Review - Sshhhh!
by jason
Fantagraphics Books, 2002
Review by Christian Perring, Ph.D.
Oct 29th 2002 (Volume 6, Issue 44)

Jason’s previous publication with Fantagraphics Books was the black and white comic book story Hey, Wait…,  a very sad story about a childhood friendship and its effect on later life.  It was very distinctive in using animals as its characters and using no dialog whatsoever, which made the work resemble children’s picture books, except that the story took an particularly bleak turn.  SSHHHH! is in very much the same vein.  The main character, who of course is never given a name, is bird who lives a very adult life.  The book is a collection of ten stories or episodes, nearly every one a depressing commentary on the banality and absurdity of life.  The first story is a good example.  Our hero, the lanky bird wearing a jacket and pork pie hat, is a street musician playing a penny whistle who lives in a large nest in a tree.  He is terribly lonely, but he meets an attractive female bird one day, and they get married.  They move into an apartment, and he gets a job sorting mail in an office, while she stays at home and looks after the house.  They live a normal life, watching TV in the evenings together.  But she becomes ill, and he sits by her hospital bedside, worried.  He passes the hours by drawing a cartoon story of him bravely rescuing her from a castle prison.  She recovers from her illness, and they set off home.  Unfortunately, on their journey home, she is run over by a car, and dies.  He returns to his life in his old nest, but he gives away his penny whistle.  He is terribly lonely.

These vignettes of existentialist angst at the repetitiousness and pointlessness of bourgeois life are occasionally relieved by the appearance of surprising figures – space aliens make a brief appearance in one story – or surprising plot twists.  There are many places where the narrative is confusing, even surreal.  This lends the book more entertainment value, but at the same time confirms that sense that it is based on a rather limited idea that has been implemented without thinking it through.  As an unusual illustration of core existentialist themes – hell is other people, we live and die alone, the contemplation of suicide – SSHHHH! works remarkably well.  But for readers who have come to terms with the world and the contingency of their lives, Jason’s work confirms the association of such miserable worries with adolescent self-obsession. 

Link: Fantagraphics Books web site

© 2002 Christian Perring. First Serial Rights.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main research is on philosophical issues in psychiatry. He is especially interested in exploring how philosophers can play a greater role in public life, and he is keen to help foster communication between philosophers, mental health professionals, and the general public.