Night Bus
Journey through the countryside in this magical realist debut from an underground Chinese cartoonist
In Night Bus, a young woman wearing round glasses finds herself on an adventurous late night bus ride that constantly makes detours through increasingly fantastical landscapes. Meanwhile a young cartoonist returns home after art school and tries his hand at becoming a working artist while watching over his aging grandmother whose memory is deteriorating. Nostalgic leaps take us to an elementary school gymnasium that slowly morphs into a swamp and is raided by a giant catfish. Beetles, salamanders, and bug-eyed fish intrude upon the bus ride of the round-glasses woman as the night stretches on. Night Bus blends autobiography, horror, and fantasy into a vibrantly detailed surreal world that shows a distinct talent surveying his past.
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[Night Bus explores] memories of a vanishing China and track[s] the dramatic changes wrought on the landscape by industrialization.--The New Yorker
Readers will awe at Ma's transporting visions.--Publishers Weekly Layered, poetic, deeply personal stories about a young artist and a country in transition. The dream-like, sometimes uncomfortable stories and highly rendered environments feel like echoes of Tsuge or Tatsumi updated for a new generation.--Matt Forsythe, Pokko and the Drum Night Bus depicts sleepy, starry, bug swarmed countrysides, far away from the turmoil I currently experience. The book sparked far off memories of catching bugs and chance encounters with strange kids and adults doing things I found puzzling and objectionable. These memories make me want to fall into a coma and escape the oppressive stress of city life. The depictions of mundane existence, concerns about the elderly, and Zuo Ma's own career path drift seamlessly into moody creature fantasies that at times escalate into full-on kaiju sequences. The darkened, cinematic faces linger.--Jesse Moynihan, Forming, Midnight Gospel, Adventure Time Ma--a leader in China's alternative comics scene--thoughtfully annotates each story with provenance and original publication, layering context and personal experience into his graphic memories. In this homage to familial storytelling, Ma--translated into English by small comics publisher Martin--succeeds in creating an intriguing portrait of an artistic young man showcasing his well-earned individuality.--Booklist
