Broken Frontier

Lewis Trondheim, the Jack Kirby of European comics, has written and/or drawn more than a hundred titles. His personal catalogue ranges from action/adventure to fantasy to historical comics but none are more openhearted than this collection of anecdotes from his daily life.

Originally published on Lewis Trondheim’s blog, his daily adventures are now collected into one handsome volume by NBM publishing called Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella. These exciting adventures include such ephemeral gems as looking for a rainbow during sun and rain, wondering if he got on the right train, airfighting with his Star Wars lightsaber and worrying about his garden. It is an honest look into his psyche, selfdoubt, paranoia and all included. It is told by a master of the craft who does not elevate the smallest of acts but looks at it for what it is, it does not become an ode to human behaviour or makes it out to be grander than it is. Lewis Trondheim tells it honestly, without compulsion, without self-loathing. It is part of NBM’s Comicslit program, aiming to publish graphic novels about the human experience and Little Nothings: Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella is nothing if not that.

Trondheim draws in an open style, transmogrifying all humans into animals (the casting of the animals is a joke in itself, check out the appearance of Manu Larcenet). It’s a very direct style, perfectly suited for the diary approach. There are no panel borders and this allows him to focus on the most important elements of each page, doodling away on backgrounds only when they are essential to the tale being told. The watercolouring is applied in very warm tints and is also utilised sparsely to draw focus to objects or happenings important to the tale. Everything seems to be finetuned to perfection to just ‘get the joke’, or ‘non-joke’ as it often turns out to be.

Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella by Lewis Trondheim is an open-hearted, warm and all too human experience, told by a master of the craft, at home in his own existential behaviour. Go to NBM publishing’s Little Nothings blog for a preview of Trondheim’s dailies to discover his genius for yourself.