A Very Big Bird

Eleanor & the Egret #5 (AfterShock, November 2017, $3.99)
Like Motor Girl, this is one of my favorite comic books of 2017. It was written by John Layman and drawn by Sam Kieth, who brought us The Maxx, one of the earlier Image series, Four Women, and Zero Girl—all of which are worth reading.



Oddly enough, I cried. I don't often cry while reading comic books, but I did reading Motor Girl and I did during Eleanor & the Egret. What started out as a comedic art heist comic featuring a very big bird ended up being a commentary on artistic license and creative freedom.

Kieth breaks many comic design standards, which is wonderful. The realistic/surrealistic character designs of pp. 2-3; the spread of pp. 4-5 (whoever buys that original art is a very smart person); the David Mack-like panel 3 of p. 6; the lettering on pp. 5, 7, and 14; and the watercolor/ink impressionism of p. 7 and 17-19 all surprise, delight, and break the mold of the rest of the comic—or comics.

In the end, the series is about creative freedom and freeing one's voice. Read it all at once, in one sitting. My one concern about the series was about its episodic nature, though the pacing is excellent.

Availability: The series will be collected in March 2018. Before then, buy back issues from Lone Star or Mile High.