David Small is back with a new comic, this time a collection of three short stories: an adaptation of two stories by other writers, The Werewolf at Dusk by Lincoln Michel, and The Tiger in Vogue by Jean Ferry, and an original, A Walk in the Old City. I wish Small had produced a comic only of his own material because his story is easily the best and the others are disappointingly poor.
The Werewolf at Dusk is about an elderly werewolf who tells us how he isn’t as vital now as he once was. He’s not just an old man but he transforms into an old werewolf too and both versions feel the ravages of age. That’s it. Ho hum. Very repetitive and one-note.
A Walk in the Old City is about a disaffected older psychiatrist who goes wandering through a labyrinthine city and gets lost - until he is saved by a quiet old man. The story goes from dream-like to nightmarish on a dime and I loved it. Haunting, imaginative - it’s easily the best story of the three.
The book closes out with The Tiger in Vogue. Set in Germany in the 1920s, a man goes to a music hall where he sees a performance featuring a tiger in a suit. It’s a rather strained and obvious metaphor for what Hitler would go on to do to Germany and its people. Like Werewolf at Dusk, the point here is laboured and banal.
I quite liked Small’s loose art throughout. It’s not as strong as in previous books but I think it’s more a sign of a confident illustrator than simply age (he’s now in his late ‘70s). The imagery in Old City is especially inspired - another reason why I would’ve preferred more of Small’s own stories than anyone else’s.
There’s one good story here out of the three at least so the collection’s not a total bust though it does also unfortunately make Werewolf at Dusk David Small’s weakest book in some time.
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