something new tales from a makeshift bride

It’s a nice little cutaway shot to do it all in one image.

Underneath the boy is Knisley, frustrated in bed. We see a staircase in the top third of the page as John walks up to talk to a boy who plays military video games. The new apartment is barely moved into and Knisley and John are having a lot of trouble sleeping due to the noise their neighbors make. Take for instance a section of the book detailing the trials of moving from New York to Chicago. There’s sometimes a sense that she simply pulled out a page and started drawing, but then there are interesting complexities that help explain what’s going on. I’d really love to know how much and planning went into the layouts of this book. From “Should I go to this wedding” to common bridal hairdos, marketing schemes and even the history of wedding rings and their symbolic purpose, the book is so damn robust you could easily give this as an engagement gift to help friends understand interesting customs of marriage to get a preview of what might be in their wedding planning future. Between these moments Knisley splices in fun collages, flow charts and other inventive ways to explain common bridal customs.

The storyline cuts back and forth a bit, but once the engagement is on it trucks on through every trial Knisley had to negotiate leading up to the big day. It opens on the marriage, to her general idea of marriage and finally how she met John. It helps because it feels like we aren’t missing out on a single detail. This book is dense, which both hurts and helps the read. If you haven’t read Relish I command you to do so now!įine, you have my attention. I’m not sure there’s a graphic novelist like Knisley who’s consistently produced solid work. At the same time she’s incredibly giving in her writing, letting us right into her life to see it up close. Knisley has a way of packing each page with thoughtful information and doing so in creative ways, using her fluid and cartoony art to do so. This book goes through the entire process from pre-engagement and getting back with John, engagement, planning the wedding and finally the wedding itself. He’s been on her mind when cooking in Relish, travelling through Europe on a book tour in An Age of License and even when she took care of her parents in Displacement. That’s because the man she marries in this book, John, is a real life person she’s talked about in nearly all of her books. This is the fourth book of hers I’ve read and in a lot of ways it all lead up to this. Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!

Something new tales from a makeshift bride