I finished a big project this month, and launched myself into a new strip without taking the time to figure out what’s next. Now I’m working backwards, trying to take time to figure out how I want to approach my next project, how to build on what I’ve done while also trying something new.
I’m also moving towards the end of Yearly 2019, and I’m very excited to share that with you. It’ll be at least 80 pages, maybe more, and in the same format as last year to allow me to finish a continuing story.
—
The Visiting Privilege, Joy Williams – I might need to find a different way to read short story collections, which probably means letting myself take more time to work through them. I like these stories very much, but this is a long collection and I struggled to get through the final quarter of the book as the similarities between stories began to feel plodding rather than compelling. I’m pretty sure that’s a reflection on me, and not on the writing.
Late Bloomer, Maré Odomo – I think about this book often, so I decided to reread it. I found myself taken in particular with the way the pages feel casual (and therefore intimate) but also carefully considered. There’s a brave willingness on display here in the choice to let pages of scribbles stand on their own. It gives them weight. The sequencing is interesting as well, building from early pages that stand on their own to final sequences that span three, four, five pages. I think this is a more influential book than people might realize.
Portrait d’un buveur, Schrauwen & Ruppert & Mulot – I liked this a lot. It was laugh out loud funny in places – which, for me, none of the creator’s previous books have been – but also visually compelling and inventive. There’s a central silent sequence that uses a great formal technique without drawing too much attention to it. This made me pick up colored pencils again for the short strip I finished last week.
[Separately, Ruppert & Mulot are building an interesting pedigree of collaborating with other artists and successfully blending their This book looks different from the Vives & Ruppert & Mulot books (which I haven’t read in full), all of which look different from the respective solo work of each artist.]