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When I first came upon Nil: A Land Beyond Belief, I was unsure what I thought about it. It was in the local comic shop, and I picked it up and glanced through the pages, not reading, only taking in the art. The stark, expressionistic, nearly cubist style left an impression with me long after I set the book back on the shelf. I saw

The plot, however, is just the surface of Nil, where commentaries and satirical pondering can be found on everything from the Catholic Church to suicide bombing to the rhetorical babbling of Anne Coulter and Noam Chomsky.

it again on one of my many trips to Barnes & Noble and once again took a look at this strangely intriguing little book. “Little” in dimensions, not in content as I would later learn. I decided, this time, to purchase it.

I fell in love with it immediately. James Turner has successfully crafted a work that would fit snugly next to Voltaire’s Candide and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, all three aiming their satirical sights at the upper-class or decision-makers of the world in their respective times.

Nil: A Land Beyond Belief is the story of Mr. Proun Nul who works aboard the deconstruction ship Derrida. During a particularly rocky outing to the Dessert of Ideas, where deconstruction ships eliminate philosophies and beliefs before they can find their way into the minds of the nihilistic masses of Nil, Mr. Nul unwittingly causes the death of a co-worker. This accident is quickly spun into murder, and Mr. Nul is at the center of the investigation.

The plot, however, is just the surface of Nil, where commentaries and satirical pondering can be found on everything from the Catholic Church to suicide bombing to the rhetorical babbling of Anne Coulter and Noam Chomsky (which happens to be the fuel for the deconstruction ships).

One can almost see the bleak land of Nil on the lips and words of politicians in the unending hypocrisy of religious debate, and certainly on the faces of used car salesmen. In the mind-numbing torrent of horrid decision making running rampant in today’s governments, one can only stop and listen to real words coming out of those smiling mouths. Mr. Nul is quite simply on a quest to believe in something in a world where nothing is worth believing in.

Mr. Turner’s artwork compliments the premise of Nil perfectly. It is stark, precise, and unapologetic in its originality. Each character is similar, but at the same time vastly different from one another. Each inhabitant is pale and dressed in black, almost Victorian in styling. After a short ways into the book, one can tell the players apart simply by the way they speak. That’s not to say that there is any trouble, visually, in that department either. Each character has his or her own physical look, personality, and language that separates them from the rest. It is just as delightful to read the artwork as it is the text, which happen to go together like a screw through a nut.

I urge anyone out there that is looking for something a bit different, a breath of fresh air, or simply a great comic, to pick up Nil: A Land Beyond Belief. If you are a lover of ideas, imagination, and great story-telling, this book is a must have. You can learn more about Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and James Turner’s other work at www.jtillustration.com.