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to Oregon to take advantage of its assisted
suicide law; and Steven supports his alco-
holic brother who doesn’t want to admit he
has a problem. With its nicely interwoven
faith elements, Hannon’s multifaceted
return to Hope Harbor focuses on how
forgiving oneself is as important for healing
as forgiveness from others. Series fans will
be overjoyed by this complex, stirring
tale. (Mar.)
Comics
Menopause: A Comic Treatment
Edited by MK Czerwiec. Penn State Univ.,
$29.95 (144p) ISBN 978-0-271-08712-2
This eclectic anthology in the graphic
medicine genre illuminates a subject
seldom discussed in comics, as more than
20 creators share their experiences with
menopause. The wide range of approaches
includes Maureen Burdock’s elegantly
illustrated ode to the neopagan triple god-
dess and “moonblood,” Lynda Barry’s witty
recollections of the opinionated old ladies in
her Filipino family, Joyce Farmer’s playful
answer to the question “Do Menopausal
Women Even
Get Horny?”
and an appear-
ance from
Roberta
Gregory’s alt-
comics heroine,
Bitchy Bitch,
who deals with
“the Change”
by snarling,
“Has it really been over five hundred
gushers?” One of the strongest and funniest
pieces, Mimi Pond’s “When the Menopause
Carnival Comes to Town,” follows a mother
and daughter through a fairground where
attractions include the Mood Swing and
the Hormone Scrambler. Several pieces
are authored by medical professionals,
including the editor, a nurse and educator
who calls herself Comics Nurse. Trans and
genderqueer creators offer perspectives, as
do artists who have gone through hyster-
ectomy and early menopause. Like many
anthologies, it’s uneven, with the con-
tributors’ artistic abilities ranging from
amateur to fully assured. But the volume’s
exploration of what Barry calls “un-
becoming a woman” is often informative,
sometimes moving, and ambitious in its
frank talk about what is oddly taboo: an
inevitable experience for half of humanity.
(May)Spit Three Times
Davide Reviati, trans. from the Italian by
Jamie Richards. Seven Stories, $28.95 trade
paper (568p) ISBN 978-1-6098-0909-6
Haunting and dreamlike, Reviati’s tome
threads together the coming-of-age story
of Guido, a teenage slacker who struggles
to express himself, and the saga of the
Stançiçs, a Roma family living on the
margins of their small Italian town. Guido
and his thuggish friends taunt ferocious,
unkempt Loretta Stançiç. When Guido’s
friend stumbles upon a battered Loretta in
the woods and finds a newborn baby under
her skirt, he cuts the umbilical cord and
saves the infant’s life, only to be run off by
Loretta’s suspicious brothers. The thread
picks up years later, when Guido hears
that Loretta had three children, all lost to
social services. One of the Stançiç brothers
interrupts Loretta and Guido’s vignettes
to give a primer on the treatment of the
Roma during the Holocaust: at least
500,000 killed, many more sterilized as the
subject of eugenic “studies.” Throughout,
Reviati probes the intersection of history
and memory, composing in fragments that
double back on themselves. Reviati’s pen-
and-ink lines are confident: shadows heavy,
faces half blank but elegantly realized.
Though searching for a plot through line
is difficult at times, and it’s hard to dis-
cern whether that’s due to translation,
murky storytelling, or poetic intention.
Nevertheless, those willing to slip into
the town’s mysteries will be rewarded
by Reviati’s stylish, brooding art, which
captures the ache of losses small and
large. (Apr.)Long Story Short: 100 Classic
Books in Three Panels
Lisa Brown. Algonquin, $14.95 (80p)
ISBN 978-1-61620-503-4
Brown (The Phantom Twin) condenses
classic and contemporary literature into
summary comic strips, usually (though
not always) three panels long in this feather-
light collection. Sometimes she achieves the
laugh: Interview with the Vampire is sum-
marized as “It’s all fun and games until
you have a kid”; the Walden strip pokesfun at Thoreau for living in Emerson’s
backyard; and boiling the entire Bhagavad
Gita down to three panels could only end
in absurdity. But more often, each strip
states the book’s premise or quotes a line
without adding special perspective beyond
the accomplishment of diminishment.
Serious, hard-to-joke-about works like
The Autobiography of Malcolm X or Beloved
are reduced to pithy platitudes (e.g., “The
legacy of slavery is haunting” superimposed
on a ghost at a gravestone). There’s nothing
wrong with the literal approach to this
exercise, per se, but the Cliffs Notes level
of commentary can be disappointing, and
the better strips leave the rest paler.
Brown’s simple but playful and boldly
colored art carries off a visual unpreten-
tiousness that suits the erudite-lite
material. The result is a cute gift book
with just enough going for it, though it
could do with more punch. (Apr.)Doctor Mirage
Magdalene Visaggio and Nick Robles. Valiant,
$14.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-68215-
346-8
Visaggio (Strangelands) introduces
paranormal investigator Shan Fong
Mirage—or Doctor Mirage—whose
power lies in her ability to communicate
with the dead, in this first volume of a
cerebral and otherworldly series. Mirage
is confused when the dead seem to have
gone silent, including her deceased
magician husband, Hwen. But then
16-year-old Grace Lugo shows up at her
door, claiming to have been sent by
Hwen, and reveals that she and Mirage are
dead and in hell themselves—and Doctor
Mirage has to pierce the veil between the
present and the afterlife in order to answer
the question: how do you investigate your
own death? The series opener is ripe with
delightfully psychedelic twists, rooted by
tropes of mythological tragedy (they seek
out the cult of Goddess Isis for guidance).
Robles’s dynamic artwork brings the dead
back to life through creative use of broken
panel borders and mixed media texturing,
with cartooning reminiscent of Bill
Sienkiewicz and Fiona Staples. The blend
of fantasy, mythology, and a serious look
at grief give this genre-bending series
plenty of room to grow in its future
installments. (Mar.)