Swan Song a soaring flight about music through art
22 illustrated stories cut across a range of genres from fantasy to cultural theory
The 16th graphic novel to come from Vancouver’s Cloudscape Comics is billed as “an anthology of stories about music.”
What that includes is a everything from Talisein at King Maelgwn’s Court — a story inspired by the traditional Welsh harp songs Caniad y Gwyn Bibydd (Song of the White Piper) — to the Klara Waldenga’s delightful Your Brain on Music, fuelled by Culprate’s Relucent.
All told, there are 22 illustrated stories in the book, which must be commended for its inspired design.
To start with, it’s the size of a standard vinyl album cover and can be filed right into your record shelves. Each chapter is divided up by a single titled page that is a record album with the story name on it, as well as the music that the author or authors used as inspiration.
It’s an ingenious way to put together a book, and the print and colour quality is excellent. In other words, this is one you’ll keep going back to.
Led Zeppelin fans will be quick to catch that the title of the tome is also the name of the seminal British rockers’ record label. But don’t come to this compendium looking for any kind of heavy metal magazine junk. Jeffrey Ellis’ title story actually is based on Matthew Good’s The Vancouver National Anthem.
Cloudscape has never really gone down that road, instead offering up non-clichéd narratives from creators who get out of their basements on a regular basis to engage with the full spectrum of Lower Mainland communities. The material is delightfully varied; it explores music across all kinds of genres and touches on everything from science to cultural theory, sci-fi and fantasy and even some spores with killer harmonies.
Enjoy honest expressions of why Tegan and Sara are impor- tant to so many (Tegan and Sara and Me by James Brandi) to Emily Cowan’s wonderful The Sound of Silence, all about not really being into music much at all. That her work selects The Young Canadians’ I Hate Music as a muse is all the better.
Not only does Swan Song give you a really good read, but If you seek out all of the corresponding tracks to go with Swan Song’s stories, it makes for a delightfully varied mixed tape you can play in the background, too. Including both The Orchestra (connecting all the stories to the authors and contact info) and the closing essay (titled The Secret History of Cloudscape Comics) takes you through the valuable work this art charity dedicated to developing B.C.'s comics’ community has been doing.
As an introduction to the collective’s output, Swan Song takes flight. It’s also a perfect seasonal gift for anyone with a penchant for graphic novels and/or music.