The River and the Sea Book #3
Reviewed by R. Krauss
The River and the Sea Book #3
Reviewed by R. Krauss
By Sophie & Celso
72 pages, including the cover
5.5 x 4.25", handmade with saddle-stitch binding
Printed with black ink on colored paper
Adults only
$2 (or trade) from:
Sophie & Celso
3423 N. Commercial Ave.
Portland, OR 97227
Book three of this metaphysical series is another bountiful journey rich in symbolism, spirituality, and amorphous sexuality. In the opening segment, our mysterious guide emerges from the river as an observer. The people she sees are building a ziggurat, a temple designed to reach high into the heavens bringing one closed to God. A massive staircase leads to the top.
The women mold and bake the bricks for the men. The two sexes work separately, coming together only when a pair of women brings a load of the clay bricks to the temple, where the men are laboring. They transport the bricks on stretchers between them. The women are shielded from the men's eyes by covering themselves in cylindrical fabric constructs. The fabric is decorated with the symbolic patterns shown on this issue's cover. If the men see the shape of a woman's body madness will seize them.
When two women arrive with more bricks, a group of men resting on the ziggurat's stairs refuse to let them pass. An older man encourages his son to reach out and uncover one of the women. What they see startles them so that the older man nearly falls to his destruction. In the confusion, the women slip by and ascend to the heavens.
At this, our guide transforms herself from observer to subject and swims back to her home, her mate, and their children. The two nubile young women embrace while their children celebrate their mother's return. Their bliss soon consummates and both give birth, one to a son and one to a daughter. Our guide then departs for Gehenne, the place where evil people go in the afterlife, leaving her wife to care for their hordes of children.
The River and the Sea is an excellent example of the unique stories being told in mini comics today. Check out this beautifully crafted allegory for yourself.
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Reviewer Bio
R. Krauss reviews small press and mini comics on Midnight Fiction, Poopsheet Foundation and Comic Related.
Name: Richard Krauss
email: arkay@midnightfiction.com
Been reading comics: since I started reading Marvel comics in Junior High School.
Review Bio: After several years I discovered titles like Zap and Bijou at a headshop and was seduced by the freedom and variety they offered. When the new-wave comix era sprouted from the seeds of the undergrounds, I quickly joined the ranks of other struggling cartoonists with phenomenally low print runs. After almost a decade of small press comix, I retired and made a solemn vow never to return. Several years later the Internet happened and over time many of my favorite new-wave cartoonists got online. The bug bit again and I started exploring the new crop of small press cartoonists. Today's explosion of small press comics is more exciting than any time I've ever seen.
Favorites: Papercutter, Not My Small Diary, Slam Bang, Comic Eye, stuff from Main Enterprises and Weird Muse, to name a few.
Website: MidnightFiction.com
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