An Autobiographix Year in Review

We’ve had quite the year! From opening our year with poetry comics explorations and a couple book reviews, to starting our substack, we’ve enjoyed a year full of comics. Thanks for coming along with us, and we look forward to more in 2022!

Here’s a quick snapshot of what we were up to in 2021:

• We started the year with a book review of The Contradictions by Sophie Yanow, a great coming-of-age tale about hitchhiking across Europe, the overwhelming desire to live by one’s ideals (even when it’s hard to make them align with reality). Released when so many of us are navigating anxieties and trying to keep friendships alive, couch-bound and lassoed to Zoom, The Contradictions can evoke a sense of nostalgia—not just for younger days in all their complications, but also for travel. Each time the girls pass up an opportunity to visit a museum or join friends dancing, you may want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to suck the marrow out of every moment. But ultimately, you’ll want to lay on the couch all day and read The Contradictions in one sitting.

• Another Chicago Magazine published our next review, of Keiler Robert’s My Begging Chart. From walking the dog to baking brownies, online shopping to making crafts in the basement, My Begging Chart by Keiler Roberts reveals a modern domesticity. Set in an undefined, urban-ish, walkable neighborhood, Roberts’ seventh collection of diary comics centers on moments of her life as she deals with the slow progression of days. Keiler is sardonic and observant, perhaps unhappy but buoyed by the everyday interactions of her life.

• We presented at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference: “Toward a Definition of Poetry Comics” and “Casting Narrative Aside: The Poetry Comics of Bianca Stone.”

In case you missed it:

“Five Card Nancy with Surrealist Interventions,” was our most popular post this year, with 199 views!

Some books we loved this year—graphic memoirs, books about comics and collected strips.

Amaris’s Top 3:

Eszter Szép’s Comics and the Body is the first book to examine the roles of the body in both drawing and reading comics with an explicit emphasis on the ethical dimensions of bodily vulnerability.

Part memoir, part medical cautionary tale, Dumb tells the story of how an urban twentysomething copes with the everyday challenges that come with voicelessness.

In 2016, acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator Eleanor Davis documented her cross-country bike tour as it happened.

Nora’s Top 3:

In Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe engagingly explores eir identity from growing up to adulthood. The graphic memoir has become a lightning rod for angry readers looking to censor LGBTQ+ stories, and has become one of the most banned books of the year. I’m happy to be teaching it next semester - it’s a necessary and welcome comic!

Scholar Bart Beaty breaks down my original love, Archie Comics, with a variety of approaches in his fun and illuminating Twelve Cent Archie.

Penguin is collecting all of Lynn Jonhston’s years long family strip, For Better or For Worse, in beautiful hardback editions. Johnston provides commentary on her work throughout, including the story of Farley, the Patterson’s (and my) beloved dog. If you want to cry, the latest volume (5) is for you…

What we’re looking forward to in 2022

• We’ll be returning to the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference to present on “Comics on the Road: Drawn Records of Women Traveling” on Saturday, February 26.

• Amaris has a comic about the Berkeley Pit coming out in Ecotone’s Climate Issue.

• More reviews of comics, interviews with creators, dives into history, craft/creation ideas, and more right here!