Dogs and Water

(Drawn and Quarterly, 2004)
™ and © 2004 Anders Brekhus Nilsen and Airplane

A lone figure trudges along a vacant road through a flat landscape with a stuffed teddy bear strapped to his back. He berates the bear for his silence and blames it for their predicament. The road eventually disappears leaving them even more isolated. Eventually they encounter a herd of deer, a pack of wild dogs and some dead bodies, which the dogs devour.

Interspersed between these episodes are blue monochromatic dream sequences of the traveler, (with the ever–present teddy bear), adrift on the ocean in a rowboat, in the path of a large ship and then sinking amid the wreckage of his rowboat. Or perhaps the water scenario is reality and the hiking locale is the dream. Either viewpoint could be valid.

Artist Anders Nilson’s haunting existential story raises some questions. Doesn’t man need to have a goal in life to justify the journey? Is it enough to simply exist? The traveler may feel free of the ties the bind us but even in the desolate landscape in which he places himself, moral decisions are necessary.

— George Haberberger

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#1

October, 2004
Cover Price: $9.95
2 copies available from $7.23

Anders Nilsen