The comics of Aidan Koch offer unique æsthetic pleasures.  They're not for everyone, but if you connect with her work, it can be transportive, and with its 208 full color pages, Spiral and Other Stories is her most substantial work yet.

The title story, which is divided into ten chapters and takes up 2/3 of the volume, is long enough to be a stand-alone work (aka graphic novel) – and it was, in Spain (en español), as La espiral, in 2020.  In “Spiral," Koch applies her mastery of paint handling and uncanny understanding of negative space to a muted staccato narrative intercut with internal, metaphorical riverscapes to communicate an ineffable sense emotional distance. 

Also included are three additional short works, "A New Year," "The Forest" and "Man Made Lake."  To the best of our knowledge, "A New Year" and "The Forest" appear here for the first time. "Man Made Lake" was previously published as mini kus #94, but was printed roughly half the size and, intriguingly, with the spreads being all different due to the fact that in the mini-kus the story begins on the recto, and here it begins on the verso.; so, subtle differences in the reading experience for all you layout obsessives out there (we'll let you know if Frank Santoro weighs in on this).

Those unfamiliar with Aidan Koch's work can get a better idea of what we're talking about by taking a moment to visit a gallery of the book we posted on Tumblr, HERE.