Nufonia Must Fall…. and so shall we.

A long time ago in year long forgotten now, a small but quiet masterpiece was born and it was christened Nufonia Must Fall. The Creator of this quietly infectious grooving little tale  was a multi talented guy that had been very busy wooing the  world of music .

Eric San, most people will know as DJ Kid Koala or they know his ’scratchings’ that permeate many Gorillaz songs. He’s a  ‘turntablist’ of massive proportions and an artist of  multiple dimensions, which basically means he has a very busy mind.His foray into the world of Comics was actually a work of pure genius. Simple charcoal lines, almost no dialogue and a well thought out soundtrack to accompany the work made this book a coffee table staple. It’s not everyday you see such a large effort given to such a simplistic rendering and it totally works.

I fell in love with the story of Nufonia & Nufonia himself right away. He’s a headphone wearing cafeteria working  robot facing his own demise and plagued with the massive dysfunction of falling. By falling I mean falling down and falling in love; both of which he manages to do in own his shy and bumbling robotic way. He’s a hard character to not love and as each page reveals his sincerity and devotion it becomes apparent that love really is a universal concept that also comes with universal problems and joys regardless of your persona.

There is minimal dialogue within, instead you cue up the music that comes with the 352 pages of ‘silent’ story and begin your journey. The music is elegant and lively moving perfectly in synch with the unfolding tale. I think this aspect alone shows exactly how much effort went into this piece;  sixteen minutes of music that hold 300 pages firmly in its grasp…it’s a phenomenal act and one that deserves heaps of praise. I’ve seen this attempted before and the result was far from spectacular but it’s easy to speculate that with our current technology this won’t be a novel concept for very long. I expect many a graphic artist will follow in DJ Koalas footsteps. Especially since Nufonia is enjoying a current resurgence.

If you venture over to Koalas website you will stills of Nufonia that show it to be an upcoming series in the making. I’m not surprised about this. Lori Chodos is on board as the director of this ‘series’ and she seems to have a firm grasp on the silent language that resonates within these streamlined images. I liked what I saw in the stills and am hoping this project doesn’t end up taking a backseat to all of the other projects DJ Koala has in the works.

If you like eclectic music and minimalist artwork then this book won’t disappoint you, it’s the perfect rainy day  flop on the bed read and most definitely an excellent precursor for the upcoming series.

Published by : ECW Press – 2003

DJ Koala can be found on the Ninja Tunes label.