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The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
There's No Time Like the Present by Paul B Rainey review – a funny, unpredictable and wild comic
People who enjoy science fiction love to imagine the future: time travel, spaceships, something wobbly with a green face. But what if those fans really had access to it – the future, I mean – courtesy of something very similar to the internet? This is the possibility Paul B Rainey floats in There's No Time Like the Present, in which a crowd of misfits from Milton Keynes (once the future itself) are able, if not to visit Mars, then at least to watch episodes of Doctor Who that have not yet been screened. Mordant and misanthropic in almost equal measure, Rainey's book has three central characters, each one somewhat stuck, unable fully to escape their childhood. Barry, an obnoxious lazybones, still lives at home with his parents; he makes his living selling bootleg recordings of TV shows he has lifted from the 'ultranet', which provides entry to the future. Cliff, Barry's friend, and a yoghurt-addicted woman called Kelly live together in her new house, but they're not a couple; while he secretly pines for her, he's only her tenant. In the evenings, they watch, with varying degrees of guilt, future episodes of their favourite series (Doctor Who in his case, Emmerdale in hers): tapes pressed on them by the grisly Barry. All of the pleasure of this book lies in Rainey's close attention to the quotidian. If a strange figure from the future does at one point visit present-day Milton Keynes, we're very far indeed from Star Wars here. Kelly only books a session on the office ultranet in desperation, after a particularly depressing work appraisal, and even then all she wants to know is how much longer she'll be stuck with her awful boss. When Rainey plays with time himself, it's often in the same way as any traditional novelist would. Time passes. The narrative leaps on. If Kelly ends up having some full-on sci-fi adventures courtesy of the strange and charismatic Ogmyre – he's the one with the horn – we also get to see a much older Barry at a drop-in centre for pensioners (alas, he's no more sympathetic). There's No Time Like the Present isn't a new book; it came out originally in 2015. But Rainey's career has taken an extraordinary turn. In 2020, he won the Observer/Faber graphic short story prize, after many decades of making comics (he's a regular contributor to Viz, the influence of which is sometimes detectable in his work). In 2023, Drawn & Quarterly published his graphic novel Why Don't You Love Me?, and soon afterwards it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence was to develop it as a feature film. Now D&Q has stepped in with this beautiful new edition of an old book – which is neat in the context of its subject. For me, it's marred slightly by the attitude of some of its male characters towards women; I understand their inadequacy and loneliness, but the misogyny that rises from its early pages is horrible, nevertheless. But it's worth pressing on. This is a funny, unpredictable, rather wild comic: the unlikely product of a singular imagination. There's No Time Like the Present by Paul B Rainey is published by Drawn & Quarterly (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
CBC
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Muybridge by Guy Delisle
Sacramento, California, 1870. Pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge becomes entangled in railroad robber baron Leland Stanford's delusions of grandeur. Tasked with proving Stanford's belief that a horse's hooves do not touch the ground while galloping at full speed, Muybridge gets to work with his camera. In doing so, he inadvertently creates one of the single most important technological advancements of our age—the invention of time-lapse photography and the mechanical ability to capture motion. Critically-acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Hostage) returns with another engrossing foray into nonfiction: a biography about Eadweard Muydbridge, the man who made pictures move. Despite career breakthrough after career breakthrough, Muybridge would only be hampered by betrayal, intrigue, and tragedy. Delisle's keen eye for details that often go unnoticed in search of a broader emotional truth brings this historical figure and those around him to life through an uncompromising lens. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall, Muybridge turns a spotlight on what lives in the shadow of an individual's ambition for greatness, and proves that Eadweard Muybridge deserves to be far more than just another historical footnote. (From Drawn & Quarterly) Guy Delisle is an critically-acclaimed cartoonist originally from Québec City. His books include Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen.
CBC
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Inside the mind of Émile Nelligan, a romantic and tragic Montreal poet whose work changed Quebec
This video was produced by Arizona O'Neill as part of the CBC Creator Network and originally published in February 2025. Learn more about the Creator Network here. Émile Nelligan is one of Quebec's most romantic literary figures, but also one of its most tragic. His words and life are the stuff of legend in French Quebec. The handsome poet exploded onto the literary scene at the end of the 19th century, at the age of 19, changing the content and structure of Quebec literature — leading it from conventionality into lyrical and experimental introspection. His later commitment to a mental health facility has sparked an endless fascination with Nelligan's life and inner state, inspiring operas, plays and movies. His oeuvre was written between the ages of 16 and 19 years old, before he vanished from the literary scene. What happened? Arizona O'Neill dives into the mythos of this poet, separating fact from fiction. She examines this sensitive teenager's poems that have not left Quebecers' lips since they were first written. A mystery outside of French Quebec, O'Neill introduces Nelligan to a new audience and hopes viewers will seek out more of Émile Nelligan's work. O'Neill is a Montreal-based writer and illustrator. She has published the illustrated book Est-ce qu'un artiste peut être heureux? and illustrated Nelly Arcan's L'enfant dans le miroir. O'Neill's graphic memoir is forthcoming with publisher Drawn & Quarterly.
