Seeing and Nothingness: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Haida Manga, and a Critique of the Gutter

Abstract

"there is not a single set of terms by which to define Canadian graphic novels any more than there is a single set of terms by which to define Canada. At least some art, if not some part of all art, is a critique of conventions, including the conventions of art itself. When he launched Red at WordFest in 2009, Yahgulanaas said that it was a book designed to invite discussion. He offered it as both an opportunity and a test—to see if anyone was listening, not just to a story worth thinking about, but, to a way of story-telling and sense-making presented in a language that could be called universal if only because it might make what we do not understand about each other clear."