Huang Shan
Nick mentioned in the letter he sent along with this comic that he probably should have included an English title on the cover, but by the time he realized that he already had a bunch of copies printed up, and here we are. I’m sure there’s some way to use kanji for the comic title, but damned if I know what that is. This is a story about the Huang Shan mountains, how Nick and a couple of friends decided to climb one (more or less on a whim), and how they then decided to climb down the mountain in the dark. I should be clear that this isn’t mountain climbing like you’d see where people are hanging by their fingernails as they ascend and descend, instead this looks like a mountain where there’s a pretty safe stairway carved into the mountain. Still, in an unfamiliar land in the dark there’s all kinds of risk. He also tells tales about getting sick of posing for photographs (as they were apparently the only Americans on the mountain), how Li Bai (a famous poet who wrote about everyday life) inspired them to descend in the dark, and how the journey is pretty much always more important than the destination. OK, I cheated on that one as it’s included in the letter, but Nick did an excellent job of making that clear in the book. It’s a fairly sizable book (in pure size, not length), once again making the “mini comic” name ridiculous, but if there’s a better way to describe these things I still haven’t heard it. Nick does an excellent job showing all the crowds and various happenings on the mountain; it’s clearly not an out-of-the-way place for most people. This is well worth checking out for fans of the travel comics though. He doesn’t have time here to get really in depth with his journey but he certainly manages to get his points across. $4
