Drew Canole's Reviews > Blurry

Dash Shaw's new epic, this was a surprise to see on the shelves. I always enjoy Shaw's comics and this was no exception. Maybe recency bias, but this may be my favourite of his to date. It's so good, I now want to go back and re-read all of his comics once again.

It reminds me of movies like Slacker, where the story jumps from character to character. A man deciding on a dress shirt asks the sales lady a question -> she responds by telling a story of how she was engaged but interested in this guy -> this guy tells her a story about how he wanted to quit modeling -> in that story we get his teacher telling us a story -> etc. etc. Then after getting introduced to a ton of characters, we loop back out of the stories and finally get to the original guy - who I basically forgot about by the end of the comic.

Shaw nails the jumps between each character, none of the stories overstay their welcome and they all feel relevant enough to each other that it never feels like a just a device to tie together disparate short stories. There's also panels that help remind you of the story structure in subtle ways. It's a book that could feel a tad academic, but it's actually a really light enjoyable read.

Shaw has a knack for characters and illustrating simple yet profound thoughts.