![]() While On a Sunbeam let the story breath with a longer length that helped balance out all the elements, this one feel rushed at times (particularly the cat plotline) and a bit more length would be nice. It is quite fun, but it also never quite fully blends with the more engaging dialogue-driven storyline of Bea and Lou. The story takes a magical twist with the cat able to reshape reality around it, though the story surrounding this is rather vague and feels a bit half-baked. Two men, always smoking and claiming to be from the Office of Road Inquiry, seem to have a supernatural ability to pursue the two women, always appearing lurking and alarming in the dark. Slowly building in the background of the story is a mysterious cat that Bea takes in. Unlike earlier stories, romance never really enters the picture and this is a lovely tale of queer friendship. Their past traumas come to light and the two find that their emotional load is best carried together than alone. Bea is rather guarded and caustic but as the two travel they slowly reveal more about themselves to each other, forming a really beautiful bond by the end of the book despite their many frequent arguments. Teenage runaway Bea runs into twenty-something Lou on the road, with the older woman deciding to look after the younger girl. ![]() Walden has a knack for pulling heartstrings like conducting an grand orchestra and this story is certainly moving. The story is rather sad, as is to be expected with Walden, yet it is also very hopeful. This book is worth picking up for the art alone. This is a masterpiece of art and it is wonderful to have watched Walden perfect her craft and experiment into new territories that all seems to come together to perfection here. She excels at capturing action, with many quick frames per page during dramatic scenes that seemingly overflow into one another and the more surreal moments capture dream logic with each frame practically interjecting itself onto the one before it. The art is much looser that her earlier, more architecturally focused work, and gives a very fluid and energetic quality to the work. Walden’s color palettes-mostly consisting of yellows, oranges, reds and purples on black backgrounds-set an incredibly dreamlike tone that depicts the world around the characters as quietly threatening. This is easily Walden’s finest artistic endeavour yet. While the pacing is a bit uneven and the two storylines never quite mesh, this is still a magical tale of human connection and friendship amidst a world full of pain delivered in such extraordinary art it will take your breath away. As they slowly open up to one another and learn that shared empathy can ease the pain of trauma they find themselves caught up in supernatural drama pursued by two mysterious men who will stop at nothing to capture a stray cat the unlikely pair have picked up. The story follows two strangers, Lou and teenage Bea, both running from something who team up on the road across West Texas despite frustration with each other. Are You Listening?, Walden’s third full-length graphic novel and winner of the 2020 Eisner Award, showcases some her most astounding artwork yet with big, bold color and dynamic energy. There is a magic that flows through the works of young graphic novelist superstar Tillie Walden that always keeps me returning to her works, even if just to get lost in the incandescent beauty of her art. You had me at "lgbtq+ magical realism graphic novel with gorgeous illustrations and also it's a road trip" except to the art! to that i say yes thank you. this is only truer if that graphic novel contains two separate character arcs, plus a handful of very thorny and complex social issues, plus a near-inexplicable introduction of some very complicated magical realism.īasically what i'm saying is that i was incapable of feeling much of anything for these characters, because they never once felt developed to me, and also i had no goddamn idea what was going on for approximately a third of this book.Īnd tragically, neither the fact that it's quite lengthy for a graphic novel or that the art is very very pretty was enough to change that.īottom line: no thank you. they're like a meringue, and honestly, who likes meringues anyway?Īt the best of times, a graphic novel tends to feel incomplete. The biggest problem i have with graphic novels is always that i never FEEL ANYTHING.
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