cart
The Fly on the Wall (ECW Press, April 2008) is a finely illustrated collection of original micro fiction intended for adults. Inspired by the age-old expression, “Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation?” the creators have teamed up to explore what some of these private conversations, moments, and encounters might be like. The book is the collaborative effort of Red Deer, Alberta, residents Jason Brink (the author) and Jim Westergard (the illustrator).
The Fly on the Wall contains fifty-three original short stories, each accompanied by a pen-and-ink drawing. In each drawing, Westergard draws the fly, quite literally, as a voyeur to dark or subversive scenarios written by Brink. Along with the fly, the reader eavesdrops on church confessionals, jail visits, funeral homes, assisted suicide, hitchhiking, cross-dressing, alcoholism, and murder . . . to name a few.
The concept was originally Brink’s idea but he says, “I approached Jim because I love his art and recognized a similar dark humor in our work.” From there Brink and Westergard made creative decisions as equals, often discussing story elements and drawings together. The majority of the short stories inspired the drawings but the pair worked closely on the book’s overall content; Westergard says, “Every now and then I would send a drawing [to Jason] to see if a story could be in it for him and every now and then it worked.” Eight of the book’s fifty-three stories were inspired by the drawings.
The pair feels the experience of their collaboration was rewarding. Brink says, “I think any kind of collaboration is a challenge, let alone a collaboration of two different art forms, but ours was a steady balance of mutual compromise and inspiration,” and Westergard likens it to “working on my own book but with a colleague-critic whom I could rely on to keep things on track.”
The book is shipping to stores across Canada.
-30-