Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is perhaps out of habit that we think of love as one created and owned by teenagers, the image of Romeo and Juliet declaring to the world, albeit with a sense of unnerving non-appropriate behaviour with consideration to their age, that their love is timeless, their love is written in the stars and cannot be contained.
Love in such a fashion is filled with angst, it is arguably fleeting, it is most certainly painful, and yet love in later life, one found unexpectedly within the roots of grey hair and past memories is every bit as exciting, passionate and consuming. It also has the added benefit of not being riddled with the expectation of spring’s early flowers being torn from the ground, instead it is the evidence that greater love Blossoms In Autumn.
To capture such a rare opportunity in life is arguably a privilege, we all have someone we know who never had the opportunity to relish in the role of Romeo and Juliet, or even Paris and Helen, instead what they find after many years of loneliness is something sacred, beyond the realm in which Ulysses travelled in search of his patient wife, outside of the hurried encounters in which we encounter mystery. It is a privilege many of us would perhaps rather explore once we realise how lacking in dignity the vestige of teenage love can be.
It is Zidrou, (Benoi Drousie) and Aimee de Jongh that this exploration of affection and surprise fancy is realised in their graphic novel Blossoms In Autumn. It is with sensuality in mind, kindness, friendship, the honesty in just wanting to be close to someone, to understand we have not betrayed our youth as we have become old, that the pages open up with a astonishing texture, with sensitive charm.
Blossoms In Autumn is an inspired story turned beautifully into an engaging graphic novel; a tale of a forced retiree who has fallen foul of boredom and who finds love again after so many years on his own, and the woman to whom makes the journey absolutely worthwhile. It is to the seasons that owe such timely intervention, the realisation that whilst we may look old, our minds will forever insist that love will keep us young. Magical!
Zidrou and Aimee de Jongh’s Blossoms In Autumn is out now and published by SelfMadeHero.
Ian D. Hall