Night Bus

June 21, 2021
The somber but mesmerizing stories in Ma’s debut collection follow a Lynchian dream logic, underpinned by themes of loss and a demented sense of humor. In “Niu Niu The Evil Hound,” Ma spins a twisted tale starring an anthropomorphized version of a beloved shih tzu he owned long ago. Other pieces are similarly grounded in Ma’s real-world experiences, such as dramatizing conversations about his professional stagnation, or his observations around China’s industrializing landscape. But even the more realistic narratives get interrupted by an abrupt encounter with the uncanny. In “Night Bus,” Ma reckons with his grandmother’s memory loss by envisioning the journey she takes as her cognition returns and fades; Ma imagines her as a young woman traveling through a dreamscape in search of the “night bus” that will spirit her off to the next world, where she encounters a series of oddities, such as two boys hunting for giant snails who are suddenly surprised by a UFO shaped like a cocoon. While Ma’s defiantly incomprehensible narratives leave an impression, it’s not always sustainable in the longer selections. But adventurous readers will awe at Ma’s transporting visions.

July 1, 2021
"If I could put it into words, I wouldn't be drawing it," the cartoonist insists. In mostly black-and-white panels laden with exquisite details, Ma intertwines autobiography with fantasy, their relationship revealed some 200 pages into the unpredictable narrative. A young man returns home from city to countryside, where he's confronted by his grandmother's mental decline. Her late-in-life journey on the titular night bus takes her to an unknown world of unique creatures and inexplicable happenings. As he accepts her diverging path and leaves home behind, "the stories came into focus." Those stories comprise the book's second half, in which a rural childhood is revealed in graphic shorts, highlighting folk tales, an obsession with bugs and beetles, holiday fireworks, animal slaughter, encroaching development, modern isolation, and lives disappeared. Ma--a leader in China's alternative comics scene--thoughtfully annotates each story with provenance and original publication, layering context and personal experience into his graphic memories. In this homage to familial storytelling, Ma--translated into English by small comics publisher Martin--succeeds in creating an intriguing portrait of an artistic young man showcasing his well-earned individuality.

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