While other entries in the mini kuš! series can be enjoyed for their aesthetics, narrative or abstraction, ‘BLJ’, #139 in the long-running minicomics series, is one of the most fascinating recent issues for its contemplative qualities. Its creator is Leo Fox, whose work we’ve covered on a number of occasions at Broken Frontier recently, including the trans allegories Boy Island and My Body Unspooling.
‘BLJ’ is a meditation on the concept of infinity by way of Super Mario 64, M.C. Escher and British film A Matter of Life and Death. Fox uses this comic as a kind of philosophical visual essay that hones in on how we experience the idea of the never-ending. Our reference points as embodiments of this are the infinite staircase obstacle in the SuperMario 64 video game and the escalator to the afterlife in the aformentioned 1946 Powell and Pressburger classic movie.
In the first instance we form an interactive relationship with the infinite via our game controller while in the second case our connection is more passive and observational. Fox poses the question of why we see infinity as something oppressive; as embodying the unattainable. Rather than something that, through its unceasing forward journey, could represent hope and possibility. Essentially why we perceive it in terms of the nihilistic rather than those of boundless optimism?
Fox uses one-panel pages often using visual metaphor as thematic communicative symbolism. There’s also a sidestep into mirroring the trans lived experience through the wider discussion and a finale that acts as an ironic coda to what has come before. Outside of self-publishing there’s really very little quite like the mini kuš! range for giving creators the chance to present fine unconventional work like this. It’s why I continue to push the series on BF and why you should be investigating it further.
Leo Fox (W/A) • kuš! comics, $7.95
Review by Andy Oliver
