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Dogs & Water
RETRO REVIEW
Book Released: 24 November 2004
Review posted: 27 July 2006
Writer: Anders Nilsen
Artist: Anders Nilsen
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Adam White
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I recently came across Anders Nilsen while browsing independent comics and creators on the Internet and became interested
in his work. Actually, as a side note, link-hopping from site to site is actually a worthwhile endeavor — I always
find something or someone notable each time I browse around. Anyway, I took a chance on Dogs and Water and found that
it was a thought-provoking, existential experience that left me contemplating the meaning of Nilsen’s work as well as
the current path of my own life.
Nilsen creates a vast, stark landscape that beleaguers his protagonist, a nameless man traveling with only a backpack and
his instincts. The protagonist’s single companion is a stuffed teddy bear with whom he speaks but receives
no reply. The protagonist travels this empty, endless land after an apparent boat wreck, finding nothing but snow and the
occasional antagonist in the form of either wild animals or militant natives. Questions arise as to whether this
protagonist’s journey was by happenstance or by choice, and if he is insane or acts in the way he does to keep sane.
The beauty of Dogs and Water is that it lets the reader draw a variety of conclusions without necessarily clinging to
any one in particular, leaving room for different interpretations upon each successive reading.
Nilsen supplements his stark writing with sparse illustration, each page surrounded by a barren whiteness that reinforces
the protagonist’s malady. Nilsen never uses panel separations, letting the images run together
Nilsen’s work is at once surreal and
sublime, and his protagonist seemingly insane yet easily associable for the reader.
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to demonstrate the continuous sameness of his protagonist’s never-ending journey. Nilsen’s limited blacks and
vast whites work much in conjunction with his narrative, the only variation of which is his use of light blues for (apparent)
flashback scenes involving the protagonist’s voyage at sea. On a very few occasions Nilsen uses large amounts of
black, which not only represents the deep night of the arctic landscape but also the staggering hopelessness of the
protagonist’s journey.
Dogs and Water’s conclusion leaves many questions unresolved, yet any solid answers would likely have diluted the
point of Nilsen’s unique graphic novel. Nilsen examines the limits of the human mind and at what point a person
becomes willing to act in ways that would have previously been imponderable. Nilsen’s work is at once surreal and
sublime, and his protagonist seemingly insane yet easily associable for the reader. Few original graphic novels have risen to this
level of literary caliber, and Nilsen deserves credit for not only the merit of his work but his determination to expand the
horizons of his art form.
In other words, very much worth checking out.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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