Reviews and Comments

Content notes for childhood sexual assault (Kabi includes a trigger warning and instructions on how to skip this section in the book as well) and some nudity elsewhere.

Keywords that come to mind reading this instalment were love, deconstruction, intimacy, harm, growing up, sexuality and gender.

The summary is "After attending a friend’s wedding, Nagata Kabi decides she wants one of her own. That’s not the only thing she wants—she longs to love and be loved. But she has three major problems: she has no partner, no dating experience, and her only sexual encounters are limited to a lesbian escort service. With the help of a photoshoot, a dating app, and more, the author embarks on a journey to seek the love and happiness she so desperately desires."

An interesting read, although for better or worse it is more of what we have come to expect style and content wise. A lot I could relate to, it still left me with a question or two.

Starting with the positives, I will probably always have a soft spot for people flailing through life. Well, unless they are being a menace to society and hurting people...

The way Nagata is left deconstructing the entire concept of love felt so incredibly relatable in a way I've only started seeing. Then of course we have the continued exploration of Kabi's gender and sexuality journey.

And while chaos and crises is something that Nagata is perhaps known for, it was nice to read about her for about 75% of the book going through confusion that did not involve something life threatening or self harming. That said, except for the part in the middle that covers Nagata's experience of childhood sexual assault.

Told fairly mater of factly, I am still left with the uncharitable thought that maybe this story wasn't totally necessary here and now. Like was the rest of the book not quite edgy enough? It is good for people to tell their own stories (and I deeply hope that no one pressured Kabi to include this story) and trying to break down silence and stigma is important. So I'm probably getting too nitpicky here. The way that parents and adults believed Kabi and tried to help was good, even if telling everyone in her school about it was obviously super misguided and understandably traumatizing. It's obvious that these events had a huge impact on Kabi's life, but it still felt very different from the rest of the book.

Even more so then usual, this personal narrative is highly focused on just one person. So not exactly a rainbow of diversity across the various axis I generally try and talk about. There's also what people want to disclose and label or not label about themselves. But I continue to find myself pretty interested in Kabi's offbeat and stress filled life, even while I really hoping their life calms down a bit and maybe for them to not have anything more to write about any more.

I'm going with a solid three stars on this one.

Content notes for body horror, lynching a witch, guts, and harm to animals.

As a horror comic it is perhaps unsurprising that violence and gore are a few notches higher then is usual for me. There is a certainly level of fascination and detail given to the blood and guts and every opportunity to have a character without skin and/or blood spattered everywhere is taken. That said, I didn't feel like Harrow County was trying to be the MOST grossest book I ever read or MOST violent or anything like that. But that is certainly not an objective observation.

What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this first volume of Harrow County? horror, isolation, guts, cult, wilderness, healing, escape, discovery, community, New England, control, and witches.

Writing wise... Looking through the negative reviews, it would seem that some people are tired of New England kill the witches plots. Which is fair, it's a heavily used point in history. Of course the only reason that I'm not particularly burned out on this sort of story is because I don't tend to read them. Which could have gone either way, but combined with the fact that it hit me (perhaps not objectively so) as a million times less offensive then Locke & Key Volume One: Welcome to Lovecraft. Which stomps on poor, disabled, and queer people to hold up an ideal white heteronormative family/bloodline... It's not that hard to be better then that in my books.

Stylistically, I will admit that the character designs weren't my favourite initially. There's certainly nothing wrong with it technically speaking though, so I eventually settled into it a bit more. The faces were just odd. But perhaps that can also be chalked up as part of the ambiance. I did enjoy the colour scheme and colouring technique.

I was a bit surprised by how much of the book was end notes. Overall a very fast read for sure.

Looking at the different identities intersecting in Harrow County.

Gender was one of the first things to jump out at me. Centering a young woman coming of age in a rural town; learning there's something everyone else knows that they aren't telling you. I appreciated how active and unsexualized Emmy is. Overwhelmed by an onslaught of new information, she keeps moving, adapting, and overcoming.

And overall sexuality has been pretty much a moot point so far with no character appearing to (at least currently) be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with anyone else? Sexuality is one of those few things where it can be good both if you either include diverse and/or marginalized identities or can actually scrub out all representation entirely. The issue for me at least is mostly around only representing heterosexuality, particularly if it's held up as the default/norm.

Race saw a bit of diversity with a Black father and daughter in the small new england town. Digging a bit into what exactly a haint was, it was really interesting to read about the ways that it is intertwined in Gullah Geechee culture. As a side note, I would definitely recommend anyone who isn't already familiar with Gullah people do a deep dive on their history and culture.

Bodies, apparently normative or aberrant, feel like they are fairly central to at least the ambience of Harrow County. Like so many horror stories. Check back in with me for the series wrap-up for more thoughts on that.

Class felt the most ignored.

Wrapping things up. I do in fact enjoy horror comics, it's just hard sometimes to find the right kind that aren't just perpetuating stigma against marginalized people. That's literally all I ask, and to be fair so far Harrow County has delivered. I will be continuing with this series. Four stars.

And today's pick is Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This stand alone title was published by Oni Press in 2003.

I picked up this title because when the Scott Pilgrim cartoon on Netflix was coming out my interests were more piqued then they had been previously by the discourse. But I was feeling lazy, so I figured I would start with O'Malley's stand alone title.

This graphic novel is labeled for readers 13+, with content notes for f bombs, smoking, HP reference, dissociation, age gap relationship in high school and r word.

Keywords that came to mind: Cats, depression, divorce, California, British Columbia, and teenagers.

The summary is "Raleigh doesn't have a soul. A cat stole it – at least that's what she tells people – at least that's what she would tell people if she told people anything. But that would mean talking to people, and the mere thought of social interaction is terrifying. How did such a shy teenage girl end up in a car with three of her hooligan classmates on a cross-country road trip? Being forced to interact with kids her own age is a new and alarming proposition for Raleigh, but maybe it's just what she needs – or maybe it can help her find what she needs – or maybe it can help her to realize that what she needs has been with her all along."

Browsing O'Malley's Wikipedia page... Married to fellow cartoonist Hope Larson from 2004-2014 O'Malley is from London, Ontario (although he's lived in many cities across so called north america) he is of Korean, Irish and French-Canadian decent. Recipient of many awards. They have one other stand alone anthology with other people entitled Seconds and are currently working on the intriguingly named Snotgirl.

Flipping through Lost at Sea the art is pretty simple, minimalistic and anime inspired. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed it.

Writing wise... It really gave me top notch depressed teenager vibes. Like it literally felt like I was stepping back in time. Of course, being kind of scared of teenagers now, I'm not sure if teenagers are the same these days. Probably not, but let me know if you have a more informed perspective.

Similar to some other stories that mix magic and mental health, I'm not sure if I can objectively say this is not a great idea. But I can say, I have mixed sort of negative feelings about it. But I might still just be stuck in a personal preference for more specific language myself. Although I guess in this case it would be an improvement for someone to realize they are depressed, seem to be disassociating, and are probably neurodivergent rather then think they have no soul. But what is fiction for?

The one part that I really hope we've completely left in the past is Stephanie being a 1000% not like other girls. Even mentioning to Raliegh early on that she's not friends with girls.

Otherwise when it comes to gender it felt like something trans was going to happen at any moment honestly. Some of the discussion seemed to hint about people changing pronouns and some of what Raleigh was feeling kind of gave dysphoria vibes to me. But looking around, there doesn't seem to be anyone else talking about it so I guess perhaps I misinterpreted the dialog. Obviously I'm allowed to interpret the vibes as I think makes sense.

Also meat eating seems to be part of the social construct called the gender binary in this case. As both females are vegetarian and the dudes are not.

Sexuality was largely off screen. Raliegh's journey starts out as chasing after an older guy who made her feel normal. Another part you hope has become a bit more dated in recent times. This is balanced out (for me at least) fairly nicely in the moment by having all the on screen relationships be platonic. No queer stuff though. Which honestly also feels very dated lol. I'm pretty sure a high percentage of these characters come out in some way or another as they grow up.

Class does come up in some novel ways. Specifically Raliegh thinks her mother sold her daughter's soul - after the divorce - in exchange for money and career success. Which is certainly one explination.

And however you want to label Raliegh, she is definitely a bit disabled by her current mental state. Although in this case, things are at least improving by the end of the story. Although I promise you, she is going to struggle with this for a long time. One aspect that I found really interesting is how Raliegh very clearly thinks very negative things about herself, but whenever anyone else finally gets the chance to voice their thoughts about her they are all pretty positive. While not always true, I always appreciate the suggestion that those of us who struggle like this are often harder on ourselves then is honest.

For all that the roundtrip overall felt like it kind of floated through a nothingness labeled california, place plays a pretty key roll at the climax of the story. Which is always nice.

Race was completely unexplored.

Wrapping this more personal usual review up, this book kind of felt like a Millennial Gen-X artifact. A solid three stars.

And today's pick is Flocks by L. Nichols. Originally published in 2012, I believe I read the 2018 edition published by Secret Acres.

A trans graphic memoir, I also HAD to pick it up because I accidently read the follow up title I Am Only A Foreigner Because You Do Not Understand earlier this year. Link in the cards!

Content notes for c section, homophobic, Christianity, slurs, fatphobia, skeletons, drinking/smoking, disordered eating, and cutting.

Keywords that came to mind were coming of age, queer, community, arrows, escape, leaving home behind, and family conflict.

The summary is "L. Nichols, a trans man, artist, engineer and father of two, was born in rural Louisiana, assigned female and raised by conservative Christians. Flocks is his memoir of that childhood, and of his family, friends and community, the flocks of Flocks, that shaped and re-shaped him. L.'s irresistibly charming drawings demonstrate what makes Flocks so special: L.'s boundless empathy."

If you want to learn more about Nichols I'll point you again to my review of I Am Only a Foreigner Because You Do Not Understand. Although I will also note that since the publication of Flocks L's gender journey has continued on it's way and Nichol's no longer ID's as a binary trans man and instead sees themselves as somewhere in the centre of all this gender chaos (as I like to describe it).

Looking at the writing and art of Flocks, they continued to mesh super well and Nichols uses visuals to communicate a lot of emotion very effectively and without making things overly complicated.

The color scheme and page layouts were pleasing to the eye and Nichol's choice to represent themselves as a doll was imaginative and successfully communicates how Nichols felt.

Community was a real central theme in Flocks. Particularly the way that evengelical christian community can hold you close one moment and spit you out the next depending on if you conform or not. Although L is able to eventually find many other communities, including a new faith community, to be part of as they find themselves. There's also a fair amount of comparing and contrasting between L's parents after they divorced. Both of whom use L against the other. Fun!

Gender exploration is also obviously front and centre. Hair plays a big part in this first volume for L. There's the push and pull between learning how to express oneself even as L's mom tries to corner them in a femme box. There's the all too common arc of moving from the country to the city to find the space to express yourself (highly relatable, although certainly not universal). I thought it was interesting how Nichols highlighted the link between being able to more freely express themselves and their mental health improving.

There's also a fair amount of exploration of sexuality as well. L even seems to have a net positive experience getting involved with a pre-existing couple. Which you almost never hear about - la shock.

Class and place felt highlighted and lightly explored. L is able to pull themselves out of a small southern town through education and losing their accent.

There is some racial diversity but being such an introspective memoir it isn't explored.

Wrapping things up. It was a bit hard to reach a fairly positive ending already knowing that there is more struggle to come because I accidently read this duology out of order. But it was a brave, interesting and important story. A story of moving forward and ultimately sometimes realizing what you thought was the end goal was actually a false peak on a longer journey.

These volumes were originally self-published as a webcomic. A Man and his Cat was subsequently serialized in Japan in 2018 before being translated to English in 2020; they were published by Square Enix Manga in both countries.

Content notes for loss of a spouse.

Not much online about the mangaka. Pen name I assume?

What kinds of keywords came to mind? outsiders, found family, grand piano, love and total cuteness.

The synopsis for volume one is "A kitten languishes in a pet shop, unwanted and unloved. Even as his price drops with each passing day, no one spares him a glance unless it's to call him names. Having practically given up on life, the kitty himself is most shocked of all when an older gentleman comes into the store and wants to take him home! Will the man and the cat find what they're looking for..in each other?"

A nice break from many of the longer and more serious titles I've been reading of late, A man and His Cat is pretty pitch perfect. But not one of those series to binge all at once, but rather metered out as one's spirits need lifting. The relationship between this lonely cat and widower is so incredibly wholesome and heartwarming! The art is very on point and there are some good to know facts about cat ownership sprinkled in.

Representation, in contrast, was pretty much a wash overall. Well, unless you count having an older protagonist I suppose.

For what it is I still ended up rating it four out of five stars for volume one, and three out of five stars for volume two. There's nothing quite like a volume one in this case, when you first come across a cute series premise. There's at least eight volumes as far as I can tell; I'll certainly be picking these books up as I feel like.

Definitely one of my favourite reads of 2023, I initially picked this graphic novel up as part of my Palestine/Palestinian TBR.

Content notes for body horror, eyeballs, struggling with medical side-effects, drinking, rashes, unhelpful family, and low self-esteem.

A fictional story based off of their own medical experience, Iasmin self describes as "an intersectional comics artist, illustrator, and game designer. Iasmin focuses on creating art centered around the themes of coping with illness, understanding identity, and dismantling oppressive structures." I've already read their other recent title, Nayra and the Djinn (so look forward to that review soonish) and apparently they also contributed to the very enjoyable Be Gay, Do Comics anthology from The Nib. Would highly recommend you check out that flip through review. Scrolling through their twitter account it seems like they are pretty keen on Sonic the Hedgehog as well.

What kinds of keywords came to mind? knives, dots, anime hair, contrast, multi-dimensional, and vibrant.

Jumping straight into the art, it was beautiful, it was creative, it was poppy, and expressive; it communicated the story in ways that felt novel and I just really really loved it. There's lovely use of halftone, sketching on coloured pages, and expressive lines.

Looking at the character designs, I also really loved the way Ata drew everyone and their fashion sense was pretty on point - but the shifting colors did leave me second guessing who people were a couple of times.

Writing wise, I also found this graphic novel really different and interesting. Reading their interview with Comics Journal, Ata described the creation of this comic as sort of like art therapy, and how writing about Isaac helped them come to terms with their own diagnosis.

I'm more then a little biased because while I do not have epilepsy, my own university experience involved a four year low grade migraine and undiagnosed adhd. So I was never able to keep up with my meds and felt like I had gerbils nesting in my brain almost all the time. The dagger imagery and constant internal battles felt pretty visceral and real to me even all these years later.

I really appreciated the amount of ill intent and stigma that we see others putting on Isaac. Not because I think that's cool obviously, but because it's so real. Isaac's classmates think he's being deliberately lazy or constantly high; his doctors think he is selling his prescription and his family (while caring) clearly doesn't understand his life at all.

Getting a tad bit spoilery, when we open Isaac has very low self-esteem and self sabotages. He struggles to participate in community and he assumes that everyone sees him as a burden. As the story continues on Ata goes into a lot of emotional detail. As we reach the end however, Isaac makes a crucial connection with a friend, Jo, who shares their similar medical journey and encourages Isaac to value themselves more. With the addition of this critical sense of disabled community Isaac is able to conclude on a more hopeful note - and we get a glimpse of what it would mean for him to feel more normal in his own skin.

Looking at the intersections and identities I try to highlight in each of my reviews:

Disability is obviously pretty central and something we've already discussed pretty extensively.

Because of the unrealistic coloration of the graphic novel, racial diversity is not super obvious. There does appear to be some diversity in character design, our main character is racialized, and we do have hijabi representation.

Gender and sexuality felt similarly not particularly discussed, but also not boxed up into cis hetero boxes either. Each character's gender expression felt pretty relaxed and honestly not pairing everyone up right away sometimes feels a bit queer in and of itself.

Class felt the most off screen.

Wrapping things up, obviously I already hinted at how much I enjoyed this book. Five stars. Graphic medicine continues to be something I'm always hungry to read more of.