In This Wildly Popular Comic, Toronto Is Beautiful and Falling Apart
Inside Michael DeForge’s new collection
DeForge believes Toronto has a chance to avoid becoming as unlivable as cities such as San Francisco or New York. A city isn’t about its buildings, trains, or parks but is instead about the people who live there. He asks whether, with so many disenfranchised in Toronto, we’re really creating the city we set out to build. DeForge’s work is full of juxtapositions: humorous yet dark, meandering yet pointed. Familiar spaces are made unfamiliar, and surreal tales are grounded in the suffocating rhythm of urban life. DeForge offers no grandiose solutions for city dwellers but implores us to critically examine our daily interactions, especially with people on the fringes of society.
Read more at at thewalrus.ca.
Illustrations from Leaving Richard’s Valley by Michael DeForge (michael-deforge.com), courtesy of Drawn and Quarterly.
Nebula-winning Babel-17 from Samuel R. Delany. This cover is from the 1973 Ace paperback. I like it because it is moody and a little spooky. Delany is an important sci fi author because he is not only a man of color but he is also openly gay, and both of these identities do influence his work in terms of representation and questioning the status quo.
Nice Davis Meltzer cover art, too!
