the author had making it.

[Jake Nap · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was disappointing. Wanted to love this but there’s not enough to grab onto for me. However, the art is amazing. Big fan of the abstractions and changing styles. As a book tho? There’s not much there.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if I would have researched this one more before reading it I would have had different feelings about it but it kinda went over my head, maybe I'll try it again later.

[Annie Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

a series of sweet illustrations, but I skimmed and paid little attention to the words themselves...

[Grg · Rating 2 out of 5]

"So... what's the result of all this?

Nothing.

A Vanishing Act is impotent and aimless.

It revels in its own futility."

[Teems · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately far too hard to follow the point of each act and just wasn’t able to be captivated enough by the visuals.

[Laura Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

very little in the way of narrative structure, but lots of beautiful art, and you can certainly tell the artist had fun making this.