Poets & Writers

THE WRITTEN IMAGE

At first glance, Nick Drnaso’s second graphic novel, —which begins when its title character, a young woman living in Chicago, goes missing—might seem, which is out this month from Montreal comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly, braids the narratives of three characters who grow more isolated and paranoid as they struggle to address Sabrina’s disappearance. Drnaso deftly contrasts the fear and heartbreak of the story with his understated style of illustration—muted colors, clean lines, and unshaded images reminiscent of Chris Ware’s work—while amplifying the sense of loneliness and entrapment. The characters, for instance, often appear expressionless and are almost never depicted talking to one another in the same frame. Drnaso used the same approach in his first graphic novel, (Drawn & Quarterly, 2016), which offered a similarly nuanced view of American suburbia. In a 2016 interview with the about that book, Drnaso said of his style, “I’ve fully embraced rigidity. There’s simplicity in it, I think. At a certain point I realized that stripping away was more effective than going in and adding things….I wanted to tear things down to their essence.”

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers5 min read
Hey, Jealousy
I AM HERE to tell you about the time I rage-puked with envy over another author’s success. When my first novel came out in summer 2011, I knew very few other writers, so the ones I met that year became not only my instant friends, but also—it was ine
Poets & Writers5 min read
Picking What to Submit
WINNING a writing contest can lead to amazing things beyond a fancy line on your CV, including prize money, publication, and promotion. Contests can also connect you with judges and other writers who respect your work. But as with many aspects of the
Poets & Writers6 min read
Thinning the Line
웅녀, 가위눌림, 태몽. THESE are a few of the words written in Hangul in my novel The Stone Home, published by William Morrow in April. They appear midsentence, a sprig of Korean characters in a landscape of English. Though my book has been completed for some

Related