Review by Frank Plowright

Paul Kirchner is a master of presenting the surreal and absurd with a straight face. Such is the tight exactitude with which he illustrates familiar scenes that when they slip into ridiculous or impossible situations it seems a perfectly natural outcome. It’s apparent in the opening sequence, in which Kirchner explores the instinctive desire for a bus stemming from mankind’s earliest days, presenting five precursors of the 1959 General Motors New Look bus. The precision with which preposterous early forerunners are drawn renders them possible.

After that whimsical introduction we’re back to the regular six to eight panel strips with meticulously placed stark areas of black contrast and impeccable cross-hatching.

The Bus toys with form in showcasing the impossible, as per the sample strips, yet with an impossible variety considering the only constants are the bus itself and the middle-aged passenger experiencing what would bewilder others with a stoic acceptance. Kirchner’s imagination always supplies a solid laugh from the conditions, and you’ll wonder how he pulls it off time after time.

Well, as in The Bus and The Bus 2, it has to be stressed how dependent the strip is on Kirchner’s unique creative mind. Plenty of people could write a Batman or autobiographical graphic novel, but shipping in another creator to take over The Bus would result in a disastrous dip in quality. It needs Kirchner’s sensibilities to come up with just the right circumstances of a sheepdog herding the passenger along with sheep, or having a miniature passenger affected by the ice lolly wrapper dropped by the full size version waiting at the bus stop. Then there’s the bus stampede, the bus inserted into movies, the bus as a parade balloon and the eccentricities or unfortunate experiences of fellow passengers. Kirchner toys with perspective, size and masterpieces of art, while the passenger’s needs are eternal.

Never one not to apply due care and attention, as in the previous volume, the endpapers feature photographs of the classic model bus in its prime.

For all the wonder at Kirchner’s creativity, The Bus would be an experimental curiosity if every strip didn’t also generate a solid laugh. They do, and while never syndicated, for that, the imagination and quality of the art, The Bus deserves consideration alongside the greatest of newspaper strips.

Don’t worry about the links being to a French publisher as the strips are wordless.