Publication Date: October 21, 2022
Paperback, 142 pages, illustrations, 5" x 7"
ISBN: 978-1-64764-392-8
GRAPHICS
Playful, incisive, surreal, expressionist, sometimes heartbreaking, Miroslav Nemeth's graphics stand firmly in the tradition of Czech and Hungarian animation. They celebrate or concern or confront everyday life, where all comedy laughs and all tragedy begins.
This volume contains five narratives originally published in
Gobshite Quarterly. They range from the delighted and delightful to the morally complex; they grow darker as they progress, like the experiences they illustrate.
In "The Roman Key," light, lighthearted, fanciful, spare and surreal two-part drawings tell the tale of Nemeth's search for the key to "Roma," perhaps the city, perhaps a girl.
With complex, expressionist linocuts," I Had a Dog" tells the tale of Nemeth's pet Afghan hound who "behaved like a king." The neighborhood is enchanted with the dog's gentleness. The dog becomes aggressive, first biting Nemeth, then biting anyone who walks past the fence.
"The Hood" is a complex visual description of parts of Nemeth's childhood. The view from his shared bedroom window, happy and welcoming, optimistic; his older brother becoming a "Tito Pioneer," Nemeth given a small flag; Nemeth going to school, the school starkly, darkly pyramidal, untrustworthy, as he walks to it with the other children; an eerily welcoming church as he discovers God; the walk home from school, the cross on the traffic island reminding him that the church is still there.
"A Smell from a Nose" expands the description of Nemeth's childhood. Holidays and soccer and the sea add to his joy, though the cross on the traffic island remains. Nemeth is a teenager; the family moves to a house near the city graveyard. He sees his grandmother kill a chicken. Seeing the fragility of life, he returns home terrified and becomes almost housebound.
"Metaphysics in the Yard" also takes place at home. Jagged panes/perspectives irrupt into each other, collide on the page. Nemeth and his father are in the garden; Nemeth sees an ugly bug and wants it killed. His father picks the bug up. It begs for its life.
