Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen's sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fiancée in 2005, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting, and transformation. It is a concept album in different styles, a meditation on paying attention, an abstracted autobiography and a travelogue, reflecting the progress of his struggle to reconcile the great upheaval of a death, and finding a new life on the other side. The book blends Nilsen's disparate styles, from the iconic simplicity and collaged drawings of his Monologues for the Coming Plague to the finely rendered Big Questions. Originally released in magazine form, The End has been updated and expanded to more than twice its original length, including a 16-page full-color section.
80 page partial color hardcover Fantagraphics Books, 2013
