Big Questions
This haunting postmodern fable follows a group of birds in a vast open plain confronted with a fallen aircraft, its lost pilot and an inscrutable young boy encountering the world on his own for the first time.
Big Questions is the culmination of ten years and more than six hundred pages of work that details the metaphysical quandaries of the occupants of an endless plain, existing somewhere between a dream and a Russian steppe. A downed plane is thought to be a bird and the unexploded bomb that came from it is mistaken for a giant egg by the group of birds whose lives the story follows. The indifferent, stranded pilot is of great interest to the birds―some doggedly seek his approval, while others do quite the opposite, leading to tensions in the group. Nilsen seamlessly moves from humor to heartbreak. His distinctive, detailed line work is paired with plentiful white space and large, often frameless panels, conveying an ineffable sense of vulnerability and openness.
Big Questions roots in classic fables―the birds and snakes have more to say than their human counterparts, and there are hints of the hero's journey, but here the easy moral that closes most fables is left open and ambiguous. Rather than lending its world meaning, Nilsen's parable lets the questions wander where they will.
Published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2011.
$44.95
“Rapturous, meticulous pen-and-ink pointillism... a sprawling, uncanny work about fate and death whose stakes spiral upward while its scope remains confined to a few small creatures’ territory.”
“The real beauty of Big Questions is that it doesn’t strive to answer. Through love, loss and tinges of dark humour, the meaning of it all remains as wide open as the landscape on which the actions unfold.”
