Conklin, Lydia – The Living Cain

Lydia’s website

Publisher’s website (Killing the Buddha)

The Living Cain

Before I get to the comic, I wanted to relay to you the mission statement of the publisher, Killing the Buddha, because it’s fascinating: “…an online magazine of religion and culture for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the “spirituality” section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God.”  As someone who has had a lifetime to work up a healthy distrust of organized religion of all stripes (definitely in the “hostile” camp), I approve, and the site looks like a nice assortment of interesting topics.  As for the comic, it’s the simply told story of a woman (Lydia) who, after an awful break-up in college, decided that she wanted to get exactly one kind of dog to fill the hole in her life.  The dog would look at her a certain way, go on trips with her, hold her at night, all the things a missing significant other wouldn’t be there to do.  This quest of hers didn’t go exactly as planned, as the dog she got was a danger to everyone around her, but she eventually moved to New York and has seemed to make a habit of rescuing all sorts of dogs, considering it a win if she’s able to stave off execution of these animals even for a little while.  Actually, the comic says that you can contact Lydia if you want a dog, so if you live in the New York area (or don’t mind a bit of a drive), I’d say she qualifies as being an expert on dogs.  The comic itself is a series of one page panels, and when I said earlier that it was a simply told story I didn’t mean that it was simplistic.  Granted, backgrounds are sparse, but she captures a lot in facial expressions or the sudden acts of dog violence.  There’s also a thoughtful intro to the book called “What is Missing?”, about that vague feeling that so many people have of something being missing in their lives and how much better things would be if they could just find it.  It’s worth a look, and this woman is a hero for trying to help such a wide array of dogs.  $6

Posted on July 16, 2010, in Reviews and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Conklin, Lydia – The Living Cain.

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