Frankly

Fran.  Jim Woodring.

I have four words for Jim Woodring: yes, good, yes, and more.  There are segments of this (and every other story of his I've ever read) story in which I am pushed not into a complete state of confusion but so close as to wonder why I'm not.

The easy part to understand is that Frank has fallen in love with a character named Fran.  Frank tries to make Frank do something she doesn't want to - he places a memory projector (my name for it) on her head.  She breaks the projector.  Frank yells at her.  Fran doesn't like being yelled at and leaves.  Frank is heartbroken and goes looking for her.  Fran finds someone new to play with.  Frank finds her and becomes even more upset.  Fran tricks Frank into thinking she'll hang out with him again and then disappears.  Frank becomes even more upset and alters the fabric of the universe.  (That's where things get somewhat undecipherable, as one would expect in the face of rejection.)  Then finally, Frank recovers and reads a book.

It's your basic find love, lose love, get upset and recover narrative.  What makes it awesome is Woodring's characters, his artwork and his story devices.  Fran is a changeling - she can become anyone or anything she wants.  There's a machine that, when placed on a character's head, plays out all their recent memories onto a movie screen.  I think the picture above illustrates Woodring's artistic genius - it's an illustration of Frank exploding the universe with his heartbreak... and who hasn't done that before?

Read it.  The amazon link is here.