Notes on GREYS

This is less a review and more of a brief general impression of the comic GREYS, by Olivier Schrauwen.

54 pages, 2 panels per page, black & white. Really nice use of grayscale throughout.

Published by Gabe Fowler at Desert Island.

Order it here.

U-tube promo flip-thru video here.

Of specific interest is Schrauwen’s use of abstract mark-making in panels depicting emotion. He refers to them as ‘word-image vignettes’.

These feel similar or akin to Denkbild, an approach at literary depiction of concepts ('thought-images') put forth by Walter Benjamin, TW Adorno, Ernst Bloch, and Siegfried Kracauer around 1920-1950.

More info about Denkbild can be found in Gerhard Richter’s book, Thought-Images: Frankfurt School Writers' Reflections from Damaged Life. Or check out Benjamin's essay One-way Street, or Adorno's book, Minima Moralia.