Bill Watterson (1) (1958–)

This was a weird little book… I knew better than to expect the frivolity of Watterson’s magnum opus Calvin and Hobbes, but what exactly this was I’m still not too sure. In some ways it mimics the style of a medieval Passion Play, using roughly shaped puppets to illustrate a simple allegorical tale of humanity’s fear, discovery, and then fall, but that is almost too easy an interpretation. The visual palette is starkly monochromatic, heightening the tension as humanity explores the Mysteries (an undisclosed group of beings or ideas) and embarks on a primal quest to unravel what exactly they are. While I quite enjoyed this thematic premise and was intrigued by the dramatic style the story set off in, as humanity became more modernized I also became less enthralled with the narrative. Once humanity knows everything, it’s only a matter of time before they lose all sense of whimsy and hope of novelty, so the story became far less enjoyable as I could clearly see they were only headed for an unhappy ending. At least by the finale the universe is left unblemished, with little but a dust-mote memory of the folly of humanity, and we can be left to wonder at what comes next. After all, the next great Mystery could be right around the edge of the galaxy, if we’d only bother to wonder.… (more)