Herve Boileau, an unremarkable Parisian, suddenly finds his every perception broadcasting to the entire world. Whenever anyone, anywhere, closes their eyes, they see what he sees, hear what he hears. Suddenly his girlfriend's waning interest in him revives – but only because he's the best audition imaginable. Every business sees him as an opportunity to advertise. Wherever he goes, people converge on him, desperate to pass on a message to an old flame, an enemy, the whole world. Obviously this is an Internet metaphor, but I liked it much more for the fact that that's never made explicit, and no character is ever quite annoying enough to say 'And really, isn't that a lot like Twitter, aaaah?' Which said, it did also remind me of an RA Lafferty story I read recently, in which the protagonist had the reverse problem, and that was from decades pre-Internet. Anyway, friends and foes both have ideas for how this newfound gift/curse could be monetised, so before long Herve is on the run, and if at times this does leave the comic on the verge of generic thriller territory, it's mostly rescued by the obvious complication that anything he can see or hear, everyone else can too. I imagine this may put it in vaguely similar territory to films like Bird Box and A Quiet Place, though not having seen either, I can't be altogether sure. At first my main issue was that Herve was a bit of an arsehole, and not in a terribly interesting way, so I didn't necessarily want to spend an entire story in his company, but of course that's part of the point – which of us wouldn't be infuriating if someone couldn't escape our every little foible and daft habit?* Possibly the funniest section comes when the moment Herve has been dreading all day finally arrives, and he has to take a dump with the whole world able to see - and smell - what he does, the poor bastard. I'd largely given up on requesting Europe Comics ARCs from Netgalley, because I simply don't have the frame of reference to know which ones might be up my alley, and too often I was reading stuff which clearly wasn't bad, but also wasn't doing much for me. I made an exception here, because I recognised Trondheim's name as one with a certain cachet, and having read this I can see why.

*A question all the more topical in this locked-down nightmare decade, of course, but while Omni-Visibilis is appearing in English now, it was originally published ten years ago.

I really can’t understand this graphic novel, it’s basically about a guy called Herve who’s unhappy with his job and then suddenly, people are coming after him as if he’s a cult leader because they recognise him from a “teeth” commercial. It doesn’t really back up why he’s wanted by the police or why he has to be chased. This is probably me not hitting the exact spots needed to recognise from the novel but I felt this was rather going into a different direction than what I was expecting. Again, I am stupid not understanding the novel lol......

Upon reading this graphic novel I felt like it was a pretty interesting take on “seeing through someone’s eyes.” When reading this you are left wondering what is going on and why is this happening. I thought it was a great fast paced graphic novel that kept my attention. The twist at the end was a good one that I didn’t see coming. Is he a likable character…no not really but he is relatable. The whole time you are reading this you question the motives of others that claim that want to help him along the way. I would definitely recommend this graphic novel to someone who is looking for a sci-fi turn book in the same vain of “Being John Milkovich.”

Completely intriguing book, where slowly but surely the world gets to sense everything our main character is privy to. If they shut their eyes, they find themselves looking through his instead, or they block their ears and his auditory landscape takes over. That's already Kafka meets Charles Fort, but it's worse for our hero, who's a hypochondriac germophobe with urinary problems. What follows is a fun look at how this Truman-Show-but-then-some becomes a commodity, and even a social media provider, as people use him to send a message to the globe. I really liked this, for there are morals about how everything gets monetised, the danger of fame and a lot more – and of course it's a rollicking drama to boot, with some great bits of adult humour tucked in there too.

So it was a great surprise to find this was ten years old and more in the original French, and only just translated. It goes greatly against the First Rule of Translated Books, in that they generally reach foreign markets at the pace they deserve – the great ones with rapidity, and the weaker ones, well, whenever someone gets round to it. I actually think this book is better for being less current, for if written in 2021 it really would have been about online influencers, and how everyone on the planet is slowly but surely seeing the same thing due to internet algorithms. With it allowed to have more non-specific themes it breathes more clearly, and has a wider scope and heart. With all that considered, and its age, it's probably the best example of a lost classic I'll find all year.

What the actual fuck was this??? I'm completely confused with this one. The colors were too strong for me and I didn't like the art, but what was this story, actually!?

Omni-Visibilis is a well-drawn, clearly designed character study in word and image. A graphic novel well worth reading.