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The Short Elegy (小輓)

Animo Chen(阿尼默)
Locus Publishing Company
2020 Bologna Ragazzi Award Comics – Young Adult
2020 Golden Tripod Award Children and Young Adult", "2019 OPENBOOK Award
To be published in Spanish!
Created using mixed media, the comic resembles pieces of paintings; a highly literary “death” themed comic.
Preview

Introduction

“Elegy,” regardless of its format, is an ode for the dead. We gain from losing, and lose from gaining.

Having ventured into illustration/comics/animation, Animo Chen began to focus on pure artistic creation after going abroad to Czech. He conceptualized for over a decade and worked for three years to depict the theme of “death” from three aspects:

“Dry River” depicts the indescribable shock and tender responses after witnessing death in childhood; “Home Mosquito” presents parallel storylines of the emotional struggles of human and mosquito moms trying to raise offspring; “The Ribbon” tells a fantasy story of “when longing kills,” depicting the sense of loss and ever-lasting memory of love. In other words, the three stories in “The Short Elegy” present Animo's three pictorial elegies regarding “little, insignificant deaths.”

Without any text, Animo uses highly artistic scenes to present these stories that have lingered on his mind for a long time, while also incorporating old-time visual and cultural elements of Taiwan in the backgrounds of the stories masterfully. Every frame, regardless of composition, colors, or details and layers, is measurable to an outstanding painting. The 300 pages of serial pictures require much creative effort, and the entire book is as touching as a long ensemble of poems, and the serial frames convey multilayered and complicated emotions and ideas that intrigue and mesmerize readers.

About the Author

Animo Chen(阿尼默)

Animo Chen graduated from Dayeh University with a degree in Visual Communication Design and has an MA from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Czech. His works are prolific and varied, and he has worked as a still photographer, art director for film and TV, and has directed animations. He also has 18 years of illustration experience. He specializes in literary expression of images; he publishes many works in the literary supplements of newspapers and also designs book covers.

His first comic book, “The Short Elegy,” won the 2020 Bologna Ragazzi Award for Comics - Young Adult; next year, in 2021, his first picture book, “Love Letter,” also won the Bologna Ragazzi Award for Poetry.

THE SHORT ELEGY © 2019 Animo Chen / Locus Publishing Company