Doherty, Catherine – Can of Worms

Can of Worms

Is there a buzz out there somewhere for this book that I’m just not hearing? I got it pretty much at random on my pre-order page, mostly because it was from Fantagraphics and I hadn’t heard of it. This is Catherine’s first graphic novel and, if it’s any indication, she’s got big things (or at least as big as they get in the comics world) in store for her. The back of the book calls it “a thinly veiled autobiographical fiction”. It’s about the search for her birth mother, a silent book punctuated by letters and evidence as she gets closer and closer to the truth. In case I haven’t made it clear yet, I liked everything about this book, and I don’t think I say that very often. I liked the cartooniness of her family (in appearance only) compared to the stark reality of everyone else, even if they only had peripheral roles. I don’t think any silent book has ever taken me this long to read either. It would be on my list for best graphic novels of the year, if I kept lists about that kind of thing. If anybody else out there has read this, start to make some noise about it. Go to the message boards and places like that, get the word out.