by Kevin Wolf I don’t normally begin a review with a recommendation, but I will this time, because I highly recommend Cannon by Lee Lai, for its amazingly real dialogue as the pressure builds on the protagonist until having their—I don’t actually know “their” or “her” pronoun—cathartic psychotic break. Dialogue is the author’s strength and leaves the reader to figure out what goes unsaid. Out-of-control situations (e.g. horror movies, the cover) are illustrated with a red wash in an otherwise black and white fictional graphic novel. Even before the book’s opening credits, we see the start of that psychotic break,… Read More
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
by Matt Peters Content advisory: sexual harassment, sexual assault, mass mortality events For Canadian writer and artist Kate Beaton, two things weighed heavily on her mind immediately after college. The first was the unsettling financial implications of her student loan debt. The second was the limited job opportunities that an art degree offered in the Atlantic provinces, where she had grown up and attended college. With few other choices, Beaton decided to head west to Alberta, hoping to find high-paying work in the petroleum industry—work that could help her get a head start on her debt. Beaton recounts… Read More
Work-Life Balance
by Kevin Wolf Fraud, manipulation, crossing ethical lines, self-interest, younger generation, dishonesty, and casually ignoring serious events are only some of the themes occurring in Work-Life Balance by Aisha Franz (translated from the German by Nicholas Houde). Don’t get me wrong. With all this seeming negativity, I’m recommending this book for its almost anthropological study of half a dozen characters in their work/home environments. There are plenty of medical topics including psychotherapy, unnamed psychotropic drugs, virtual reality therapy, mental breakdowns, sexual harassment/assault, anxiety, asthma, alcoholic self-medication, and a bike accident. The characters include Dr. Sharifi (unhelpful therapist), Anita (potter making… Read More
Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival
awaiting review
Take it as a Compliment
Guest Review by Erin Partridge Maria Stoian is an illustrator and comics artist based in Scotland. She has a range of clients from The Nib to the National Library of Scotland. Her work is colorful, bold, and incorporates themes she holds close to her heart: feminism and “the state of the world.” Light figures big in her work, whether streaming in through a window and filling the space with color or illuminating bad behavior on a dark, city street. Her human illustrations span the range between simple, paper-cut like figures to detailed renderings—the human emotion represented in all her images… Read More