Review: The Shape of Comics to Come (2023)
30 Comics in 30 Days - I’m reviewing a comic every day in November!
Day 13 - The Shape of Comics to Come by Derek M Ballard. (Follow and support his work @derekmballard)
This is a self-deprecating, brilliant collection of comics about making comics when you are broke and stressed and raising three kids.
Ballard’s cartoon self waxes mock-grandiose about art (“I am a sacred instrument guided by the hand of god to channel growth and enlightenment to the people! With funny cartoons!”); gets asked to work for free by an exploitative publisher; and puts up with a privileged shit of a graphic novelist who is drawing a monochromatic book about class and poverty. (“Imagine Fun Home drawn by Käthe Kollwitz.”)
Plenty of alternative cartoonists have bemoaned the pathetic social status of their art form before. But Ballard’s work is different. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comic be so explicit about the economic realities of cartooning. At this point, it’s a space where only the independently wealthy or the extraordinarily lucky few can afford to make comics full time. And Ballard manages to write about this without being sanctimonious or self-serious. The Shape of Comics to Come is funny and full of life.
I hope Ballard keeps making these comic strips forever and keeps right on shredding the precious delusions of the art and comics world.
Follow my bookstagram: @panthercitybooks
