Palookaville #21

A lavish volume with all-new autobio comics, from the author of It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken Continuing the new semiannual hardcover format for Palookaville in volume 21, Seth presents two very different autobiographical pieces, and the continuation of Part Four of the ongoing Clyde Fans serial. In the latest dispatch from the beautifully crafted Clyde Fans, Abraham muses further on the ruins of his life. Then, in the first sustained sequence of the two Matchcard brothers, Abraham and Simon finally sit down together and begin to talk. “Nothing Lasts” is the first half of a sketchbook memoir about Seth’s childhood and adolescence in small-town Ontario. It is a wryly self-conscious, often moving visit to the attic of Seth’s memories: from his first attempts at cartooning to the last time he kissed his mother good night, “Nothing Lasts” is a masterpiece of the graphic short story. Finally, the third section of Palookaville #21 consists of entries from the comic-strip diary Seth has been keeping for almost a decade. He employs a mixture of hand-drawn panels and rubber stamps of his own work to tell anecdotes about moments from his life. Nothing from this diary has ever been made public before. This lushly designed collection of stories comprises an anthology of the different types of cartooning work Seth has done over his two-decade-long career.