Lee Knox Ostertag

I love this with a thousand hearts. I sort of don't want to return it to the library (settle down-I will). I was on hold for this so long, I forgot what it was about. That level of interest, at least in my part of the country, makes me happy, because a kickstarter campaign got this web comic in print, and I hope to see another volume. I always have good intentions with web comics, but then I eventually lose track of them. I'll try extra hard with this one, because I want to follow Allison's show more story.

The conflicted superhero has been done before, but Mulligan and Ostertag did it really well. There's not much that's black and white in this story of what super humans decide to do with their super powers, and there's lots of humor to keep things from being overwrought. The authors' commentary on the bottom of every page is what I liked most about the book. Even the author bios made me laugh. show less

Magdalena (Mags) Herrera is tied down in ways most 18-year-olds aren't: when she was born, there was a monster wrapped around her, and it lives in a cage in the basement and feeds daily on her blood. But when Mags' childhood friend Nessa - the only person outside her family she ever showed the creature to - returns to town, Mags begins to wonder if there is more possibility to her life than she thought.

Most of the present-day story is in black and white with some spot color (e.g. red for show more blood and playing cards, blue for text messages). Flashbacks are in full color, as are the final pages. There is a unique section (364-375) between Nessa and her stalker ex-boyfriend that appears in four-color, almost like a hologram or Magic Eye.

The story is set in the southwest U.S. desert. Mags is a butch lesbian who speaks some Spanish with her Catholic abuela; Nessa is trans, an artist who uses a pinhole camera (some of these images are included in the book). Mags and Nessa rescue each other, and Mags rethinks her view of the basement monster - as a part of her that doesn't always need to be kept hidden.

Quotes

"I get sort of numb when stuff like this happens."
"It's okay not to be okay, you know?" (Mags and Nessa, 291)

Mom says I'm so mature. And that's code for not her problem anymore. And stop making her feel guilty for starting a new life. (Mags, 297)

"I made a choice to thrive." (Nessa, 305) show less

This is a YA graphic novel about a high-school age Hispanic lesbian in rural California who reconnects with a childhood friend who moved away years ago. Only she doesn't want to reconnect, because she doesn't want that friend to discover her secret—a dark one in the basement that her family has hid for generations. This is one of those fantasy stories that does a good job working on two levels, there's a literal monster, but of course it's also a metaphor. Ostertag's characters are show more well-drawn, and she especially does a great job with the main character's yearning for connection but also pushing of other people away. This is the kind of thing I really like about reading all the Hugo finalists; I never would have come across this I'm sure, but ended up really enjoying the experience a lot. show less

Gloriously told story of self discovery. I love Molly Knox Ostertag's broadly drawn expressive characters. In Understand Comics, Scott McCloud offers a pyramid describing characters from the everyman of a smiley face to the photorealistic, with inhuman / abstract on the vertical axis. For me, Ostertag's Mags and Nessa sit at the sweet spot of that range, instantly recognizable as themselves on the page but broadly drawn enough to reflect a range of readers back at us.

What makes Deepest Dark show more a five star experience is Ostertag's careful and celebratory use of color. Like the Wizard of Oz, the most important moments take on color that highlights their emotional impact. In the early goings, we get only glimpses but as the narrative takes shape, the underlying pattern emerges. Fantastic art. show less