It Disappears

by Nate Powell

It Disappears opens with snow a few large white dots against of a background of black. The drawings close in on a house, well-banked by snow, a boy sitting on a couch. The boy begins a journey, his hand placed on a doorknob. After he leaves the house he begins to grow older. In the mountains one night the smoke from his fire announces "you're here." The smoke chases and catches him. A cartoon animal emerges from the gloom. "It's really not safe here," it says.

The boy travels with the animal. It has many things to say. "I have a friend who only reads periodicals He subscribes to 28 titles each month and hasn't read a book in three years. He feels so overwhelmed by the allure of modernity, like he'll miss what's just happening right now. And now. And now."

A rhapsody on memory and the anticipation of the future dissolving into the receding waters of the past, Powell's graphic novel traces a journey of self-discovery and the uneasy realization that everything, eventually, disappears. However, underlying this realization is an almost cosmic hope that human interaction and history can transcend the corrosive effects of time.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Nathan Lee Powell is an American cartoonist and musician.
Born in 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Nate spent his childhood in different parts of the country, as his family moved around following his father's duties as an Air Force officer.
Powell became active in the punk rock scene since his teen age. He ended up performing in several bands over the years, and even owing a DIY punk record label. At the same time, he developed an interest in visual arts and majored in Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York.
For about ten years Powell worked as a care giver for adult with developmental disabilities, while also drawing comic books. His major break came with the graphic novel Swallow Me Whole, which won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut and Outstanding Artist in 2008, as well as the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2009. Between 2013 and 2016 Nate Powell released what remains his most famous work, the three volumes of March, a comic biography of civil rights activist and Congressman John Lewis.

Reviews

[Ebilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

La narrativa un poco confusa pero al mismo tiempo entendible. Claramente es para leer más de una vez

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short story with good illustrations and deep meaning.

[Alana Godfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrative and transitions between frames i found quite jarring. While I enjoyed the discussion, i wasn't overwhelmed by it.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is like Leonard Cohen in the 80s. Never has such skill been juxtaposed with such staggering ineptitude. Instead of lyrical genius juxtaposed with musical awfulness, this is graphic loveliness juxtaposed with the most bumbling, incoherent, underedited, self-absorbed, and pompous philobabble I have ever allowed myself to be subjected to in a graphic novel. The worse because it fulfilled the great inverse of its potential.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

a perfect book. find it. read it. understand it.

[Darreng · Rating 5 out of 5]

comic book about the subjectivity of the way one relates to the world. intense if you give it a chance to be.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how to classify Nate Powell's stuff, but they are comics. Nate's stuff, however, is wonderful. Check out all of his heart-wrenching-ly wonderful work.

[jack]

great!

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Powell's lines. Can't get enough.

[Stephanie]

Slender and lovely. Definitely one to read in a single sitting.