Picking up Pieces by Christian Skovgaard

Picking up Pieces Reviews

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  Fredrik Strömberg

  The third graphic novel in C'est Bon Kultur's new drive to publish one free standing books for very other issue of C'est Bon Magazine. Again, I'm intrigued and fascinated by meeting new artists that I've had little or no previous exposure to in a full length book.
  
  Picking up Pieces was done by the Danish artist Christian Skovgaard, of whom I've read the mini comic
  Selvtægtsmanden, which was published earlier by a Danish publisher, and also seen featured in the book We Need to Talk, where there were photos of an interesting design for displaying the art from this very graphic novel.
  
  Picking up Piece is a full 62 page long graphic novel, and as far as I can tell, an exam project. Here's the description from the artist's web page:
  
  "Picking up pieces is a 62 page graphic novel done in airbrush and deals with loss and psycho-geography; how our environment affects us psychologically.
  
  The story follows a young woman, who in dealing with the death of her lover, finds that the traumatic memory of her loss is tied to a collapsed archive.
  
  Later, she realizes that not only the archive, but other places in different ways similar to it, triggers the same painful recollections. Now at her wits end, she makes a discovery."
  
  The idea here is great, and the audacity of having a working cut-out model, the same that is featured in the story, included in a fold-out dustcover is beautiful. I didn't get fully into the story, emotionally, though, as it felt a bit too constructed to fit an idea. I will most definitely follow the career of Skovgaard, as this book is promising to say the least.
  
  
  So far I've reviewed three books in CBA's new graphic novel series:
  
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  All Saints (CBA #23)
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  Lapsos(CBA #25)
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  Picking up Pieces (CBA #27)