Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Grip

 Robert Boyd

Today's book report is about Grip by Lale Westvind. I found out about this book from the podcast Comic Books Are Burning in Hell, where they ranked the then unfinished work as one of the 10 best comics of 2020.

(Addendum: Someone told me that Lale's name is pronounced La-Ley and that Westvind uses they/them pronouns. So given this, I mispronounce their name throughout and misgender them--for which I apologize. What can I say? It's hard to find information about Westvind online.)

(Addendum 2: Westvind responded below and writes "I do not use they, them pronouns... And my name is pronounced Lah-leh.")

6 comments:

  1. Hello, I do not use they, them pronouns or I should say I do not mind using they or them but I do not mind she either and it is what I am used to. And my name is pronounced Lah-leh.

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  2. Thanks for responding, and again, sorry about mispronouncing your name!

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  3. No apology necessary! It would be an absolute shock if you got it right :)

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  4. Thanks for this. Long time fan, Robert, first time responder. I have this book here, at last, and agree it is a masterpiece. Thanks for your overview, and also for your tip to the podcast which I have never listened to. The reason I have this comic is that a former student, MIa, wrote an honors thesis with me on poetry comics. I also follow a woman who knows experimental comics very well, her name is Kim, she's on Goodreads, who like your Comics Burning in Hell guys said it was in her top comics of the decade. Only a handful of people are into these comics, in spite of our best efforts, but in my Goodreads review I'll link to yr book report site. Oh, and I teach graphic novels and comics at the University of Illinois Chicago, though only for about a decade now, so I'm not a scholar or anything.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks very much for your response. As you may know, I have migrated this blog from this platform to Substack. Not that Substack is better--it's just different. Anyway, the new blog is here: https://thegreatgodpanisdead.substack.com/

      I have revitalized (I hope) my blog and cover a slightly broader range of topics. I still write about comics and art, but now touch on music, literature, history, and anything else that interests me at a given moment.

      I think Westwind should be more widely acknowledged as a master and that Grip is an important work. But if it takes a while for people to catch on, that's sometimes how it goes.

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