by Laboni Das Christopher Stanton and Raymond Klecker’s Nick Pope: Summer of ’88 continues the evocative, diaristic exploration of adolescence introduced in its prequel, Nick Pope: A Diary (2023), deepening its engagement with questions of identity, embodiment, and emotional vulnerability. While the earlier volume foregrounded Nick’s social alienation and bullying, this sequel turns inward, charting a more complex terrain of emotional fragmentation, artistic self-exploration, and relational instability. Presented once again in the form of an illustrated diary, the narrative unfolds over the summer of 1988. The diary format remains central to the book’s appeal, combining handwritten text with expressive black-and-white… Read More
Age 16
By Rachel Kurtz Rosena Fung’s YA graphic novel, Age 16, follows Roz’s struggle towards self-acceptance. The work portrays this journey not only as a personal experience with body image, but also in a wider cultural and familial context. Fung illustrates the impact of beliefs passed down the generations and especially through maternal relationships. The work shines a light on the influences of culture in Roz’s time growing up. Through contrasting color palettes, we are also transported into her mother’s (Lydia) and grandmother’s (Mei Laan) formative years. We see each girl at 16 years old experience desires for love and… Read More
Nick Pope: A Diary
By Laboni Das Nick Pope: A Diary is an illustrated diary of a fictional sixteen-year-old boy named Nicholas Pope (hereafter Nick), who was born with disfiguring birthmarks around both of his eyes. This diary is an evocative blend of visual artistry and narrative storytelling that explores the life of a teenager in the late 1980s. Authored by Christopher Stanton and illustrated by Christopher Darling, this graphic novel is more than just a story; it is a poignant journey through the emotional and psychological landscape of adolescence. Nick’s family has recently moved across town, and he is starting his sophomore year… Read More
Symptômes
By Annemarie Jutel Catherine Ocelot’s Symptômes is a lovely piece of embroidery. A collection of graphic narratives about pain, illness, suffering and loneliness are carefully stitched together to bring agency, if not quite joy, to the female protagonists whose suffering creates the fabric of the novel. While it is hard to know if the story is autobiographical (and perhaps it doesn’t matter), the principal character bears the author’s name, and prefaces the book by letting us know about her simultaneous fixation with medical television drama and her parallel hypochondriac tendencies. She is enthralled by these confident and capable white-coated creatures,… Read More