Davis, Vanessa – Spaniel Rage

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Spaniel Rage #1

This was put out (I’m guessing here by the dates on the pages) around the end of June and it’s already in a second printing. One look through this and you can see why. The art looks kind of rushed in places, like it was done sitting around a coffee shop or late at night, but there are certain books where that can help the feel of the whole thing. This is basically a daily diary type of thing from May 11th of this year to June 15th. She captures wonderfully the ridiculous things that happen in the course of the average day, and she has the ability to trim people down to a sentence or two and still make you feel like you know them. Subjects in here include getting hit on, talking about her butt, meeting Juan Valdez, watching bad tv, sleeping, the subway, and concerts. Like I said, it looks sloppy at times and there’s a lot of open space on the pages, but for whatever reason that just adds to the sense of this being a representation of a life. This is one of the better things I’ve read from SPX this year, and I’m already more than halfway through the pile. Check it out if you enjoy diary comics, I’m guessing it’s 2 or 3 dollars. Send e-mail!