If you’ve been following my haphazard writing at all, you know of my love for Corinne Mucha, aka the undisputed Queen of Mini-Comics. Mucha has only one longer format ‘graphic novel’ to her name (Freshman Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions Revelations and Other Nonsense aimed more at the teen and young adult market) and whilst it’s good, her mini-comics are where her talent is really and truly on show.
She won an Ignatz award last year for her Retrofit comic, The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions, but I personally believe My Every Single Thought to be her best work, where she deftly explores what being a single woman means -to single and non-single women, to men, to society, the expectations and connotations it carries as a label, and combining, as always, humour and whimsy with deeper, more reflective thoughts.
Here’s a bit more on her abilities from a piece I wrote over at FPI last year:
‘Mucha packs so much into these pages, pictures brimming off the edges and words, words, everywhere (an unfashionable and dying art in comics), that you never feel you’ve read anything other than a full, dense and enriching narrative. Her shining quality is her ability to combine irreverent humour with more serious ruminations in a manner that’s honest and contemplative without being overly earnest or preachy. Her mini-comics are one of the best uses of the format I’ve come across, her narratives layered and rewarding.’
You can find her website here and buy her fantastic mini-comics here.
Oh, man, I love Corinne Mucha. She is so consistently hilarious.
“Mucha has only one longer format ‘graphic novel’ to her name (Freshman Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions Revelations and Other Nonsense aimed more at the teen and young adult market) and whilst it’s good, her mini-comics are where her talent is really and truly on show.”
What about “My Alaskan Summer”? (Which was great, incidentally.)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5975757-my-alaskan-summer
Thanks for that, Jason- I hadn’t come across it before. It’s self published and looks like it’s out of print- I’ve amended the article.
But yeah, she’s great!
I think you might be right. It was a Xeric Grant winner, though, so it was probably available more widely than any of her other work (though that might be a pretty big assumption on my part).