Omschrijving
A rich collection/scrapbook of over two dozen short
stories, plus diary entries, photos, and other images
fueled by a propensity to understand the way we
relate to each other, and told with a visual and
lyrical beauty — and raw emotion — that collectively reaffirms the power of art.
Tommi Parrish is an Australian trans cartoonist and one of the
most distinctive voices in contemporary comics and graphic novels. Balancing emotional honesty with a keen awareness of the
human condition, Parrish navigates fear, loneliness, identity, body
politics, queer desire, masculinity, fear, and the ever-fluid nature
of all human relationships. The Past is a Grotesque Animal collects over two dozen short stories of varying lengths, interspersed
with ephemera from Parrish’s own life: diary entries, photographs,
illustrations, paintings, and more.
Parrish’s autobiographical elements inform their voice as a writer
and the ways their characters constantly find one another adrift in their
own seas of experience, current situations, trauma, and desire. How
those characters coexist, how they are complicated by outside forces,
and internal ones, affect our hardwired need for meaningful connection.
The book also showcases Parrish’s singular and assured visual style,
blending clear lines, expressionistic character designs and gorgeously
complex, hand-painted color.