Red Colored Elegy is one those crazy Japanese reprints that Drawn and Quarterly has been publishing recently. I really enjoyed this book. it is a 200 page testiment to minimalism and isolation. The story follows the life of an anonymous almost androgynously drawn couple that is starting out in animation/comiking. The story was originally published in 1970/71 in Garo magazine, which was a breeding ground for underground comics in Japan. The cartoonist behind this piece, Seiichi Hayashi weaves a piece of comics goodness that feels more like poetry than most manga i have seen. The art is beautiful and sparse, except when it needs to make point, and even then, he goes and uses some kind of non-sequitor to make interesting awkward transitions. The interplay of the dialogue is also interesting, in that it is very punchy and disjointed. It doesn’t really flow, but works like an off tempo jazz, like some of what Austin English does.
I’m glad that you reviewed this. It makes me want to pick it up. I never would have given it a second glance otherwise.