My experience reading Anti-Gone was a positive one. I have read only 2 or 3 graphic novels before, so I suppose that I do not have too many expectations as far as conventions of storytelling in this medium. I know that many people in class were put off by the seemingly nonsensical nature of Anti-Gone. I think it’s interesting that we have been reading books and watching films that bend the boundaries of illusion and reality all year, but they all have more or less had a logical narrative to grasp onto. Now that Anti-Gone’s obscures these boundaries further and only provides vague indications of a plot, most of us have reacted with discomfort and dislike. I also struggle to understand many aspects of Anti-Gone, but as others have written, can we claim to ever fully understand an author’s true intent?
Reading graphic novels has felt, in a way, cinematic to me. The panels remind me of a film’s storyboard, of separate shots. I enjoyed Willumsen’s idiosyncratic “close-ups” of otherwise forgettable actions- a character throwing something in the trash or extending a hand over space. The play between the movie theater scene vs. the woman’s drugged fantasy was astonishing; I’ve never seen switches between scenes that cohesive on paper before. I am left with the impression that Anti-Gone is truly a work of freedom, curiosity, and passion for the strangeness of daily life.
I’m a big fan of graphic novels, so it’s always a treat when I get to read one in a literature class! I agree that the panels felt very cinematic–the way they were set up and the apathetic, grey undertones that came with the characters, the setting, and the story reminded me of a David Fincher film. In addition, I’ll point out Anti-Gone‘s small panels as something unique to Willumsen’s vision and uncommon in most comics. When I read graphic novels, I always feel that the author’s focal point lies with large splashes or panels that take up entire pages (Persepolis, another great graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, comes to mind). In Willumsen’s book, however, most of the action and the themes come from very small and intricate panels. One of my favorite uses of small panels in Anti-Gone occurs while Spyda and Lynxa are watching “The Readers.” The panels at the bottom of the mirrored pages display every intricate part of the characters’ facial expressions and movements, thus giving the readers an intimate sense of how their minds and bodies react to enhanced sensory experience. For Willumsen, panels aren’t about shock–they’re for intimacy.