Page 45 Review by Stephen
"Some dream of love
"While dancing in the moonlight."
A cautionary, all-ages fable, this has an elegant and eloquent simplicity, and a fearful symmetry whose missing element will haunt me for decades. Except that, as drawn by Riff, it isn't entirely missing, and therein lies the power of its punch.
I cannot be more specific than that, but you will know what I mean when you see it.
The cautionary aspect is emphatically not about dreaming - how tragic would that be? - nor about invention or industriousness. This isn't some sort of awful, prohibitive, Daedalus and Icarus yarn which William Blake shot down so succinctly in 'The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell' thus:
"No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings".
Aspiration should be encouraged. Not even the sky is your limit.
Instead, the cautionary note lies in entrusting your dreams to those with less beneficent interests than your own. It is about the perversion of dreams, and it boasts a specific, all too awful pertinence to our wider world today, and indeed throughout the ages with one particular instance in mind.
So.
"Some dream of love
"While dancing in the moonlight."
How romantic is that? And how beautiful is that opening page with its innocent, Dr Seuss-like revelry shared under the inspiring light of a benign, beaming moon? Our inventive rabbit "dreams of something dazzling" and is inspired to build something beautiful in order to give others pleasure. He labours night and day, and his endeavours are rewarded with success.
"The carrot shoots straight up in the air, as if sucked up by the sky."
Great line!
"Everyone wakes and wonders and marvels.
"No one can believe their eyes.
"It's marvellous!
"Who has created this wondrous thing?"
Ah yes, his endeavours are rewarded with success: more success - and a different sort of success - than he bargained for.
Once more, let me be clear: it doesn't go to his head. Nothing the rabbit does (except maybe the initial, slightly toxic process which may leave organic carrot farmers frothing at the mouth!) is an indictment of his invention, his intentions or his honour throughout. Indeed his sense of duty is commendable. Just remember whom your sense of duty and loyalty lies with, or is given to.
Corporations have only their own self-interests at heart.
The art is smooth, bold and beautiful, making maximum use of spotlights, striking shadows and stark silhouettes, leaving the colours to glow in the darkness.
Copies go on sale at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 on Saturday 15th October in Page 45's Georgian Room upstairs in the Kendal Clock Tower. Thereafter you can happily purchase from here and elsewhere for worldwide shipping and even pre-order right now. I'd mention LICAF's partners in this except that it would give the contents' game away, but those lucky enough to have secured LICAF's earlier exclusive this year after a certain multimedia performance or via Page 45's own website may infer what they will.
Translation by LICAF's own Carole Tait.
