Review | Four new graphic novels: from the mind-blowing to the exciting to downright unnerving

Acting Class

By Nick Drnaso

Drawn & Quarterly, 248 pages, $34.95

A new book by award-winning graphic novelist Nick Drnaso should be treated as a special event. His last, “Sabrina,” was one of the most impactful books of 2018, for example. Drnaso’s work stands out from the crowd.

“Acting Class” is his third, and just as subtly mind-blowing as the others. It focuses on a community college evening class, led by nondescript but demanding John Smith and featuring a varied cast, from an ex-convict to an artist’s model to an unusual woman with only a vague connection to reality.

Like Drnaso’s other books, “Acting Class” is a slow experience that pays off incrementally as emotion builds and we see the real story threaded through a matter-of-fact narrative style. It’s disturbing and rewarding as the characters — and, of course, the reader — examine who they are, in a series of increasingly bizarre acting exercises. Don’t miss this book.

Birds of Maine

By Michael DeForge

Drawn & Quarterly, 464 pages, $39.95

Toronto comics creator Michael DeForge is a force of nature. He never seems to pause in his creative schedule, supplying us with material just about as fast as we can consume it, and now we have 464 delightful pages of Birds of Maine, in print, as usual, after its satisfyingly-consistent publication online.

DeForge also loves to use his abstract style and endless imagination to encourage us to think about the society in which we live, and in this book he’s doing it with birds in a post-apocalyptic but surprisingly Utopian world. We humans are all gone, and the society of birds — with jobs, desires and more — is DeForge’s latest vehicle to make social and political points.

It’s all superb work, especially in the creator’s sophisticated use of colour. It’s really funny, too, especially when birds dryly comment about each other.

Batman Detective Comics Vol 2: Fear State

By Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora and others

DC Comics, 240 pages, $39.99

Did you know Batman’s been pretty Canadian lately? At least, some of the people steering his stories have been Canadian; this new book is written by one of Canada’s most exciting creators.

Mariko Tamaki, Toronto writer, artist and winner of multiple awards, has just finished a run writing “Detective Comics,” the title that introduced Batman in 1939. Now her stories are available in book form, including this second volume. (You can also find volume one, “The Neighborhood.”)

In “Fear State,” the villainous Mr. Worth has manipulated Gotham’s citizens into a collective, chaotic terror, while, under siege at City Hall, Batman tries to protect Mayor Nakano, a politician elected on a simple promise: getting rid of Batman.

Tamaki can spin a wonderful yarn and this is definitely one. And, if you want more Bat-Can-Con, fellow Torontonian Chip Zdarsky who is two issues into writing the main Batman title, and it’s great stuff.

Dwellings

By Jay Stephens

Blackeye Books (blackeye.ca), 36 pages, $6.66 (yes, really)

Usually, this column focuses on books you can find in a mainstream bookstore, because it’s best to recommend reads that are easy to grab. This time, though, I’m cheating, and pointing to single issues of a comic book you can only order from the publisher.

Here’s why: it’s incredibly good. In “Dwellings,” Guelph-based creator Jay Stephens has produced a series of genuinely disturbing stories. He’s made them more unnerving by presenting them in the style of children’s comics, with a particular nod towards Harvey Comics, publisher of big-headed, one-note characters like Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

But, in “Dwellings,” the creatures we meet are not friendly. Why are those crows always nearby? Where is Charlie’s grandmother — and why can nobody remember her?

“Dwellings” won this year’s Doug Wright Award as Canada’s best small-press book, and it deserved it. If you feel brave, check it out.

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