The Placebo Man

by Tomer Hanuka

This trade collects nine short pieces by Israeli comics artist Tomer Hanuka. Each of these stories are experimental in nature, often incorporating stream of consciousness, or dream imagery. Other stories jump around in time, often unexpectedly.

Hanuka's characters are frequently isolated and unhappy, revisiting past mistakes or poor decisions. My favorite story is about Johnny Weissmuller, the Olympic athlete and Tarzan actor, in his last days.

Hanuka's pencil drawings remind me of Dave McKean's work on Cages (which I really should re-read one of these days); his characters are angular and rough-hewn, and their surroundings are often sparse. It looks nothing like his magazine work for publications like the New Yorker.

This is a difficult, but interesting piece of work.