Description
Description
"If an exorcism can ever be slow and quiet, then every panel I've finished has felt something like an exorcism. The gutters give me space to make sense of things: to connect dots and close gaps. To remember." Kayla E.'s Precious Rubbish is an experimental graphic memoir drawn in a style that references the aesthetics of mid-century children's comics and tells the story of a childhood shaped by maternal emotional dysregulation, rural poverty, and incest. The author's childhood is portrayed as a collection of short-form comics and gag panels punctuated by interactive elements like paper dolls, satirical advertisements, games, and puzzles.
While the work is concerned with violence and a particularly Texan brand of Pentecostal fanaticism, it is presented in a playful visual language with a deadpan humor that elevates the material beyond mere graphic memoir. Precious Rubbish is a landmark work of comics storytelling and graphic medicine.
The debut graphic novel from artist Kayla E., Precious Rubbish asks the reader to do the extratextual work of filling out narrative gaps, which mirrors the challenge of trauma recollection. The reader is invited to co-labor in the meaning-making process, an exercise that facilitates an intimacy (between the author, the subject, and the reader) that is at once horrifying and hilarious.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
This four-color atomic bomb of a comic signals the arrival of a formidable talent.-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review"
A staggering achievement.--Rob Clough
Kayla E.'s comics remind me of the orphan-in-jeopardy genre. She is cast as a plucky heroine you root for and yet wonder, 'How can she possibly escape?' The answer is through the author's courage, wit, and originality. If one person's trash is another's treasure, Precious Rubbish is transmutation at its most therapeutic.--Tim Hensley
Precious Rubbish may help you come to terms with some things you've been privately avoiding or even things about yourself you didn't know.--Chris Ware
This is the scariest book I have ever read.--Mark Newgarden
FIVE STARS STUNNING! Precious Rubbish has the biblical-level artistry and poetry of William Blake combined with the playful commercialism of Mad Magazine.--Maria Bamford, comedian and NYT bestselling author of Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
Precious Rubbish is a triumph of pure resilience--a psychic thick, dark syrup of personal pain, humiliation, and suffering. And it will make you laugh inappropriately (and guiltily), which is the highest praise I can give.--Ivan Brunetti
Kayla E.'s uniquely unconventional, hauntingly shocking debut graphic memoir is reminiscent of a complicated mosaic that's missing pieces but has been filled in with unexpected replacements to create a disturbing collage both horrific and beautiful.-- "Booklist Starred Review"
Kayla E. uses her medium to striking effect: her wry portrait reveals a fresh eye, at once vulnerable and undaunted.-- "The New Yorker"
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Fantagraphics Books
Pub date:
2025-04-08
Length:
196 pages
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