“The world is always ending for someone.”
At
first glance Signal to Noise is not a
horror story. For one thing, it contains none of the genre’s familiar
trappings. For another, it reads more like a man’s last confession than a
terrifying plunge into the realm of the weird. Despite these differences,
the graphic novel offers one of the darker, more unsettling narratives I've come across.
At the onset of the story we are
introduced to the narrator, an accomplished film director recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. He tells us he has been given only months to
live and must begin to put his things in order. He instead chooses to
disconnect from the outside world, limiting his interactions with other people
as much as possible. As
the days turn to months, and his mortality looms ever closer, he resolves to
devote himself to the only thing he has left: creating his magnum opus - a film
titled Apocatastasis. Only, with no
time to actually produce the film, he begins to shoot the movie in his head.
“I can hear the
silence. And it won’t go away.”
From this moment we are treated with a meditation on living
and dying, escapism and what value our creative endeavors have after we’re
gone. In short, the narrator is no longer just facing his own death, he is also
facing the death of an idea, perhaps the
idea, and by extension his legacy as a creator and a human being.
The book opens on a scene inside the narrator’s head.
He describes a group of villagers in the year 999 A.D. that come to the
realization their world is about to end with the coming of the millennium. The
colors McKean uses in these recurring daydream sequences are muted, relying heavily on
black and dark blue in contrast to the yellows and grays of the real world.
Interestingly, as you continue to read, the colors from the dream world begin to bleed into the real world, showing a subtle shift in the emotional proximity of the man to his hopeless actors. This “bleeding” of color eventually culminates in the man imagining himself as one of the people in the film. He soon retreats to their snow-covered hills, joining them as they wait for death.
Interestingly, as you continue to read, the colors from the dream world begin to bleed into the real world, showing a subtle shift in the emotional proximity of the man to his hopeless actors. This “bleeding” of color eventually culminates in the man imagining himself as one of the people in the film. He soon retreats to their snow-covered hills, joining them as they wait for death.
“They are going up to
the high place, to wait there for the end of their world…I am going with them.”
The voice of the narrator is
integral to the story, and Gaiman proves more than capable of giving us the
necessary insights into the character. He shows us our world through a
drastically different lens than we’re used to, and it is very easy to
sympathize with the narrator as he waxes philosophical about his approaching
death.
If you read this story casually,
which is not advised, you are likely to miss the horror embedded in its
narrative. While the plot is mostly overt, the grief the man experiences for
his own death is subtle and relies on you being empathic enough to relate to it. If
you take time to excavate the themes and the meaning behind the words you will
find a gem buried in the bleakness, a light amidst the terror of dying while the
world carries on without you.
Signal to Noise tells us that stories can live forever, so long as there are people left to hear them, and that a time will come when they must exist without us.
“And
we die, because things that matter end.”
This is a subtle, introspective story that offers the reader
an exceptional blend of light and dark. Fans of the Sandman series will feel right at home, and anyone who appreciates
McKean’s unique art style will find plenty to gawk at. Highly recommended for
those interested in a short, albeit haunting experience.