Jessica Hopper at the Chicago Reader spends some time with Anders Nilsen, who talks about how the premature death of his fiance led to the creation of the intensely powerful Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow and The End:
As time has passed and the grief become less immediate, Nilsen’s feelings about Don’t Go and The End have grown more conflicted. He decided at the end of July not to go forward with the second installment of The End. Drawn & Quarterly has approached him about reprinting Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow and pushing it in chain bookstores, believing it would appeal to a wider audience, but Nilsen is on the fence.
“I was looking through Don’t Go the other day and realizing just how personal it is,” he says. “It just feels awkward for me to do a second printing that I don’t need to do. I’m trying to figure out whether it resonating with an audience, if that’s a valid enough reason. But that’s abstract to me. A year ago, if I was on a bus or in a restaurant and a certain song came on, I would have to leave because otherwise I would totally break down in public. And I don’t want to break down in public. Don’t Go feels like it’s me breaking down in public. The End is the same way. Everyone gets to watch me dissolve into tears.”
