Book Review: Nufonia Must Fall by Kid Koala

by anna battista

Everything is quiet and a bit boring in the futuristic town of Nufonia: a cute and shy robot is comfortably sitting on an armchair, headphones on, listening to an album of sound effects. After a while he packs his record player and goes to work by underground, listening during the trip to work another weird album, "Music for Commuters". He gets off at the station of Uqam and goes to work, as he does everyday, in a sandwich shop. Not far from there, an office woman is snowed under a pile of documents in her office, she's on the phone, then she's opening her mail, then she's typing something on her computer. Little do they suspect that they will soon meet and fall in love (though there will be quite a few surprises for the shy robot on the real identity of the woman he's fallen in love with…). This is the basic plot for Nufonia Must Fall, a book written and drawn by Eric San, better known to his fans as scratcher Kid Koala, and coloured by Louisa Schabas.

The characters in this 350-page graphic novel do not say a word at all, but there's a bonus that comes with this book, a CD of music composed by Kid Koala to listen to while you leaf through the pages of the volume. It contains ten tracks, mainly lulling piano melodies (occasionally there's some scratching on them to give them a distinctive Kid Koala feeling) without any titles, but only defined by the numbers of the pages, so that you'll have the impression of watching a video or a silent movie rather than reading a book.

The drawings of Nufonia Must Fall might be rather minimalist, but they are simply perfect for this story which will have you laughing and crying and will confirm that Kid Koala is a crazy eclectic artist.

{www.ecwpress.com}

Issue 17, November 2003