By Lilli Carre Nine Ways to Disappear (1st First Edition) [Paperback]

by Lilli Carré

Excellent Book

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Short Stories, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

Paperback

First published April 30, 2009

About the author

Lilli Carré is an artist and illustrator currently living in Chicago. She primarily works in the forms of experimental animation, comics, and print. Her animated films have shown in festivals throughout the US and abroad, including the Sundance Film Festival, and she is the co-founder of the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation. Her books of comics are The Lagoon, Nine Ways to Disappear, Tales of Woodsman Pete, and a new collection of stories, Heads or Tails. Her work has appeared in The Believer Magazine, the New Yorker, The New York Times, Best American Comics and Best American Nonrequired Reading.

Source: Lilli Carré | ABOUT/CONTACT

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chicago's own Lilli Carré. Well, as far as I know she may be living her still, but it would appear she is not making comics now, probably turning to her work in experimental animation and other things. I made my way through all her books I could get my hands on, and this is my fave of them all. This is a revised review because I found it at my favorite used book store, so had to get it and reread it right away!

The really stylish Heads or Tails is more colorful and art house, but this is more hipster comic, in a small book format. Nine Ways to Disappear is in a way like Wallace Stevens' "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," though maybe Carré's approach is weirder and funnier, from the stuff of dreams and fantasy and quirk. It has a Gorey feel to it, and 9 different ways to disappear, including If I Were a Fish, though she's not, she's a storm drain and the way to disappear into a storm drain is to be a needle or a hairpin. Others are more complex and playfully fantastical, whimsical.

This a small square book, indigo blue, sort of like block print style, with decorative borders that give the sense of allegory somehow.

I liked it so much! She's great! Yay Lilli Carré!

[Megan Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lilli Carre is just the best. Every page of this book deserves to be framed on a wall. Nine quick vignettes on the theme of disappearing find interesting ways to echo and intertwine. This is an incredibly quick read but I got a lot out of the experience. The square pages with beautifu illustrated borders are reminiscent of newspaper comics panels, so paging through almost feels like reading one long strip. Really, really lovely.

[Alea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first saw some of Lilli Carre's work on the cover of The Best American Comics 2006 and reading an excerpt of her book Tales of Woodsman Pete within its pages. I went on to read Tales of Woodsman Pete in its entirety and I think it is my favorite of her full length pieces. Last year I read The Lagoon and never shared my thoughts on it because I'm not sure I completely understood it. So I was excited to see what Carre had come up with in Nine Ways to Disappear and I'm pleased to say it's pretty great!

Nine Ways to Disappear is an assortment of long and short stories told frame by frame, some with words others without. I loved that they all carried the theme of disappearing but it completely different ways. One of my favorite stories was Wide Eyes, about a man that ends up hiding between his girlfriend's eyes to get a break from her. I also liked The Pearl, which is about the journey of the pearl and who finds it, takes it, becomes one with it...

Let's talk about the format, the book is a little square that is pretty thick with pages. Because of that and the way it's bound it's pretty hard to keep those tiny little pages open so I had to fight the book to keep it open since I wasn't about to try and crack the spine.

Overall these are some clever little stories with a strangely awesome sense of humor!

[Kristina Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine strange and beautiful tales of willful and not-so-willful disappearance. I have been going through Lilli Carre's comics and it seems i've saved the best for last. I love how weird she is and I love how you can choose how far you want to read into whats happening. If you choose to read anything by her I'd go with this one!

[Nate D]

Idiosyncratic, unpredictable dispatches from the edges of the familiar, in crisply assured lines. From the co-director of my favorite film festival, Eyeworks.

[mentalexotica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my. Such a sad, bizarre, and utterly fascinating little book this is. In the tradition of Edward Gorey and Audrey Niffenegger, this collection of curious tales and even curiouser telling are accompanied by fantastical imagery that are both, macabre and delightful at once.

This strange and sweet collection of nine stories have a common theme of disappearance- either by chance or design. Magical realism takes on a new meaning as your traverse with the intrepid sleepwalker, a giant pearl in the clutches of two women immortalised in a sculpture, or the woman whose question swallows her whole.

It’s a quick read, bringing you smiles, knitting your brows, making you tsk. It’s a book you’re immediately going to want to share with someone as soon as you’re done.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short fun weirdness.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

strange and gorgeous

[Madhumitha Pradeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange. Unsettling. Grisly.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork, yet confusing and unsettling.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like a glimpse inside the author’s mind. Quirky and seems simple at first but really has some depth once you sit with it.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome work, after a couple projects from Carre that I was only lukewarm about, this really blew my mind again.

A collection of shorts with the asppealing conceit of disappearance, this has some of the flavor of Edward Gorey in the matter-of-factness of what happens and in the character design. But the furniture of the lives of these characters is so much more adult, developed, and complex than Gorey bothers to be.

A really satisfying piece of work, and another mysterious beauty from Carre.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nine abstract fables about people and things slipping through the cracks. It's not my favorite Carre book, but I don't believe it was written to be a substantial work. Her illustrations are beautiful as always.

[Felipe Chiaramonte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nove histórias desconectadas e com ritmos bem diferentes, mas que seguem a típica cotidianidade lírica de Carré. Ao se terminar de ler, a impressão é de que o livro também desaparece, deixando um leve perfume no ar.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once more I really enjoyed the art (navy and white instead of black and white a little different). Most of the stories seem to deal wit human isolation in some way--not surprising, as they are all slipping through the cracks in some way.

[Savanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tis strange and wondrous (I don't like when people say strange yet wondrous, I find these two things often go together). I liked the story about the pearl and the woman jumping into a seal, twas rich. I liked it all. Nay I loved it all.

[rr]

These beguiling graphic short-stories can both charm and unsettle!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lilli Carre continues to impress; though I liked the first mini-story best.

[MariNaomi]

This was a cute book! Pretty drawings, magical/surreal stories.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars perhaps. 9 short comics about disappearing. Some are awesome, others less so. Carre's comics have a lot of the same appeal of Aimee Bender or Kelly Link short stories.

[Emilia P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of Amphigorey-y, but not quite enough, nor unique enough, to be fantastic. Nonetheless, liked the lagoon, really like her style, she should find a really great story to tell with it.

[Matt Jaeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me wish I could draw better.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

storm drain. button. pearl. sleepwalker.

[Quinn Hoang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful flash (graphic) stories. Striking, original images, literally and figuratively. Loved it.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know that I could love her stories more. Fable-like and fantastic.

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed all of the vignettes, and again loved her art work. There is a better balance in these than in the Lagoon between what is told and what isn't told.

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing offering from the brilliant and original Lilli Carre' !

[Leah Horlick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The storm drain is my favourite! Ah! So sad and beautiful!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absurd renderings of very real human experiences.