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Pope Hats #1
Pope Hats #1
Pope Hats follows the trials of a young woman named Frances Scarland, whose social circle mainly consists of an alcoholic actress and an inept ghost named Saarsgard. The comic is an engaging slice-of-life story about young people navigating their own daily shortcomings.
Pope Hats was the winner of a 2008 Xeric Foundation Grant. An earlier mini-comic version of the story was shortlisted for the 2008 Doug Wright Awards in the category of Best Emerging Talent.
"Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly is the most impressive debut comic I've seen in years. The work has that deceptive quality of ease about it—the characters breeze across the page with sparkling dialogue and wonderfully observed gestures."
--Seth (author of George Sprott and It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken)
Pope Hats was the winner of a 2008 Xeric Foundation Grant. An earlier mini-comic version of the story was shortlisted for the 2008 Doug Wright Awards in the category of Best Emerging Talent.
"Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly is the most impressive debut comic I've seen in years. The work has that deceptive quality of ease about it—the characters breeze across the page with sparkling dialogue and wonderfully observed gestures."
--Seth (author of George Sprott and It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken)
34 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
100 people want to read
About the author
Ethan Rilly
7 books7 followersHartley Lin has created comics under the pen name Ethan Rilly (an anagram of his real name) for roughly 10 years, winning several awards along the way. With his first major collection, Young Frances, he officially retires the alias.
His acclaimed series Pope Hats has received a Doug Wright Award, Ignatz Award and Joe Shuster Award, as well as nominations for the Eisner Award.
His acclaimed series Pope Hats has received a Doug Wright Award, Ignatz Award and Joe Shuster Award, as well as nominations for the Eisner Award.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 8, 2014
An impressive debut book. Short slice-of-life stories with pleasant black and white art and some excellent dialogue.
Story
Two friends and room mates, young women living in what seems to be contemporary Canada, hang out, go on a binge, discusses boys and so on. Vicke is an unemployed actress who tries to get a boy she likes to have sex with her. Frances has just dropped out of her university class, works as a secretary at a law firm and sees a ghost, a poltergeist that seems to have it in for her, among other things texting insults to her friends.
Art
The art is clearly rooted in the North American alternative comics tradition, with probable inspiration from the likes of american Daniel Clowes and fellow Canadian Adrian Tomine. I can also detect British artist Andi Watson in there, maybe mostly for the more upbeat feel of the story, where the earlier mentioned and many other North American comics artists from the alternative part if the market (whatever that means today, when they are the ones having big hits in the book shops...) often tends towards a more bleak, sometimes cynical stories.
Critique
This is the very definition of slice-of-life, making me happy as I often have a problem choosing what genre I should associate a certain book with. The art is easy on the eye, belying the fact that this is a debut book and the visual storytelling is really good, flowing seamlessly, using various set forms of grid patterns, with everything from two big square panels a page to a more traditional three tier comics page.
Where this story, or stories actually, as there are at least four stories in this short book - separated by the above mentioned variation in set page payouts, is the dialogue. Writing dialogue in comics that is not only readable but also feels fluent and natural is an art form that surprisingly few comics writers has the ability to achieve. Rilly does this with aplomb, making it feel like these are real, living, breathing persons and that you're there, seeing an hearing what's going on.
Oh, and the ghost is a nice touch, making me think of another possible inspiration, the Hernandez bothers, who at least in the early days of their careers, could introduce some really weird elements into their otherwise realistic stories (thus the Rockets in Love and Rockets).
A really good debut book, making me eager to read on to see how this obvious talent evolves.
Comments:
A bit strange to find this comic book/graphic novel translated and published in Danish, as we are used to having comics translated and published first when there's a trade paperback available. The Danish edition is printed on sturdier and better paper than the original, though, and it seems to have been a demand from Rilly that it should be published this way. For whatever reason, it felt rather nice to read such a short story in such a high quality production; somewhat akin to a small press art book. I for one wouldn't mind if we got more publications like this, even though I do like the the development these last few decades towards hefty graphic novels that takes a while to get through.
Reading this took me back to the 1980s and 1990s, when I still regularly bought comic books from America, eagerly reaching for each new issue of titels like Peepshow, Dirty Plotte and Palookaville. Ah, good times...
Story
Two friends and room mates, young women living in what seems to be contemporary Canada, hang out, go on a binge, discusses boys and so on. Vicke is an unemployed actress who tries to get a boy she likes to have sex with her. Frances has just dropped out of her university class, works as a secretary at a law firm and sees a ghost, a poltergeist that seems to have it in for her, among other things texting insults to her friends.
Art
The art is clearly rooted in the North American alternative comics tradition, with probable inspiration from the likes of american Daniel Clowes and fellow Canadian Adrian Tomine. I can also detect British artist Andi Watson in there, maybe mostly for the more upbeat feel of the story, where the earlier mentioned and many other North American comics artists from the alternative part if the market (whatever that means today, when they are the ones having big hits in the book shops...) often tends towards a more bleak, sometimes cynical stories.
Critique
This is the very definition of slice-of-life, making me happy as I often have a problem choosing what genre I should associate a certain book with. The art is easy on the eye, belying the fact that this is a debut book and the visual storytelling is really good, flowing seamlessly, using various set forms of grid patterns, with everything from two big square panels a page to a more traditional three tier comics page.
Where this story, or stories actually, as there are at least four stories in this short book - separated by the above mentioned variation in set page payouts, is the dialogue. Writing dialogue in comics that is not only readable but also feels fluent and natural is an art form that surprisingly few comics writers has the ability to achieve. Rilly does this with aplomb, making it feel like these are real, living, breathing persons and that you're there, seeing an hearing what's going on.
Oh, and the ghost is a nice touch, making me think of another possible inspiration, the Hernandez bothers, who at least in the early days of their careers, could introduce some really weird elements into their otherwise realistic stories (thus the Rockets in Love and Rockets).
A really good debut book, making me eager to read on to see how this obvious talent evolves.
Comments:
A bit strange to find this comic book/graphic novel translated and published in Danish, as we are used to having comics translated and published first when there's a trade paperback available. The Danish edition is printed on sturdier and better paper than the original, though, and it seems to have been a demand from Rilly that it should be published this way. For whatever reason, it felt rather nice to read such a short story in such a high quality production; somewhat akin to a small press art book. I for one wouldn't mind if we got more publications like this, even though I do like the the development these last few decades towards hefty graphic novels that takes a while to get through.
Reading this took me back to the 1980s and 1990s, when I still regularly bought comic books from America, eagerly reaching for each new issue of titels like Peepshow, Dirty Plotte and Palookaville. Ah, good times...
May 24, 2018
A quirky, meditative read, with attractive artwork.
January 8, 2023
Kind of obnoxious but the ghost is funny.
August 29, 2025
Found this in a little free library. I am confused ❤️
Read
September 1, 2025i totally hated Young Frances so imagine how i felt realizing this is like, the prequel
December 26, 2015
Bought this one at SPX. One of my favorite things I've read since Scott Pilgrim. Really funny with lots of inventive, odd touches. Can't wait to read more.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews