Welcome to Litsy!

I'm a sucker for Seth's Palookaville. This story chronicles the search for more information about a little known cartoonist of the 40s and 50s. It's full of introspection, melancholy, love, and dedication. A casual encounter with a single comic strip becomes a mission to learn more. It's a beautifully slow-paced book where each panel brings depth. Even landscape and architecture become characters that frame and deftly move the story along.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I love Seth's drawing style and his love for history and the past, but this book is so nostalgic that it gets off-putting. I also winced when I realized that his companion in this book is Chester Brown, a fellow Canadian cartoonist whose work 'Paying for It' was pretty repellant to me. All in all, I think I prefer non-autobiographical cartooning...

I'm a big fan of this book. I don't want to say too much about form and such because there are some really cool things that are much more fun when you discover them yourself. Seth's art is nostalgic in a stunningly romantic sort of way and the story largely follows the dissonance between this romanticism and current lifestyles. I've found it to have a haunting kind of charm, highly recommend!