Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"The blood of Christ is dripping through my ears."
"Sit on my face and tell me that you love me."
…
"Chess players' expanded brains are working at top speed."
Haha, the two pages of 'Italo Sports' two panel gag strips had me spluttering my coffee out. Before we go any further, here's the publisher's explanation for this bulging bag of mad from one of the most mental minds working in comics today…
"This anthology of short stories looks like the work of many cartoonists but is actually that of Finnish cartoonist Tommi Musturi. The Anthology of Mind is a tour de force of stylistic exploration and a window into the brain of one of the most creatively fearless cartoonists working today.
'Style is a form of fear - fear of change, fear of loss, and fear of being different,' according to the author.
In The Anthology of Mind, Musturi confronts this fear head-on with one of the most vital and visually stunning collections of short comics in recent memory."
I first came across Tommi Musturi thanks to John Porcellino, who was stocking one of the component parts of what would go on to be collected as the superb THE BOOK OF HOPE. I loved his dry wit, absurdist humour, and indeed his artistic style. So much so, then when he subsequently released SIMPLY SAMUEL, I was a little nonplussed by how different it was, both in art and storytelling terms. I guess I had wanted, and expected, more of the same.
So this collection of material spectacularly highlights I genuinely didn't have a clue just how diverse Tommi's output is. His quote above clearly demonstrates the reasoning behind why in 38 stories over nearly 120 pages there is barely a single concrete repetition of artistic style. Yes, there are some variations on a theme artistically, but aside from Bryan Talbot, I am hard pushed to think of such a comprehensively chameleonic creator.
In terms of storytelling, Tommi clearly has a penchant for the surreal and the absurd and definitely excels in combining the two. I wouldn't necessarily clarify a lot of this material as an easy read but if you are a fan of the experimental, with heavy emphasis on the mental, I think you will find this anthology highly amusing and wryly entertaining.
