Title: Kanon 3By: Steffen Kverneland and Lars Fiske
Language: Norwegian
64 pages,colour
No Comprendo Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-82-91187-83-9
I have testified several times to my love and admiration for what the two Norwegian cartoonists Steffen Kverneland and Lars Fiske are doing, first in their groundbreaking biography Olaf G (about the Norwegian painter Olaf Gullbransson - click on the title and read my review from way back when) and then in their ongoing series of books called Kanon. I don't normally get back to ongoing series of books or magazines here at Sekventiellt, unless there is a marked difference from one volume to another, and there isn't when it comes to volume three of Kanon. It's just that they are damned good; in my humble opinion this is just about the best comics being made in Scandinavia right now.
Yes they do have a not so politically correct way of admiring their (very male) artist heroes (in the case of Kanon, Edvard Munch and Kurt Schwitters) and yes they are constantly shown as drunk and yes they use a gonzo-like way of storytelling (these are some of the things they have been criticized for). I don't care! Every new installment of their search for the essence of these two men are brilliant and I always and directly yearn for more when I have read the latest book.
For those of you who haven't read anything of Kverneland and Fiske I heartily recommend you to start with Olaf G, which has been published in Norwegian, German and Swedish (not in English, yet...). Then move on to Kanon, in which they continue their strife to keep their extremely different styles separate but also mesh them together. It's an interesting, engaging read, both as narrative and as art.
Oh, and for Swedish readers, it might be of interest that in the stories about Munch, the Swedish author August Strindberg is featured prominently as he and Munch were part of the same artist collective. Come to think of it, there's a lot of Strindberg in comics right now... I'll have to get back to that, but for now I'm out of here!
