Get Yourself in Stitches

First, the trailer for David Small's book, Stitches, which is officially released today:

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this book. I've been a longtime fan of Small, who is the Caldecott-winning talent behind such children's classics as Imogene's Antlers, The Money Tree, The Library, The Gardener, and 50-some others. In Stitches, a full-length graphic novel for adult readers, I feel like Small's talent as artist and storyteller has the chance to stretch out. For Small--a Detroit native who now lives in rural Michigan--it seems also to be a chance to revel even more in dark spaces, in strangeness, in ambiguity, all while telling a true story about himself, and the voicelessness and secrets he grew up among.

From The New York Times book review:

“My kids’ books all have a darkness to them,” Mr. Small said over lunch at the Museum of Modern Art. “A little girl wakes up with a pair of antlers. She has no idea where they came from; they’re never explained.” He likened it to his Kafkaesque post-op realization that his voice was missing (as chronicled in Stitches).

From Entertainment Weekly's review of Stitches:

With its mixture of stark realism and devilish fantasy, Stitches achieves a vibrant emotionalism that’s rare in both memoirs and graphic work of this kind. It’s never sentimental, but it may well move you to tears.

And R. Crumb's blurb:

David Small evokes the mad scientific world of the 1950s beautifully, a time when everyone believed that science could fix everything. Small is an innocent lamb, a sensitive boy, caught in a nightmare situation. His parents and grandmother are really creepy. Capturing body language and facial expressions subtly, Stitches becomes in Small's skillful hands a powerful story, an emotionally charged autobiography.

Color me convinced. I can't wait to get my hands on this.

Thanks to Megan B. for the tip on this book.

Comments

[thejamminjabber]

Small has great taste in films and it shows in his work. Stitches is a great, cinematic little book.

http://thejamminjabber.com/2009/09/08/stitches-by-david-small/