Claytor, Ryan – And Then One Day #6

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And Then One Day #6 Now Available! $12

Boy is it tempting to ignore any semblance of a review and just go into the question posed in Ryan’s introduction: what is autobiography? Ryan had been mulling that over after seeing a theory that all autobiography is no more valid than fiction, as it’s all subjective information given by the subject in question. So Ryan decided to gather together various people from his life (parents, old and new friends, exes, acquaintances, even a teacher), give them a set of 20 questions and a tape recorder, and put them in a quiet room by themselves to answer all those questions. He then gathered all that information and put them all into this comic, which is theoretically more autobiographical than his previous comics. I think his leaving the room while they answered questions was a bit of overkill, as he’s no more likely to get truthful answers out of someone while they’re answering questions with the full knowledge that he’ll be listening to their answers soon enough anyway than he would if he was the one asking them, but who’s to say if I’m right on that one? Also I thought the interactions between himself and various friends would have been more potentially revealing than just setting them loose on their own. Well, there it is, that’s a ready-made project for #7, and the only thing that will satisfy my curiosity as to which method would work better. As for his general theories about how this would work out, he was probably right. We get to learn all sorts of things about Ryan that he probably would have never revealed otherwise, even if it is an “all ages” book, so we don’t get all the dirt and/or more embarrassing information, which is probably for the best anyway. You know, for somebody who was “taking a break” after #4, he sure has put out a lot of quality work since. I’m aware that my saying that everything he puts out is his best work yet gets a little tiring, but it sure seems true. This one is a must for any artist trying to define the nature of autobiography, as there’s plenty in here, from the content to the methodology, to get a conversation started on where this artform should go from here. $12