When to Pick a Pomegranate

by Yasmeen Abedifard

I want to tear these thoughts out of my flesh. How could I forget just how rotten I am?' In this collection of contemplative and cathartic short comics, the pomegranate Anar and the woman Guli exist as reflections of each other - repellent to one another and yet inexorably drawn together once more. As they evolve through each story, proceeding through the stages of the plant life cycle, they take on new roles: muse and artist, gardener and seed, lover and fruit. The iterations reveal new revelations, exploring the themes of shame, grief, destiny, and survival at each turn. Abedifard's comic form evokes Persianate storytelling and draws on stylistic elements found in illuminated manuscripts, building an experience as rich and complex as the taste of pomegranate on one's tongue.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

80 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2024

About the author

Yasmeen Abedifard is an Iranian-American cartoonist, illustrator and educator. She was born in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1996 and is currently based in Oakland, CA.
Abedifard received an MFA from Cornell University. She is currently teaching in the Comics program at The California College of the Arts and the UC Berkeley Art Studio.
Among her published comics are When to Pick a Pomegranate (2024, Silver Sprocket) and Death Bloom (2023 Lucky Pocket), winner of the 2023 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic. Abedifard is also part of a comics collective called D.R.Y.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all of us connected, careening through existence riccochetting and reacting to the lives and actions of those around us. This intertwined existence is at the heart of Iranian author and artist Yasmeen Abedifard’s graphic novel of brief, linked stories in When to Pick a Pomegranate. A quiet yet haunting collection of philosophically ponderous examinations between two recurring souls, Anar the pomegranate and Guli the human woman, Abedifard looks at the cycle of life and death, growth and destruction through a look at the desires, disdain, hungers, and hurts that drive our lives together. Pushed into existence by a god-like figure represented by a giant hand to make us consider the implications of life alongside the characters, When to Pick a Pomegranate moves through chapters housed as metaphorical depictions of the plant life cycle for a deeply moving and thoughtful little work told through Abedifard’s whimsical artwork.

[Image Text: Stop the speculations about your purpose! You will travel a path that is held up by strings outside your reach.]

I really enjoyed this brief but beautiful little work and once again Silver Sprocket lives up to their claim of being an awesome, radical indie publisher. Seriously, everything they put out is brilliant (and they make it all available for free through the library Hoopla app, so extra shout out to them for supporting libraries!). This is a really ponderous work that dives into the surreal and abstract to dredge up some rather heartwrenching and harrowing ideas on mortality and the interconnectedness of all living things. There are some rather existentially haunting moments, such as early on when we watch Anar the pomegranate endure an eternity of growing, dying in pain and being reborn in the seeds his former self sheds:

[Image Text: Again I am born…Will it never cease?]

Moving through the stages of plant life with rather unsettling yet meaningful looks at concepts like propagation (she rips his arm off and plants it to grow another Anar), Ripe and Rotten, fermentation and more, this becomes a rather insightful look at life. There are moments that look at their connectivity (and revulsion) as artist and muse, gardener and garden, hunger and food and more that show how time and time again through life after life they depend on each other and affect the wellbeing of the other. It can really sting at times but it is also rather lovely in its full effect.

[Image Text: why did I imagine a world with you?]

When to Pick a Pomegranate is a really amazing and thoughtful work that speaks volumes even in the quietude of its brief pages. Yasmeen Abedifard does a fantastic job here and I absolutely loved this and I hope you will too.

5/5


So what did you learn?

[daria majlessi · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is absolutely everything to me & more. yasmeen’s art & storytelling is so so so beautiful and i feel it deep in my soul

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

six stars! seven, even!! I loved the artist's use of different fonts and different page colors, and I absolutely adored the art. the sentiment of the piece: the nature of change, etc, is so resonant!! will be rereading many many times. cried

[Zahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"the wounds we used to stick our fingers in, will begin to heal."

beautiful!!! Love love loved the art style!

shoutout bard library graphic novels section

[Rick Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

In what appears to be a primordial womb, a woman and a pomegranate seed (depicted in a masculine form) awaken. Their purpose and sentience remains unclear at birth, with only the vaguest of memories to tie them to an idyllic previous glory. The pair grow alongside each other eventually developing a connection to one another. These various stages of a developing connection between the two is what makes up the narrative of When to Pick a Pomegranate. Life is shown as cultivating, preserving and destructive, which appears in tandem to the natural plant cycle. It could be a simple premise on its own, but Yasmeen Abedifard's use of the metaphor is substantially richer than my more dumbed down description.

Using competing artistic conventions, When to Pick a Pomegranate is just as much about the artistic interpretation as it is about navigating the poetic prose. Abedifard uses simplistic lines amidst striking and even at times garish colors to demonstrate the changing times for the two main characters, and the effects are resounding. The art can look cartoonish at first glance, but it doesn't take long to see the complexity in her compositions.

Thought-provoking, poetic and contemplative, When to Pick a Pomegranate is excellently executed. It's a short read but it'll take a lot longer to digest in its entirety.

[Tom Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though only 80 pages, this beautifully drawn and written comic taps into the richness and depth of the expanse of common human experience that's hard to explain. The theme is modern and ancient. A woman and a pomegranate—lovers, mother, child, siblings, enemies, allies, friends. I'm not sure which myths this might have been influenced by, if any, but this feels very mythical, either amalgamated or newly born. The physical book has been sitting on my desk for a month, awaiting this review, and when I look over and see it I can't help but feel an aliveness. It almost vibrates. It's beguiling. And I love it.

[hope h. · Rating 4 out of 5]

gonna be honest i was sick and kind of high on cold meds when i read this and understood approximately zero of what was happening but wow the illustrations are just gorgeous <3 huge fan

[Harry Palacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are so savage where a woman who is muse is created and invented by a pomegranate who is the artist and lover

[Benny · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

[Hayley]

gorgeous and haunted and dark and spiritual and BRASH

[Pegah · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous

[Natalie D.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stunning series of short story comics centered around a woman, Guli, and a pomegranate, Anar. I adored Abedifard's colorful and original art style as well as the book's unique explorations of rebirth and survival. This is my first Silver Sprocket comic but certainly won't be my last!

[Gabie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vividly illustrated fever dream with poignant, lucid philosophy woven throughout.

[Elissa Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful comic. 

The plot and visuals are extremely abstract. I had to read it a couple of times, and I can't say I've "understood it." 
But each read, I had a moment of reflection on what I was experiencing and what I thought what the comic was telling me. Whether or not my own interpretations are accurate, it's lovely to be able to truly feel like you are able to have a private and intimate conversation with a piece of art.

Read it in a digital format, but I can only imagine what holding it in my hands and seeing those print details in physical space would be like. 
Each comic in the anthology have different page colours, which I imagine would also add to that physical experience, of being able to see the colours of other comics slightly reveal themselves as you turn the pages. 

Speaking of colour, I am very curious about the consistent use of pink throughout each of the individual comics. 
I wonder if its simply a visual throughline to connect all the comics together, or if there's something else there?
I noticed the colour is often used to represent Guli more, but not sure what I make of that.
This is one of the wonderful things about When to Pick a Pomegranate. The art looks very simple, with its cartoony and flat line and colour work - but there's still so much to think about and uncover. 

I think that's just the experience of reading this book I'm having.
I feel like I could read it a hundred more times and still have a lot to ponder! 

[kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 leaning to 4! wow i loved the art and the topic of rebirth and repeating and destructive desire linking these stories together with an intro story at the beginning and a conclusion story at the end. these were just lil snips of interactions between guli and anar which at first seemed biblical with the creation of the two characters and being in a garden and hearing about a mythical fruit. then the two characters are haphazardly squished together and the next several stories portray obsession to the point of destruction in some cases. this was obviously a love story or at least one of toxic and never ending desire. these two were the only characters apart from ominous large hands and disembodied voice talking to the characters telling them there’s about to be a huge combining of the two and then asking what they learned. the voice seems to serve as some type of god in control and teaching. this was one i really tried to think deeply about and even reread after finishing each lil story because it was so so so quick almost too quick to understand. i’m talking finish this in a ten minute sitting type of quick. but that makes it rereadable so i would be interested in doing that after sitting away from it for a time. borrowed on hoopla and read on my phone!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intriguing and artistically inviting allegorical tale about a woman, Guli, and a pomegranate, Anar. Or any relationship, over time. Or the artistic experience. Iranian American Yasmeen Abedifard in How to Pick a Pomegranate (2024) looks at various cycles of life and death of both humans and pomegranates, in seven different vignettes. The publisher says she takes up Persian artistic traditions. She is a master of her form, and evokes pretty deep emotions through her allegory.

Here's the Silver Sprocket site where you can see some of her style and more kudos for it:

https://store.silversprocket.net/prod...

Oh, you want to know actually when to pick a pomegrnatae?! Here you go:

https://thefruitgrove.com/picking-per...

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gentle reminder that art has every right to serve as a channel for shame, guilt, grief, and all the intimate unsavory emotions that make people human. The interpretation of how a person interactions with the Self is never simple, and I am always fascinated by how artists, writers, and creatives in general explore the process. For the longest time, I feared portraying the raw honesty of emotions, despite them being exactly what makes human. Yet, I am continuously drawn towards works, such as Yasmeen Abedifard’s, that do anything but shy away from authenticity and rawness of even the most negative thoughts, emotions, and experiences. I admire the candid dialogue and intimacy portrayed in Abedifard’s series of comics, in which I actually feel more encouraged to explore the depths of introspection and self-reflection in my own art in the future.

[Amanda Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

lyrical, emotionally taut comics about a human and pomegranate going through cycles of enmeshment and individuation. the colors and textures are dreamy, and my eyes felt the pangs of change in the roiling figures. humans become plantlike and fruit becomes humanlike, with all the desire and fear of one's rotten interior palpable on the page. a short read, cryptic in a way you'll want to revisit over and over--like a new wave illuminated manuscript. one of those that makes you think oh! look what comics can do!

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

PHENOMENAL. THIS is everything that i want my work to achieve and more. the visuals are so soo beautiful.. i don't think i've seen characters that capture the intensity and grotesqueness of what it means to feel bad things like this before. incredible times a million i cannot understate how much i loved this

[Elynor Kamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and surreal, layers of metaphor - rather than a literal story, I'd describe this as a poem in comic form. It's the kind of comic you can have quite a different experience with each time you read it.

[Nakedfartbarfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool saturated palette art. Feels like a fashion plate for things that might look good on enamel pins. Internal & external medicaments and accenting persiante details. I learned the word "limerence," which I might have used way sooner.

[Ry Eto · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought that it was excellent

[Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this in an antique mall parking lot & it was perfect

[Chloé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous

[Kiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this at a time when i really needed it :)

[Mary Shyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visual poetry exploring cycles of obsession, desire, and toxic bonds.

Full review here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFWyXRFN/

[catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

that was so lovely

[Abs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved the play on the format and storytelling in this.

[cdawg · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful beautiful

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, poetic art by a Bay Area creator based on Iranian folklore exploring themes of identity.