bpNichol Comics

Thomas M.F. Gerry is a professor of English at Laurentian University and
the editor of Arachne, Laurentian University’s bilingual
interdisciplinary journal of language and literature.

Overall, Carl Peters is stingy when it comes to revealing background
information on the comics he has selected for this edition. Of Tegnikal
Notes, he writes, “I have omitted only a few pages, and these
contained mainly numerical equations and notes for drawings that
eventually found their way into Tegnikal Notes.” He goes on to
observe: “Nichol’s ability to think on the page in the act of
‘making.’ There is always, here, play between a ‘note’ and its
no/tation or sketch.” Peters’s omission of the equations and notes
prevents readers from exploring this process of Nichol’s work for
themselves. And his introduction adequately explains neither the terms
(“panelogics,” “pataphysics,” “Therafields,” etc.) nor the
issues (Gertrude Stein’s influences, “a post-humanist bpNichol,”
Nichol as a “devotional” poet, etc.) that it should introduce.

That said, the book does permit readers to share in Nichol’s
insightful play in what he calls his “literature of possibilities.”
We can explore and be surprised at Nichol’s lavish use of puns as
plays on the sounds of words and on visual images. The frames of the
comics, for instance, are traps and containers for the characters and
events; at the same time, they are an endless labyrinth connecting all
people with eternity. Perhaps Nichol’s greatest feat is his ability to
communicate dozens of sometimes contradictory emotions in conjunction
with a variety of imaginative concepts. His art deserves much more
generous treatment than is found here.