Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2013 December 13 • Friday

Here's a great new comic, Jesse Reklaw's memoir of being a child, a teenager and a young adult. Reklaw had previously done great comics of people's dreams. It's nice to find out some things about him now!

Each story has a certain trigger. There's a series of cat stories, a series of toy stories, stories born from certain games and products of the young Jesse's imagination.

At the heart of it is Jesse's trying to place himself within his family and community, a challenge since his parents and sister are, to put it delicately, quite lively.

Most of the book is in that monochrome style. The last section is radically different, exploding into color with a very different approach to the artwork; the stories are presented as an alphabetical series of recollections.

A wonder of this book is that its contents don't feel scattered. All of these small pieces come together to create a moving portrait. I didn't want to put it down and when it was finished I wanted more.