The impulse to anecdote is ubiquitous in mankind; we all want to tell our own stories. Little Nothings, Vol. Trondheim mostly makes fictional comics β Dungeon and Kaput and Zosky and Mister O and many more β but he also has kept a comics blog in French, mostly focused on the small moments of his life.
Three collections from the blog have been published in his native France; the first two have been translated so far for the English-speaking world. I reviewed the first one here back in March of last year. As with the Dungeon books, all of the people are drawn anthropomorphically β Trondheim and his family are various kinds of bird, and most of the others look like different kinds of mammals β rats and dogs and cats.
Either Trondheim travels an awful lot or travel is more conducive to diary comics than his regular life, since a clear majority of the comics here are about trips β to the Angouleme comics festival a year when he was the Guest of Honor , several other comics events, and vacation in Greece, Guadeloupe, and Corsica.
There are no grand gestures in Prisoner Syndrome , no deep thoughts or big moments β the series is called Little Nothings for a reason. But there are many thoughtful little moments, of the kind that make up all of our lives, and Trondheim is an artful and nuanced portrayer of his own internal life. Paley and Swain are now a couple β and have been for some time β but these stories take place long before that, when Paley was young and aimless.
I can only imagine the conversations they had, as Swain tried to work out how to draw the prostitute on p. I envy the strength their relationship must have, if they can take on a project like this.
