Vague
cartoonist: Dash Shaw
Publisher: new york review books
Publication date: August 2024
Vaguethe cartoonist’s new graphic novel Dash Shaw, Structurally, it’s a magic trick. It’s a nearly 500-page story, many of which unfold rapidly through four panel layouts, telling the story of nearly a dozen characters, many of whom are interconnected. But the way it unfolds is bold and almost feels frivolous, as if Shaw himself was meeting his actors for the first time and inviting us as readers to follow.
The way the book is structured is that the characters spend most of their time telling stories about their pasts, specifically the decisions they made, big and small, that pushed them toward someone or away from someone. As readers follow these stories, it’s not uncommon to get lost in another character’s story and another story within them. Sometimes I find myself forgetting when and from whom the focus shifts, but I don’t mean that in a derogatory way at all.
I find this to be a very bold storytelling technique for a graphic novel, and it’s a smart risk taken by the creator who might be trying to tie the narrative of the story to its subject. It’s also a credit to Shaw’s comics and storytelling that I never felt disoriented moving between characters. No, it actually had some interesting effects on me. The first one is about rhythm. Maybe it’s the way the pages are laid out to allow you to scan them quickly, but each time we switched to a new character I found myself happily understanding what that person cared about rather than getting lost in the new focus .
The second effect may be even more powerful. As you move between characters, a web of (vague) connections begins to subtly emerge. The text doesn’t elaborate much on this, but the book seems to want to show you how little distance exists between us as people, and that our feelings, worries, and histories are often the things we have in common, rather than the Something that should keep us connected.
I guess that’s where the book’s title comes from: The Ambiguous Nature of Our Shared Humanity. The idea slowly emerges as you turn the pages of this large book, jumping from one well-drawn character to the next until you wonder what kind of narrative magic you’ve just witnessed. I like it very much.
I think for this to work, there also needs to be narrative threads and shared themes within the character’s micro-arcs. Shaw did an excellent job of creating a group of artistic people, most of whom were dissatisfied with their lives and unsure of the choices, large and small, they had made to create them. Artists range from novelists to nude models to students in live painting classes. The decisions they and their loved ones make are (seemingly) innocuous – what shirt should I wear? — and rather importantly — should I end my secret relationship and spend more time with my husband and kids?
But the plot of this book does go a bit off the mark. Vague It’s more about how it all makes you think and feel. as Xiao takes readers to the touching and poetic ending Vaguereaders’ minds will likely be filled with unspeakable thoughts about their own lives, their own priorities, their own choices, and the stories that brought them and others to this point.
This is ambitious territory for a graphic novel, but Shaw’s book is both clever and fearless, and is undoubtedly up to the task.
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