‘CHLOROPHIL’
Created by Charles H Raymond.
Full Colour - 20 pages - landscape format.
The Story - An old man leaves him home and walks into town. He’s headed for the grave of his wife and on his way he encounters small town life. This man heads off to buy some flowers and interacts with dogs and their walkers, a bus stop full of people waiting, a surprised kid and more.
There is also something else at play here that I can’t/won’t spoil. There’s more to this man than meets the eye.
The Review - This is a short book and in that Charles kept the story quiet, it is wordless, and crisply simple. I’d seen this creator’s work before but when he added colour to the mix he has really started to pop visually in my humble opinion. It is at first glance a simple walk through town by a cheerful old fella. What you get beyond that and when you inspect the panels and the pages with much more attention to detail is a story with something much more.
This is a book with a strange and original twist that adds to it’s great charm. It is simultaneously fun, insightful and heart-warming. I liked this book straightaway and have mentioned it a number of times on the Awesome Comics Podcast in glowing terms about the content and how much the artist is growing in ability and style..
In a month of being critical where needed in reviews I can’t find a whole heap to pick holes in. This is of course a short read and it is designed as such. There are no words and Charles allows the story to flow through movement, facial acting and background detail. I will say that there’s one moment where ‘Phil’ has something in his hand that felt a touch obvious and seemed like an over obvious nod to those readers who hadn’t been paying attention. Had it been me I would have left that out and allowed people to work out the subtle puzzle themselves. But I have to say that for such a short book it’s one that I’ve reread a number of times and it always makes me smile.
The art has a unique and distinctive cartoony style and uses the aforementioned colour in broad and bright blocks that suit the story. Any possible further noodling, shading or rendering is cut back to exactly what is needed. This style really suits the endearingly funny story vibe.
Watch out for ‘Dan’s Butcher’s’ and ‘J.T’s News’.
It was also this comic that pushed me into approaching Charles to collaborate on a project. He came through on that one as he did on this and you can see this artist/writer improving at every single panel created. Definitely one to watch in the future on the Small Press scene.
Find out more about Mr Raymond at http://www.notsotiny.co.uk/ You can also follow him on Twitter @not_so_tiny
Many thanks for reading.
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