Stone Fruit is an amazingly assured debut graphic novel from Lee Lai. Employing a modulating mode of representation that shifts from realistic to figurative as inner states of mind are externalized, Lai relates the unwinding of a fraught relationship. If that sounds interesting and you'd like to learn more, then we recommend reading Laura Sackton's insightful review of Stone Fruit at the Chicago Review of Books, HERE.
Since 2019, The Museum of Modern Art has commissioned cartoonists and illustrators to craft stories about their experiences inside and outside the museum. Editors Alex Halberstadt and Arlette Hernandez have gathered together here, in the 184 pages of this horizontally formatted, 6" x 12", full color hardcover, twenty-five of those comics, all taking place in the comp;any of – and inspired by – modern art, primarily that shown in and/or part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City (NYC). These comics have been created by a stellar array of cartoonists, including Jon Allen, Gabrielle Bell, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Jessica Campbell, Roz Chast, Ted Closson, Liana Finck, Ali Fitzgerald, November Garcia, Anna Haifisch, Mari Kanstad Johnsen, Patrick Keck, Lee Lai, Ellen Lindner, John Vasquez Mejias, Danica Novgorodoff, Tommi Parrish, Ben Passmore, Weng Pixin, Anna Sarvira, Walter Scott, Bishakh Som, Karl Stevens, Chris Ware (whose contribution is a stand-alone, pull-out / fold-out poster; of course), and Erin Williams.
The horizontaliity of the format* makes for a reading experience akin to that of reading mammoth sized daily newspaper strips of spectacularly diverse approaches, intents and manifested styles. We will admit to having had some trepidation that the work would veer towards the precious and/or self-consciously arty – but no! Our concerns were misplaced. The work presented here largely adheres to the cartoonist ethos and stays true to the comics making / reading experience. So, readers whose personal Venn diagrams show a strong overlap between museum going and comics reading have a very good chance of connecting with much of the work that this collection contains. If that sounds like you, then we can say, "Recommended!"
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*Two of the contributing artists – Ben Passmore and John Vasquez Mejias – decided to "flip the script" (read, format), and chose to go vertical instead, necessitating a ninety degree rotation of the book and making for yet another take on the (very) Old School daily strips that also sometimes ran vertically in the paper, as dictated by space requirements.
