REVIEW: Swan Songs #2

Coming out of a 6-year relationship is nothing short of disastrous. The love, the smiles, the incredible sex quickly turn into bad memories, pained looks, and horrible arguments that quickly devolve into screaming and then total and complete silence. This book is all of that and more. Swan Songs follows the grueling divorce of John and Eileen but it tells this story in quite an excellent matter. Instead of the usual sad story of two people first coming together only to come apart then, we get a spin on your usual narrative instead of simply divorcing and splitting their material belongings. John and Eileen are locked into “various styles of mortal combat for all eternity”.

This is a really good book, and I think the fact that I’m currently single and trying my best to let go of a relationship makes this resonate with me that much more. The art is outstanding, it features semi-realistic character designs along with relatively flat colors that look great against mostly flat color backgrounds. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is how in between each section of their love story, you get one of those “mortal combat” scenes and it’s drawn in a style that whilst very similar to the rest of the book still has a lot of different elements, like more colors, more background details and at times even tries to mimic another artist (in this case Jack Kirby). It gives the book a clear distinction between the character’s love stories and the horrible sadness and anger that comes with a breakup. Each battle scene ends with one of the characters killing the other, and in some cases, both of them end up dead. I think this is a magnificent way of portraying the tumult of moving on. The dreams we get once we go from seeing someone every day to not seeing them at all, the internal struggle of the once loved now hated. It features some risky drawings, like a panel of them having sex, which is very arousing, as well as an incredibly gory full-page illustration of both of the characters dead with missing limbs. Despite its relatively flat coloring, and semi-realistic designs these sorts of drawings end up being shocking and captivating all at the same time.

The lettering is wonderful, and whilst I would’ve loved seeing a few extra sound fxs during some of the battle scenes, I think the fonts and style of word balloons work perfectly for this sort of story. It is a serious story, but it also has a few funny moments, however, in general, it’s an emotional piece that makes you think deeply and consider your love life, past-present, and future. The pacing is very good and it feels very natural to read and overall really just a tremendous experience. It ultimately does make me sad, because it resonates so deeply with my current life experience, but I think that’s a good thing. It is truly wonderful when a piece of art touches your soul so deeply that you are moved to feel something. Whether that is sadness, joy, or sorrow the fact that paint marks on a piece of paper can feel so realistic and so understanding is the mark of true art.

Reading stories like this is fantastic because it shows you that you’re not alone in your pain. That no matter how you might be feeling right now, you’re not the first person in the world to go through this pain, and there is hope. There is no doubt possibility that you will get over this and move on, and come out of it stronger. It feels like a very empathic story because it’s not trying to come at you with cliches or trying to demonize the breaker upper, instead, it shows you that everyone is at fault for love being lost, and that love is a constant battle that you can’t ever hope to win. You must try your best to give it your all and hope that the other person will give it their all as well. It’s quite a beautiful story. There is also a very nice metaphor of how people remember things differently and it’s explored several times throughout the story with the use of apples vs avocados. John remembers that the day they met Eileen was shopping for apples, but Eileen remembers that they were shopping for avocados, and whilst this is just a tiny little detail in the story, it just goes to show that people remember what they want to remember and that ultimately the past doesn’t exist but in our minds. Speaking of these fruits there are some panels that are painted in a realistic style of these fruits and it shows how they slowly rot and decay and all of that is then tied into the overarching narrative of a failing relationship, and I think that was masterfully done. This book just has a lot of little details that serve as metaphors for the overall story of a breakup and I think that is magnificent.

Love and anger are truly human emotions and everyone will no doubt have gone through them at some point in their life, we’ve all been in love one way or another and we’ve all been broken up with, but to be able to analyze it and then distill it down into a piece of art such as this is a completely new level of letting go, and it gives me true hope that surviving this heartbreak is possible.

For that and more this book is a 5 out of 5 and I think it should be in your collection.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by: W. Maxwell Prince

Art by: Caspar Wijngaard

Lettering by: Good Old Neon

Cover art by: Caspar Wijngaard

Variant Covers by: Frazer Irving, Morazzo & O’Halloran

Published by Image Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”