Akaha, Mitzi – Kuzu

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Kuzu

Where does all the bird crap go? That’s right, this week I’m apparently fixated on starting reviews with hypothetical questions. Most of it is washed away by rain, but what about all the places with minimal rainfall, or places like California that have been in a drought for years? I have no idea what happens in the real world and am frightened of the Google search that would answer that question for me, but in this comic, on a tiny island called Bomei, a man called Card Keeler deals with all of the bird shit. That involves cleaning it up, sure, but there’s also a lot of city planning that goes into where and how often birds shit on things, like gutter placement and the slope of roofs. Card liked his life, and he eventually met a woman on a boat ride that he later married. Their life was good; he did his thing and she was happy to stay at home. At first, anyway. She was reluctant to tell her friends what her husband did (it is a ridiculous job to say out loud) and he was out a lot, so they naturally started to drift apart. And that’s when a giant storm hit their island, bringing with it the mysterious vine that you see on the cover, which changed everything. Yep, that’s as far as I go in recapping the story, but I have to imagine that’s plenty. It’s a nicely understated tale of how the little things get in the way of a good life, how other little things can crop up to change things again, and how shouting into the void can cement a marriage. $5