"Floating Horizon" by Chris Ware (2014) comic review

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[Book cover of graphic novel "Floating Horizon" by Chris Guest (2014) - comic review from comics recommendation list]
Now, I need to mention Floating Horizon by Chris Guest.
Floating Horizon is a concertina book that is ten metres long. Ten metres!
Now, for those of you living in Liberia, Burma, or... the United States, ten metres equals 32 feet!
Anyway, Floating Horizon is a book that has human civilisation, and environmental sustainability as its underlying theme.
And just to tell you a little bit of the back story of this book, Chris Guest is an architect, based here in Australia.
And he's quite passionate about environmental issues, such as human resource consumption, and the types of houses that we live in.
But besides architecture, Chris is an illustrator and he had this idea for a graphic novel.
And the idea was so appealing to Chris that he realised that he wanted to draw it so badly that he took eighteen months off work –
he earned enough money from his architectural work that he could essentially afford to pay himself to draw this book.
And then he self-published the book in 2014, following a successful crowdfunding campaign.
As for the book itself, Floating Horizon, is a single, wordless scene that begins in an urban city,
showing the rows and rows of suburban houses stretching across the landscape,
and it then moves out of town to show all of the agriculture and primary industries that are needed to feed the city.
As we gradually move from left-to-right in Floating Horizon, we get into a wilderness area,
where we see the occasional bushwalker, and the occasional skinny-dipper enjoying the great outdoors.
And then, toward the end of the scene, we return back to an urban environment.
But unlike the original city that we saw, which was a sprawling suburban nightmare,
the new city seems to be a lot more in tune with its environment.
There are urban gardens, including green roofs on the buildingtops.
There's urban agriculture.
There's lots of renewable energy being generated on site.
And the design of this new city seems a lot more people-friendly.
Floating Horizon is a work that makes you think about the scale of humanity's impact on the planet, and the way we our built environment, and how it impacts on Earth's landscape.
But, I guess, beyond these themes, the artwork is just stunning to look at in general.
Particularly the way that the perspective keeps on warping and morphing as we move from left-to-right.
We see everything from aerial shots, to close-ups of people climbing a mountain, and there's even a low angle shot with a fish eye lens effect.
It's the kind of thing that superficially seems like a kid's book, but is actually thought-provoking for people of all ages.
It works great as a book, but I'd actually like to see it produced as something to be hung on a wall.
Maybe a little bit like what Chris did at his launch event in 2014.
It'd be nice to have this artwork in the hallway to an office,
where if you've had a busy few hours staring at a spreadsheet, you could take a break and get your imagination back by getting lost in Floating Horizon.
Anyway, I'm really glad for my sake that Chris took eighteen months off his architectural work to draw this book, because now the rest of us get to enjoy it.
So, get your hands on Floating Horizon by Chris Guest.
At this stage, the book is only available for sale through his personal website, chrisguest.net.
And, look, while we're at it, let's compare Floating Horizon against the other concertina book that I own: which is The Great War by Joe Sacco.
[music: "Static" by Screamfeeder]
All right, it looks like we have a winner! Floating Horizon by Chris Guest!
Anyway, these are the only two concertina books that I'm aware of so far.
So please let me know in the comments whether there are other similar books that I should check out.
And if you like these videos and you want me to keep making more of them, please visit my crowdfunding website crowdfundstu.com.
It allows you to donate a small recurring payment – maybe $5 per month – that allows me to find the time to write and shoot these videos,
as well as to draw my own comics, which you can also see through crowdfundstu.com.
Anyway, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time!
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"Floating Horizon" by Chris Ware (2014) comic review - graphic novel recommendations

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