Brightly colored nightmares

A young man goes to his landlord to tell him that the paint is peeling off his front door and that he needs money for a bucket of paint. First of all, no unusual occurrence. At this point it is not possible to suspect that such an everyday situation will lead to an absolutely bizarre, bizarre story.

Because the same landlord, who at first seems quite harmless in underpants and dressing gown, later turns out to be a magician who catapults the two of them to the beach of a beautiful green island using a fire trick. It should be less about an experience of nature. Rather, the goal of the endeavor is to raise the money for the paint bucket.

Again and again, the events in the story lead to crazy, unexpected twists and turns that move between a fictional reality and a surreal dream and fairy tale world. What is put into the narrative leads in a completely different direction that could not have been foreseen. Just like a prism that breaks the incoming light and transforms it into something completely new with the colored rays of light coming out.

That the British comic artist Joe Kessler gave his volume with the four stories the title “Prisma” (from the English by Christoph Schuler, Edition Moderne, 272 pp., 24 €) has given is absolutely fitting in this sense. Because despite all the differences, they are united by this peculiar type of narration. For his special comic, the British artist was awarded the prize for the best debut at the 2020 Angoulême comic festival.

Nothing in his stories can be relied on, the unexpected becomes the determining factor that refuses to follow the logical course of action. This is how the aforementioned magician, who at first seems sympathetic to his tenant, transforms again after a successful mission: When he happens to meet at the garden fence, he praises his tenant’s new wardrobe, but then suddenly becomes an evil giant who reaches for the young man to sink it into the sea shortly afterwards.

The crew of a large sailing ship can barely save him. And then it goes on in the story, which still has one or the other curious surprise ready.

A process like that of Kafka

Kessler’s bizarre and often dark stories are fascinating. Also because the artist leaves a lot in the balance, some only suggests and thus creates a mysterious atmosphere. He reduces dialogues and text passages to a minimum.

Another story is similarly mysterious: a man is to be hidden, several people are initially involved and advise on how to proceed. Ultimately, however, the man wanders around alone in nature. A young artist finds him and offers him her house as a hiding place. The danger of being discovered is always omnipresent. We do not find out why the man is wanted or what he has committed.

Meanwhile, a love relationship develops between the two of them – until the narrative is torn from the apparently real level and transferred into a cruel, absurd, Kafkaesque sphere. Because both end up before a gruesome tribunal. A kind of judge, a huge anthropomorphic creature with a yellow head and a bulbous nose, pronounces the verdict that provides for his beheading.

The punishment assigned to her is also brutal: Her hands are to be chopped off and her eyes gouged out. The fact that the artist should paint a container beforehand seems grotesque and disturbing. Eventually, one incident turns things around to their advantage, at least for them.

Between nightmare, fantasy and reality

It is not only in terms of content that Kessler repeatedly surprises with his stories. The title of the volume should also refer to the astonishing versatility of his artistic style. In mostly bright colors, he turns the comic art form into an experiment and explores its possibilities anew with almost every stroke.

Clear geometric shapes stand in contrast to sketchy impressions of nature in magnificent green, domesticated architecture as a counterpart to untamed forests and plants. Sometimes his line appears strong and coarse, sometimes delicate and fine, wobbly and wobbly or accurate and straightforward. Detail and abstraction alternate or are combined in the same panel.

In some places it is limited to the outlines, then again its brightly colored coloring catches the eye.

Kessler sometimes gives gloomy, nightmarish scenarios an idiosyncratic aesthetic. When, for example, an airplane drops several bombs from the night sky and these form yellow-red fireballs over the dark landscape, an expressive, almost abstract image is created that conveys a special mood.

Or when the foundation walls of a house burst as a result of the explosion and everything turns into a mixture of powerful colors. In this case, too, several narrative levels intermesh. It is not entirely clear whether the images come from the nightmares and fantasy of the little girl a story is about. Or whether it is about the real narrative event.

As in all other stories, the boundaries between fictional reality and bizarre, cruel or curious dream worlds are blurring. That is thought-provoking or disturbing, but it is also amusing at times.