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Following the internationally acclaimed publication of Stitches, David Small emerged as a storied figure in graphic literature, eliciting comparisons to Stan Lee and Alfred Hitchcock. Werewolf at Dusk, appearing fifteen years later, is his homage to ageing—gracefully or otherwise. The three stories in this collection are linked, Small writes, “by the dread of things internal”. In the title story, an adaptation of Lincoln Michel’s much-loved short, the dread is that of a man who has reached old age with something repellant—even bestial—in his nature. The spectre of old age also haunts the semi-autobiographical story “A Walk in the Old City”, with its looming spiders and cascading brain-matter—a dreamscape that gives way to the ominous environs of 1930s Berlin in the final story, a reinterpretation of Jean Ferry’s “The Tiger in Vogue”. As fluid as manga and rife with unsettling imagery, Werewolf at Dusk affirms Small’s place as a modern master of graphic fiction.
Following the internationally acclaimed publication of Stitches, David Small emerged as a storied figure in graphic literature, eliciting comparisons to Stan Lee and Alfred Hitchcock. Werewolf at Dusk, appearing fifteen years later, is his homage to ageing—gracefully or otherwise. The three stories in this collection are linked, Small writes, “by the dread of things internal”. In the title story, an adaptation of Lincoln Michel’s much-loved short, the dread is that of a man who has reached old age with something repellant—even bestial—in his nature. The spectre of old age also haunts the semi-autobiographical story “A Walk in the Old City”, with its looming spiders and cascading brain-matter—a dreamscape that gives way to the ominous environs of 1930s Berlin in the final story, a reinterpretation of Jean Ferry’s “The Tiger in Vogue”. As fluid as manga and rife with unsettling imagery, Werewolf at Dusk affirms Small’s place as a modern master of graphic fiction.