Page 45 Review by Stephen
Dreams and reflections, as Dupuy sets out to jog.
His memory gets a work-out too. Dupuy certainly doesn't mind bearing his soul (see also MAYBE LATER with Berberian), and here he comes to terms with himself, working his way through what has obviously been an overwhelming time for him, in a series of hallucinatory dreamscapes and recollections. Some are deeply disturbing, like the dog caught in a man-trap, gnawing off its own paw to be free, then freezing to death only to have its eye plucked out by a bird. Others are very revealing, as when he falls down a hole in an art gallery, and lies trapped under his own empty art show. Others are more reassuring, as a blind woman helps him look within to what matters and teaches him life lessons:
"Learn to lose yourself. You'll stop wondering where you are. And you'll never feel lost again..."
It's a bit like Anders' DOGS AND WATERS, only with some actual answers!
Amongst the many recurring themes: physical handicaps like blindness; overcoming them, forging on; collapsing buildings; the battle against entropy and bodily decay and injury; a feeling of being trapped and a fear of falling, including, I suspect, in love. That would certainly make sense in the context of Philippe's half of MAYBE LATER, and may (may!) explain the sequence here in which a macho, all-conquering Lucha Libre wrestler returns home after his bouts to dance to his gramophone... very much alone. The one challenge he refuses to take up is that from a girl - the challenge, I think, of love. Here's one of the forest friends (an anthropomorphic moose) from the, err, "Forest Friends" segment:
"The hardest thing is being willing to love, period. Even though you know it's going to be difficult, with hard times, disappointments, mistakes. That's what's tough: being ready to love in spite of it all."
I can't say I quite understand the emphasis on the stress of needing to pee - though I should imagine we've all gone through that! - and perhaps you should erase my own suppositions from your minds before embarking on this yourself, because it is, like Woodring's work, something you can interpret for yourselves depending on what you bring to the table.
The art is far looser than usual, sketched in sometimes borderless panels, propelling the journey ever onwards as Dupuy tries to escape being bogged down by his past, his present and his future.
