Anders Nilsen's Big Questions; Abram's story, Page 6
Anders Nilsen's Big Questions
I think Anders Nilsen's Big Questions is one of the best contemporary comics, and once published as a complete book, will stand with the best comics ever made.
Big Questions started out as a joke comic, and not a very good one, but with issue three, he started developing a story about the plight of a group of birds whose world is thrown into turmoil. The birds (who Nilsen recently revealed are finches) are trying to understand their larger world and the cataclysmic events that surround them.
At first, one bird's home, a tree, disappears, along with his wife (it was obviously cut down, but the bird and the squirrels who also used to live there don't know that). Another bird is eaten by an owl after questioning him about the meaning of life. But when a fighter plane drops an unexploded bomb in the middle of the birds' field, the story changes into something beautiful. First, the birds mistake the bomb for a giant divine egg. A strong-willed bird convinces the others that it is a sign from God. She forms a loose religious cult around the egg, which eventually blows up, killing most of the flock. Later, the fighter pilot passes out and his plane crashes into a nearby house.
The birds come up with plausible but ridiculous explanations for everything - the plane was a giant bird; the pilot hatched from the bird/plane's cockpit/head ("so that's where humans hatch from!"); and the basis of a religion is formed. It may not sound like much, but it's one of the most effecting books about how we try to understand and explain loss and change.
Abram's Story: Page 6
Pages 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Abram's Notes from reality: To come.