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Wray, Patrick & Heathcock, Clara – Grandad Reg

Clara’s Website

Patrick’s Website

Grandad Reg

I was recently asking where all the pandemic comics were, but it seems like they’ve been coming a lot more quickly recently, and this is another solid addition to the list. This is the story of Clara’s grandad Reg, who passed away from covid in April of 2020, right around the first big wave. She goes through some of her favorite memories of her time with the man, but the main theme of the book is one of confusion. How do you mourn somebody when there’s no event to mark their passing? Everybody was quarantined at the time, so all she has is a few people to contact over Facetime. I was lucky during the pandemic (not that it’s over, at least as of June 2022) in that I never contracted it (or if I did it was an asymptomatic case) and no close friends or family members died from it. Reading about her experience, and how she had to piece together any sense of peace or closure from it, was heartbreaking, and a reminder of just how many people had to deal with this over the last two years. Patrick did a solid job with the artwork, conveying just how stuck in time Clara must have been while still showing a sort of grieving process for her and her family. Does this mean that I’m recommending yet another mini kus book? Yep. I’ll bet nobody could have seen that one coming! But this is another excellent reminder of the sheer range of the series and the artists involved. I’ll bet the next one will be a wordless tale of the life of a dollar bill, or something else completely unrelated to this one. Anyway, now I’m starting to review mini kus and not this comic, but yes, give this one a shot. Especially if you had your own losses during the pandemic, this one might help you process how it all went down. $8