Review by Frank Plowright

In following two men across landscapes recognisable, yet also different, Wandering certainly lives up to its title. In its alternate wordless worlds we encounter two contrasting lifestyles. The first person met is a well dressed and seemingly wealthy man navigating a crowded modern society later seen to be underground. It’s a fair while before we then see his counterpart, a man dressed only in trunks wandering a desert with occasional chasms to be leapt over, offering glimpses of the world beneath.

Jonathan Djob Nkondo’s purpose with Wandering is elusive. Some sections certainly highlight moments of poor human behaviour, such as the first reaction to a disaster being everyone pulling out their phone to film the event rather than helping, but there seems no great point to much of what we see.

The illustration is certainly strong, most frequently one picture to a page, detailed if depicting the underground society, while the area up top offers isolation. The monochrome precision echoes the neat art of Marc-Antoine Mathieu with its use of shades of grey, and Nkondo loves drawing complicated machinery. The best sequential sequence forms the ending, with a whimsical first connection between the two main characters as we follow fluid downwards.

While the ideas are interesting, they’re never developed enough to form a story, so Wandering is in effect two contrasting days in a life. The lack of intrusive explanations leaves much open to interpretation, but the most compelling reasoning is a view of our society being an enclosed trap while freedom is simplicity. Ultimately, you’ll know yourself if a lack of narrative is to your tastes.