It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

Actually, life is beautiful (english It's a good life, if you do not weaken ) Seth is a mid-1990s as a Graphic Novel Comic incurred, which he recorded as a six- splitter for his book series Palookaville.

Action

The comic artist Seth (the author draws itself ) is located in a sort of existential crisis. He feels himself as fallen out of time and can not get used to the constant change subject to life. Seth has only a good friend who is also active in the comic milieu, his relationships with women are always doomed to failure, his family provides him only as a symbol of a secure past support.

One day, Seth pushes in an old issue of the magazine The New Yorker on a cartoon of a cartoonist named " Kalo ". Him starts this interested him until then unknown, and so he tries to find out more about him. Over the next few years, he compiles a total of eleven drawings that appeared in prestigious magazines such as " Collier's ," Esquire or " The Saturday Evening Post ," but also in unfamiliar leaves. Seth finds out the actual name " Kalos " and that he, as Seth himself, was Canadian. Later he went back to his home and was a businessman.

The book ends with the narrator, two years after the beginning of his search, the daughter, the mother and the best friend of the searched meets for the first time and get a sense of the people Jack Kalloway.

Conception

According to the story eleven drawings are reprinted from " Kalo ". However, Jack Kalloway is a fictional character and the drawings are by Seth. The core of "Actually, life is beautiful " are the atmospheric depictions of the life of a man who lives his life essentially on their own and for the search for the missing colleagues ultimately a search for himself is. About all the times across Seth omitted text, on the other hand scatters detailed reflections on life and comics, which determine its perception of reality, for example, Peanuts or Tintin.

The comic strip is obtained in this way a contemplative and melancholic character, on the one hand compresses the atmosphere of the medium and at the same time makes his fascination experienced beyond a targeting action on offense.

Reviews

This " comic about the comic" was chosen by the editors of " COMICS JOURNAL " one of the best " 100 Comics of the Century", also on the editorial board of the "Comic Speedline ".

Andreas C. Knigge called him one of his favorite stories.

Find out more

The artwork of the album "Lost In Space" by Aimee Mann was designed by Seth, and includes excerpts from "Actually, life is beautiful ". Aimee Mann's music, their stories and the mood of the album suitable for the above melancholic style of comics.

• Comic ( work )
• Literary work