[recommendation] sparce and sequential

some months ago, the times magazine, in a bold demonstration of everything laudable and infuriating about the paper, began running "the strip," a weekly feature serializing new work by a prominent comics artist, who gets a single page's space (actually 4/5ths of a page, the top fifth being reserved for a brand-friendly declaration of what is to follow) in which to tell each installment. none of the artists chosen thus far have much, if any, experience working in this idiom; despite the department's title, they seem to be featuring not comic strip artists, but graphic novelists, which is to say (because i know these terms teeter on the edge of utter meaninglessness), folks who are used to working in a longer and more contiguous format. the first three participants, chris ware, jaime hernandez, and seth, all accomplished and well-regarded (at least in the insular comics world), seemed not quite up to the task of telling coherent individual stories that contributed to a larger narrative in so little space. (i don't mean to disparage the stories themselves, which i suspect will benefit from collection into single units, but the experience of reading them episodically was disappointing.)

this week saw the launch of a new serial by artist meghan kelso, a relative newcomer compared to the paper's previous choices. although i'm yet to find anyone who doesn't consider her a talented storyteller, it was nonetheless a reasonably bold decision, and one that i imagine was motivated by exactly the problem bemoaned above. kelso is often compared to alice munro for her impressive concision; her extremely short stories, while deceptively quiet and uncluttered, manage to render memorable and emotionally complex characters in the little time and space they demand. the first page of "watergate sue" does demonstrate that she is at least somewhat better suited to the challenge than her predecessors. from eight panels of simple dialogue, subtle background details and clever chromaticism, we already know a lot about three characters (an aging hippie and her two adult children, probably in the pacific northwest) and the relationships between them. whether this is all interesting enough that we'll have any idea what's going on when we come, at the end of another long and distracting work week, to the next installment, we'll have to decide on sunday.

so while awaiting next week's page and forgetting this week's, allow me to direct you to the squirrel mother, kelso's 2006 collection of short stories. it's a little different from any other contemporary comics i've read, and it will introduce you to the author's opinion of richard nixon, which i imagine will be pertinent to "watergate sue." and it's quite good. so read it, and we'll talk.

[postscript: new yorkers can pick the book up this week at the union square strand, where a discounted stack sits on one of the comic tables upstairs.]