Dogs And Water

"Nilsen creates an epic landscape of desolation and doubt" --New City Chicago

"Nilsen's sparse, thinly rendered line work adds to the level of existential discomfort that the artist seems to excel at... 'Dogs and Water' stays with you a lot longer than most recent comics, easily marking it as one of the best of the year." --Harrisburg Patriot News

"Nilsen's art is filled with amazing white space showing a true sense of human loneliness. Above all else, the work echoes our need to be heard, even if only by ourselves." --Punk Planet


Dogs & Water chronicles a piece of a lonely journey, without origin or destination. A young man wandering a nameless path has only a stuffed bear as a companion, which inertly endures his desperation, anger and musings along the way. The landscape is cold and bleak with few landmarks, and offers only precarious encounters with animals and armed men. These interactions are rife with instinct, the drive for survival, and human ethics concerning the killed and injured. He finds acceptance with a pack of dogs, though their nature is wild and their potential threat is as unsettling as the sudden presence of a massive pipeline on the horizon. In a dreamlike state, the endless land becomes a vast body of water where his boat is destroyed and his body floats in a subconscious space. On land, the road disappears and only blind circumstance remains. All is uncertain and all can be lost, but he continues on regardless.


Dogs & Water received an Ignatz award for "Outstanding Story" and has been translated into several languages.

This hardcover edition features a few new pages and panels not included in the original saddle-stitched comic.