Photo by Natasha Skov on Unsplash
A healthy comics diet requires a good serving of greens, and these odd gems will enrich your regular reading.
I’m lucky enough to receive a ton of awesome submissions, and while I can’t cover everything I’d like to spotlight a few cool nuggets of cruciferous comics fun that might be a bit outside your normal pull lists or indie fare.
Read on for some highlights from what Cabbage has harvested from the indie fields so far this month, and remember: eat your greens, kids!
When I Dream, It Feels Like Drowning
Written by august (in the wake of) dawn
Illustrated by Vie Richards
This short comic deals with disassociation, depression and all kinds of dark things in lyrical fashion. Dawn crafts a searing narrative that relies heavily on Richards’ keen visuals. If the book can’t carry off the haunting by degrees, it simply doesn’t work. Good thing they nail it.
Richards’ restrained color palette offers midnight and sunset hues with a vivid red to pick out focal points. This “light” crops up in the eyes, under the skin and, later, in the final “dialogue.” Dawn keeps the final exchange spare and demands that we focus on the action. As reality shatters, the text breaks the gutter and becomes part of the entire page. When I Dream, It Feels Like Drowning offers a descent that’s excruciating in its visibility and inevitability, but gorgeous in execution and craft.
Brokenland #4
Created by Drew Morrison
Designed by Jane Song
Color Assists by Kristoffer Pagaduan
Brokenland #4 continues Meeso’s wild, dimension-bending adventures with a mushroomy monster, an extended chase scene, a kaiju battle and, ultimately, some stakes for our little trash friend. Morrison delights yet again with precision cartooning and a luxurious color palette that takes us from night to day, club to dump and everywhere in between. Morrison’s choice to keep the comic silent keeps our focus entirely on the emotion in each panel and scene, and he delivers – per usual.
I’m fond of this little rascal. We’ve been with Meeso for four issues as he’s explored his outer and inner world, and he’s even made a few friends. We’ve also gotten to see Morrison’s imagination and storytelling flair take flight, and I’m excited to see what he does next.Â
Lost By Monday
Created by Mike Hawthorne
Lost By Monday is a silent, measured horror short about a man losing control by degrees, or days. Hawthorne creates a tense portrayal of a person losing his mind through negative space and a grim domestic trap as our protagonist unravels after a doctor’s visit.Â
Hawthorne’s adept at anatomy that communicates fragility, and we get to see that fragility turn into mania and, ultimately, violence. Black and white and grey suit this story, and Hawthorne knows how to layer and contrast these tones for depth and texture. Lost By Monday feels like a small, challenging gift, and unwrapping it page by page was an absolute(ly disturbing) delight.Â