My favourite comics of the 2010s

About this list I'm not suggesting that these are the best comics of the last decade (I don't think a list like that is even possible), but I would recommend them to anyone interested in comics. They are biased towards indie press and autobiography because those are the comics that generally have meant the most …

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Victorian Fairy Paintings

For the past few months, I have been researching fairy lore for an ongoing writing project. I recently came across an exhibition catalogue on Victorian fairy paintings, suitably titled Victorian Fairy Painting (1997, edited by Jane Martineau with contributing essays from curators and other experts). I feel so lucky to have stumbled into this one …

Grotesque Dollhouse: A Close Reading of Julie Doucet’s My New York Diary

The following post is based on a course assignment from a few years ago that offered me the opportunity to closely read and trace a few pages from Julie Doucet’s My New York Diary, one of my favorite autobiographical comics. My New York Diary is also an early contemporary feminist classic of graphic autobiography. I …

Artists’ Books

Artists' Books There are many conflicting opinions as to what an artists’ book should be. The term “artists’ books” first appeared around 1973 but books that could later be placed within this category began to appear in the 1960’s and 70’s along with social and political activism and the rise of conceptual art (p.13, Klima). …

Doll Hospital Journal

                Doll Hospital is an intersectional/queer/feminist literary mental health journal, founded by Bethany Rose Lamont in 2014, that often focuses on personal experiences of survival, told through art and literature. This is a super cute, well designed and important little book to own, carry with you, support, and recommend to friends and family. From …

Book Pile: Comics and Mental Health

A selection of comics related to mental (and physical) health. These are honest, beautiful, and often brutal narratives. Included in this assembly (with descriptions from publishers' websites): My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (2017) Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of …

Hero and Villain: The Construction of Autobiographical Slave Narrative in Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner

The following writing is adapted from a seminar presentation for a course on graphic life narratives at the University of Winnipeg. Background Nat Turner was an African American slave who led a violent revolt on several plantations in Southampton County, Virginia in late August 21-22, 1831. These revolts resulted in the murder of approximately 57 …