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Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 by Various
I dig Mome and enjoy most of the other literary comics anthology that have been sprouting up over the past few years, but am consistently impressed with the work that is featured in the Drawn & Quarterly anthology. Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 (2006, Drawn & Quarterly, Amazon listing) has solid pieces by three disparate artists.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Gabrielle Bell, which doesn't consist of much, but still. But this untitled work about a young woman who doesn't quite fit in at her art school is as strong as any of her other pieces. When the woman's artwork draws the attention of a famous abstract artist's ten-year-old son, the artist hires her to teach him art. Eventually, a strange triangle forms between the three of them. Like the art of the woman in the story, Bell's art is straightforward; there is nothing showy in the layouts or the rendering. But the narrative itself has ambiguity.

"Dog Days" by Martin Cendreda layers a couple of different stories in one day in a hot city: A young boy and his grandfather go to get a haircut while a serial killer is on the loose; three young kids roam the streets getting into young boy type trouble; and perhaps the aswang, a supernatural creature, makes an appearance. With a simple style and a single color, Cendreda immediately involves the reader.

Finally, Dan Zettwoch relates his grandfather's experiences during a huge flood in Louisville in "Won't Be Licked." With an amazing amount of detail for someone who wasn't there, Zettwoch plunges the reader into the action. Although it was a horrible event, Zettwoch captures the adventure a young man would have felt during that time. Seamlessly incorporating first-hand sources with scholarly sources, he is able to recreate an incident most people are probably unaware of and make it engaging.

By focusing on only a few artists with quality work, Drawn & Quarterly has created an anthology that never disappoints and sends the reader out searching for additional work by the artists.

Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 4.5 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM