Written and Illustrated by Nate Powell
216 pages, black and white
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Have you ever watched a movie you can tell has been finely crafted but by the end you have no idea what it was about? That was my experience with Swallow Me Whole.
I think I enjoyed it. The art is great, the story is weird, there’re some really great storytelling tricks I’d like to implement into my own work, but in the end… I don’t think I get it.
Upon looking up the book for a link, I saw a few articles talking about the topic of mental illness in association with this story, but I didn’t read them. I’m okay with not understanding a story. I enjoyed the read, and honestly want to give it another read-through.
The story revolves around a brother and sister in high school. Their grandmother is in the hospital and comes to live with them. Then weird stuff starts to happen. The brother begins to see/hear a tiny wizard telling him he’s needed for something, and the sister can hear bugs. The bugs occasionally swarm her and fill the page, but she’s cool with it. Now, as far as plot goes… this is basically as much as I can figure out. Not much happens, but it’s always interesting to look at.
Powell has a way of adding this sense of depth throughout that draws you in. He uses estranged bits of dialogue from conversations in the backgrounds of scenes that give you a sense of noisiness in a page. There’s this sense that there’s more to the story the whole time, that you’re not getting the whole story… Similar to the way the movies like Cloverfield give you glimpses of the fuller story that’s just outside of the main characters’ grasp, we’re only getting the story from the siblings perspective, and I feel okay with that, even if I don’t totally understand.
The artwork fluctuates easily between detailed and abstract. I feel it really adds to the chaotic feelings of the teens and helps to further show how confused everything is for them. Disembodied word balloons, frameless panels, and complete darkness are just some examples of the use of abstract. It’s an excellent visual representation of their inner turmoil, all the while still quite beautiful to look at.
Like I said, I’m pretty sure I liked this story and I didn’t even understand what happened. Just think about how much more you’d like it if you do.