Spooky Womb

Paula Knight’s Spooky Womb is an excerpt from her graphic memoir in progress The Facts of Life, which was shortlisted for the Myriad Editions First Fictions Graphic Novel competition. In this excerpt, she very creatively (and nearly wordlessly) recounts her “interactions” with fertility, pregnancy, and loss via an anthropomorphized female reproductive tract. The three panel horizontal layout serves her narrative quite well, while varied background shading seems to reflect the diurnal and menstrual cycles. A skilled illustrator, Knight is able to convey a wide range of gesture and emotion from her visceral character, making one wonder which is the protagonist – uterus or it’s owner – forgetting that they are one in the same. She portrays the “dialogue” between a woman and her fertility as it is not seen elsewhere – with honesty, compassion and a touch of wry humor.

This excerpt leaves me quite eager to read the entire book!

You can listen to Paula discuss this book project here.

and you can read John Swogger’s review here.