Going through the archives I was surprised I hadn’t ever written about Exit Wounds, which may have been my favorite graphic novel of last year. Everyone should check it out. It’s a super story about modern day Tel Aviv where there’s a bombing and this guy tries to find out if his estranged father was a victim. A new book just came out by the same Israeli author/artist Rutu Modan which is a collection of short comics. I, again, enjoyed her work a lot. The short stories are bizarre and a little dark and very entertaining. In just seven stories there’s love, betrayal, obsession, politics, an explosion, a plane crash, plastic surgery, an electric lady and a panty killer. And the drawings just happen to be really awesome too. Rutu makes some nice stylistic choices when drawing her characters. Some parts are somewhat normal realistic cartoon body features and then some parts will be totally exaggerated. There’s some beautiful palettes and textures for each of the stories and although each are different, they all seem to stay in this old timey 1940s-50s look. You should definitely pick up a copy of this book here. (You might have also seen Rutu’s work in The New York Times Magazine which has been publishing her stories for a little while now.)

© Julia Rothman 2007