April 15, 2021
DeForge has a knack for cartoonish exaggeration in his artwork, and this collection of short comics takes that to new heights. Social interactions, emotions, genre conventions--all are pulled to compellingly absurd degrees. In "My New Stepdad Is a Disgusting Bug, and I Hate Him," the narrator's stepdad is literally a bug, and her larval stepsiblings clutter up the full-page scenes. "Album," told in structured panels in sepia tones, is bittersweet, touching on nostalgia, grief, and regret in a series of snapshots from the past and future: "Here's my mom forgiving me for all the trouble I caused"; "Here's my mom looking over our dying solar system." The final story, "Soap Opera," is a comical standout, escalating a man's abandonment of his wife until he's in love with an entire state's voting body. DeForge's art style varies, sometimes using straightforward, simplified forms; elsewhere, faces and bodies are stretched and distended as if made of Silly Putty. Though the experimental, outr� tone of these stories might not have broad appeal, for the right reader, they'll push all the right buttons.
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