Description

While it’s laid out like a comic, most of the pages in Nate Beaty’s Look Around do not read as narrative sequential art. Instead, most of the panels are observational drawings or patterns, but these drawings tend to be related to each other, so we’re drawn back to the idea that each page, or every few pages is its own self-enclosed comics.

Abstract comics rely a lot on mood, and Nate plays with different levels of line-control and a two-color risograph printing process to change the mood from page to page. Solid colors depicting various corners of an aparmtent suggest a quiet evening. Meanwhile, pages that suggest skylines are drawn with frantic lines that overlap, evoking the hustle and bustle of a living city.

The few pages that have straight-forward narratives tend to start and end abruptly with little-to-no context. Like its title, the entire comic/zine encourages you to turn your ocular observation tools up to eleven, and discover what is going on!