Prolific Doug Noble tries an experimental approach in this issue of SFM, a "strange" self-contained story. It doesn't work for me, but only just. Stay with us and I'll tell you why.

Each page of A5 "The Space Between Words" is titled, with four pieces of prose,
and what looks to be four panels of about 4x4 cm between each. Sticking to this for 20 pages with tidy composition is an applaudabble extension of the format: not new, just rarely seen. The panel formatting forces the author to develop a dense concentrate, painting like the work of John Robbins having gone through the cut-up porocess. Like a bitesize Chris Ware (which can surely only be a good thing) The narrative subject matter is reminiscent of the final quarter of Cerebus - that is to say there seems to be a Fitzgerald Hemingway influence here, or cetainly its emoted.

My main problem is the formatting. Big Man Doug Noble is definitely telling a story here, solid, and it comes over as classy. I find it just a little difficult to retain, dense and impenetrable, this tale of a landlocked sea captain and his love, fading like an old photograph and torn by the elements. So no sorry Doug, not my cup of tea, didn't work, much too ballsy for me. I'm going to have to read it all over again to get what you're on about. You reader who hasn't seen this, should definitely pick it up. Doug Nobles still pushing the medium's potential, and for a pound fifty, well..

Theres no one doing things in comics today like Douglas Noble is doing them.