"Amnesia" is an 8-page comic

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 by Al Columbia

Al Columbia

Al Columbia is an American cartoonist, illustrator, writer, photographer, musician, and filmmaker.-Big Numbers controversy:At the age of 19 Columbia was hired to work as an assistant to Bill Sienkiewicz on Alan Moore's Big Numbers series...

. It was published in the twentieth issue (September/October 1997) of Zero Zero.

Synopsis

Columbia's recurring character Seymour Sunshine is shown standing in the middle of a street, looking uncertain and ill at ease. The omniscient narrator

Narrator

A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...

 introduces him as a victim of amnesia

Amnesia

Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...

, and comments on his plight as he wanders confusedly through a landscape strewn with entrails and the carcasses of bizarre creatures. Stepping into an unfamiliar house, he responds hesitantly to a knock at the door, which proves to be his companion Knishkebibble the Monkey-Boy. Though he does not recognize him, Seymour follows Knishkebibble on a long overland journey to a fog-shrouded city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

. They find it inhabited by untold numbers of identical, cadaverous-looking men in suits with wrinkled, unsmiling faces. At first the men ignore the pair, but when the city's clock tower

Clock tower

A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...

 strikes on the hour the men's collective facial expression changes to a menacing grin and they begin to pursue Seymour and Knishkebibble, who run away in terror.

As the two interlopers cower in a hiding place, Seymour's memory is suddenly restored "with intoxicating clarity." He starts laughing with relief, insisting to Knishkebibble that "Those 'ghouls' are merely FIGMENTS of our own INTELLECT and can cause us no physical harm!" Speaking up loudly, he gets the attention of his pursuers, proclaiming them his "bond-slaves" and proposing that they can conquer the world under his command. The ghoulish men crowd around Seymour and Knishkebibble, still grinning menacingly and showing no signs of a change in disposition towards their prey. The final panel shows Seymour surrounded by the ghouls, his previously smiling face contorted into a nervous wince as he nonetheless asks "How'd you like them apples

How do you like them apples

How do you like them apples?, also shortened to, How you like them apples? or how bout that., sometimes spelled dem apples or those apples, is a phrase used to gloat or to express bemusement or vexation. In all senses, the phrase acts as a rhetorical question.-Film:The first known use in a film was...

, eh?"

Analysis and criticism

"Amnesia" represents a step in the development of Al Columbia's artistic style. While earlier works such as "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool

I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool

"I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" is an 8-page comic by Al Columbia. It was published in the fourth issue of Zero Zero...

" and "The Blood-Clot Boy

The Blood-Clot Boy

"The Blood-Clot Boy" is a 6-page comic by Al Columbia. It was published in the sixteenth issue of Zero Zero.-Synopsis:The wealthy Count and Countess Borovsky give their lovely conjoined twin daughters' hand in marriage, along with their home and fortune, to a visitor who claims to be a distant...

" used flat areas of color, in "Amnesia" Columbia used a combination of watercolor

Watercolor painting

Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...

, acrylic paint

Acrylic paint

Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...

, ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

, charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

, and digital tools to create minutely detailed chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....

 backgrounds that contrast with the cartoony look of the characters. As Paul Gravett

Paul Gravett

Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....

 commented: "Al works his flat, outlined Seymour and his pal into what look like soft focussed stills from some vintage black and white animated film. His bigfoot characters scurry about amongst period buildings and backgrounds that are richly textured and photorealist, bathed centre stage in glowing light, but shrouded in threatening shadow in the wings. He bans all speech bubbles and sets his perky text in eye-straining type above the image or in framed boxes."

Although the pictures in "Amnesia" can appear at a glance to be monochrome

Monochrome

Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...

, the story is actually printed in two colors. An unsigned editorial

Editorial

An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...

 in the final issue of Zero Zero noted ruefully that in this and similar stories such as "Alfred the Great" "Al was flirting with a two-color process that [cost] as much as any two-color process but was invisible to the reader."