The Daily Cross Hatch » Supernormal by Marko Turunen

Supernormal by Marko Turunen

Supernormal
By Marko Turunen
Daada books

Remember that computer game Civilisation, where you played as a, well, a civilisation and tried whooping another civilisation’s ass? Well I caned that (played a lot) as a kid. Forgoing real relationships for that of ‘settlers’ and ‘infantry,’ the outside world’s loss was, well, no one’s gain, really. But I was pretty chuffed to get the latest version for my 30th, so now I can relive those days indoors while it’s gorgeous outside.

Maybe, back then as a kid, if I’d had as much fun making comics as I did storing them away, only to bin them when porn and cigarettes came along, then I might be where Marko Turunen is. Supernormal is a substantial and rewarding read. But if you forget to read the notes in the back and just dive right in, like I did, then what had seemed like an impressively weighty tome begins with caped-crusader fare fitting of a competent child at best. It’s al,; “and then the goodie does this, and then the baddie does that and then this wall falls down and then everyone’s captured!” At this point I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the 400+ pages, so I had a quick flick and thankfully found the explanatory bit. Turns out it was done by a child. Well, that’s a relief. Pretty impressive for an 11 year old; although some clunky translation makes it a difficult read for this dyslexic.

The second part, ‘Megarella vs. Spacemegarella,’ which continues the first’s good guy verse bad guy theme, is the result of collaboration between the artist and his spouse and too much time on the artist’s hands as an invigilator at a barely frequented gallery. A continuing of the ropey translation does, however, produce such choice lines as: “the hell is loose and it’s huge!” I’ve never been a big fan of artists explaining themselves in their books but it’s a guilty pleasure to read Turunen’s notes on each story as you follow them, it’s like, “hey, you like comics too! Duuude”.

‘Normal Nro 1’ takes big strides forward in storytelling, containing little skits about a mother and child cow, wrapped in shiny paper while hitchhiking trains (hold on it gets weirder), to an elf king and rat who share the one brain while ruling their kingdom. Books like this make reviewing easy—read that last sentence again and tell me you don’t want this book.

‘On the Way Home’ is drawn as if looking in to some bad event through a dirty window, all blurred and exciting. It’s an unsettling technique and the high point of this part of the book. After some serious takes on insanity, death and malnutrition, the section endswith an audible laugh, with ‘Comics Save,’ in which Santa gives a dying man a tracheotomy with a rolled up comic.

It’s interesting being able to see one artist’s development through the pages of a single book, from eager teen through randy student, to the birth of an experimental, risk taking writer of note.

The art improves ten fold in ‘Stretch,’ with a return to superhero narrative. The artist uses photocopies of his and his girlfriend’s faces for the two leads, and illustrates Stretch’s powers by pulling the image across the copier’s glass while it’s doing it’s job. The artist states he thinks it provided mixed results but I think it’s spot on throughout. If he’d just stuck with pictures of the lovely couple then it would have been tacky but this experimentation avoids that by a country mile. The translation’s a great deal better as well, helping you better understand their relationship, paper-thinly disguised as caped- crusader fare.

‘Panorama of Home Sweet 43m Squared” is a tour of our couple’s apartment, in white line on black, highlighting bugs and insects drawn by our heroine, Annermari. But this is just a pleasant precursor to the highlight of the book by far, a single panel-per-page all ages story ‘Varpu Continues Her Diary,’ a cross between Tony Millionaire and that fella who did Where the Wild Things Are [Maurice Sendak—Ed.]. Our little girl is taken to the theatre where she gets bored and not a little lost. It’s as good as anything I’ve seen in an age, and if I had any time for kids, I’d be reading them this.

The originality takes a bit of a nosedive with ‘Kill Bunny.’ There’s a cute bunny who happens to be a ninja and there’s other bunnies and they kill things and so on and so on; simple drawings of cute things doing bad things. Have a route through your stash; you’ll have seen it before. There’s a photo story of a blue penguin being molested by some dogs, before some Brian Chippendale takes on the superhero stuff, which is some considerable style over not much content, before more cute-things-swearing-and-doing-bad-things, only this time it’s a bear.

A disappointing end to a substantial body of work is saved with a return to the story book style of ‘Varpu…,’ in ‘The Bear And Mouse,’ which is the artist’s take on a Finish folk story. The beautiful art is achieved by scratching the drawings with a nail onto transparency film which was then Xeroxed black. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I could just eat it up. It’s a fitting end to an enjoyable read. With a book that covers one artist’s progression through genres and mediums, you’re going to get the odd miss, but they are few and far between.

PS: I enjoyed this book so much that I carried it around for ages, getting food on the cover that had to be Photoshopped off before sending.

–Oliver East

Reviews | bheater June 4, 2008

No Comments

By Rick, June 7, 2008 @ 6:01 pm

Love CrossHatch! Typos?

“Remember that computer game Civilisation, where you played as a, well, a civilisation and tried whooping another civilisation’s ass? Well I caned that (played a lot) as a kid.”
By bheater, June 8, 2008 @ 1:41 am

Leave him alone, he’s British!