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Was That Normal?
“It was like he’d missed the main part of the story and arrived between the big climax and the end credits. A new order had established itself and everyone, apart from him, was living happily ever after. Nothing interesting could possibly happen between now and the ending.”
Philip is searching.
For meaning. For connection. For someone to share a moment with.
By day, he works from a rented room. By night, he drifts through cafés and bars, dodging awkward chats with his landlady and hoping for something more. When he meets Gina, a local musician, things begin to shift. But relationships are messy, and Philip’s discomfort grows as he stumbles through miscommunications, emotional misfires, and the looming presence of Gina’s intense ex.
Add in a crumbling tower, gong baths (whatever they are), and the quiet ache of modern life, and you have a story that’s tender, funny, and deeply human.
A beautifully observed graphic novel about connection, confusion, and the spaces in between.
Philip is searching.
For meaning. For connection. For someone to share a moment with.
By day, he works from a rented room. By night, he drifts through cafés and bars, dodging awkward chats with his landlady and hoping for something more. When he meets Gina, a local musician, things begin to shift. But relationships are messy, and Philip’s discomfort grows as he stumbles through miscommunications, emotional misfires, and the looming presence of Gina’s intense ex.
Add in a crumbling tower, gong baths (whatever they are), and the quiet ache of modern life, and you have a story that’s tender, funny, and deeply human.
A beautifully observed graphic novel about connection, confusion, and the spaces in between.
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
Kindle Edition
Published March 26, 2026
About the author
Alex Potts
29 books3 followersAlex Potts’ work on art and artistic theory covers a number of areas - sculptural aesthetics and the history of sculpture, experimental practices and the aesthetics of realism in twentieth-century art, art and artistic theory in the nineteenth century, and Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment conceptions of the classical ideal. His main publication on the latter was his book Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History (1994).
In addition to the book The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist (2000), his work on sculpture includes a co-edited anthology of texts on modern sculpture, The Modern Sculpture Reader (2007; reissued 2012), and articles on David Smith, Alberto Giacometti and other twentieth-century sculptors.
In his more recent research he has been arguing for the larger significance of experimental forms of realism in post-war European and American art. This was the subject of the Slade Lectures in Fine Art he gave at the University of Oxford in 2008 and of the Kirk Varnedoe Memorial Lectures at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in 2009, and also of his book, Experiments in Modern Realism: World Making, Politics and the Everyday in Postwar European and American Art, published by Yale University Press in 2013. The latter examines a variety of different kinds of art, from the postwar painting of De Kooning and Dubuffet to New Brutalist and Pop image and object making and actions and assemblages of artists such as Rauschenberg and Beuys.
In his current project, he is exploring ways in which political commitment informed conceptions of naturalism and realism as well as more abstract forms of representation in the art of the late-nineteenth and earlier-twentieth centuries.
- http://www.lsa.umich.edu/histart/peop...
In addition to the book The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist (2000), his work on sculpture includes a co-edited anthology of texts on modern sculpture, The Modern Sculpture Reader (2007; reissued 2012), and articles on David Smith, Alberto Giacometti and other twentieth-century sculptors.
In his more recent research he has been arguing for the larger significance of experimental forms of realism in post-war European and American art. This was the subject of the Slade Lectures in Fine Art he gave at the University of Oxford in 2008 and of the Kirk Varnedoe Memorial Lectures at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in 2009, and also of his book, Experiments in Modern Realism: World Making, Politics and the Everyday in Postwar European and American Art, published by Yale University Press in 2013. The latter examines a variety of different kinds of art, from the postwar painting of De Kooning and Dubuffet to New Brutalist and Pop image and object making and actions and assemblages of artists such as Rauschenberg and Beuys.
In his current project, he is exploring ways in which political commitment informed conceptions of naturalism and realism as well as more abstract forms of representation in the art of the late-nineteenth and earlier-twentieth centuries.
- http://www.lsa.umich.edu/histart/peop...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Did Not Finish
March 17, 2026Chihuahua owner here. Could not get past the fantasy about kicking a chihuahua repeatedly.
April 24, 2026
Is it weird that I read this book and immediately assumed that the protagonist must have grown up with a super critical parent or guardian who absolutely failed him in preparing him for an autonomous life?
Lol, the irony there, ofc, being me asking if that's weird, given the title of this book. And I suppose it isn't "weird" per se more than it perhaps shows a slightly higher level of empathy than the average person might feel on being confronted with Philip's story. Philip is in his forties and lives with Caroline, his perfectly lovely older landlady, in a coastal British town. He works from home and is thrilled to finally live in an area that he's dreamed of for so long. He does not, however, seem to have any friends, and actively avoids Caroline's company even tho her brand of affability extends more to inviting him out to socialize vs being actually intrusive about his personal life and daily activities. Mostly, Philip keeps to himself and spends his days overthinking everything, tho he does go for long walks in town and the surrounding countryside, appreciating both the views and the history of the place.
One day, he finally gives in and accepts Caroline's invitation to go to a nearby music venue called The Quagmire. He doesn't care for the band that's playing but does find himself fascinated by their beautiful lead singer Gina. When he runs into her at his usual cafe, he thinks it must be fate. Sure enough, the two strike up a friendship, of sorts, as he struggles to get out of his own head. But disaster looms over the town, and over their fragile new relationship. Will introverted, anxious Philip get the happily ever after that he can't help but pine for?
Alright, I'm going to straight up say that if you're an animal lover, this probably won't be the book for you. Philip has several weird fantasies of fighting various animals, and while these are definitely presented as imaginary, they're also depicted quite graphically, in a way that I personally found off-putting.
Philip himself is a quite realistic depiction of a man who is something of a sad sack. He seems like the kind of person who was so relentlessly brow beaten as a kid that he can't help but second guess himself constantly, scrutinizing his every human interaction to ensure that it passes muster from the critic he's internalized. He's not a bad person, he just doesn't have a strong sense of himself, and frankly I can see why Gina doesn't want to be in a relationship with someone who needs so much internal work. She's old enough to want partnership, not a project. Philip has potential, but at his big age that isn't a good enough foundation off of which to build a solid relationship, or at least not one where she's clearly going to be doing the majority of the emotional labor.
In a similar fashion, this graphic novel feels somewhat formless, as if it's searching for meaning too. It's a great slice-of-life depiction, and Alex Potts' art is suitably atmospheric throughout, with exteriors deftly matching Philip's internal state. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere. I was far more invested in Gina's life than in his because she was doing and trying things. Maybe I'm just too extroverted to fully sympathize, but between the imaginary violence to animals and the bizarre lengths he'd go to in order to avoid his kind landlady, I didn't really care about him, and you kinda have to in order to fully appreciate a book like this one. It just wasn't for me, I guess.
Was That Normal? by Alex Potts was published March 26 2026 by Avery Hill Publishing and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
Lol, the irony there, ofc, being me asking if that's weird, given the title of this book. And I suppose it isn't "weird" per se more than it perhaps shows a slightly higher level of empathy than the average person might feel on being confronted with Philip's story. Philip is in his forties and lives with Caroline, his perfectly lovely older landlady, in a coastal British town. He works from home and is thrilled to finally live in an area that he's dreamed of for so long. He does not, however, seem to have any friends, and actively avoids Caroline's company even tho her brand of affability extends more to inviting him out to socialize vs being actually intrusive about his personal life and daily activities. Mostly, Philip keeps to himself and spends his days overthinking everything, tho he does go for long walks in town and the surrounding countryside, appreciating both the views and the history of the place.
One day, he finally gives in and accepts Caroline's invitation to go to a nearby music venue called The Quagmire. He doesn't care for the band that's playing but does find himself fascinated by their beautiful lead singer Gina. When he runs into her at his usual cafe, he thinks it must be fate. Sure enough, the two strike up a friendship, of sorts, as he struggles to get out of his own head. But disaster looms over the town, and over their fragile new relationship. Will introverted, anxious Philip get the happily ever after that he can't help but pine for?
Alright, I'm going to straight up say that if you're an animal lover, this probably won't be the book for you. Philip has several weird fantasies of fighting various animals, and while these are definitely presented as imaginary, they're also depicted quite graphically, in a way that I personally found off-putting.
Philip himself is a quite realistic depiction of a man who is something of a sad sack. He seems like the kind of person who was so relentlessly brow beaten as a kid that he can't help but second guess himself constantly, scrutinizing his every human interaction to ensure that it passes muster from the critic he's internalized. He's not a bad person, he just doesn't have a strong sense of himself, and frankly I can see why Gina doesn't want to be in a relationship with someone who needs so much internal work. She's old enough to want partnership, not a project. Philip has potential, but at his big age that isn't a good enough foundation off of which to build a solid relationship, or at least not one where she's clearly going to be doing the majority of the emotional labor.
In a similar fashion, this graphic novel feels somewhat formless, as if it's searching for meaning too. It's a great slice-of-life depiction, and Alex Potts' art is suitably atmospheric throughout, with exteriors deftly matching Philip's internal state. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere. I was far more invested in Gina's life than in his because she was doing and trying things. Maybe I'm just too extroverted to fully sympathize, but between the imaginary violence to animals and the bizarre lengths he'd go to in order to avoid his kind landlady, I didn't really care about him, and you kinda have to in order to fully appreciate a book like this one. It just wasn't for me, I guess.
Was That Normal? by Alex Potts was published March 26 2026 by Avery Hill Publishing and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Comics creators like Seth, Noah Van Sciver, Chester Brown, R. Crumb, and so many others all seem to have a soft spot for awkward sad sacks as protagonists and, Philip, the main character in Alex Potts' wry "Was That Normal?" fits nicely amongst them. Self-deprecating, self-defeating, overly critical, and just plain anti-social at times, Philip isn't an easy character to root for but you kind of can't help it. As he stumbles through cringy interactions with his extroverted landlady, "dates" with the musician he has a crush on, and the public in general, Philip often thinks the wrong thing, says the wrong thing, and/or does the wrong thing, but you keep hoping he'll eventually do the right thing. It's a testament to how well Potts writes the character, that he's not a bundle of cliches that grow tiresome or grating, which is a trap that would be VERY easy to fall into; he's also an excellent artist and does a wonderful job of making Philip's world - his basement apartment, the club, the city streets, the seaside cliffs - feel just as real as Philip. I wish "Was That Normal?" had a bit more of a definitive ending but, hey, sometimes life doesn't get resolved in a neat little bow.
July 17, 2026
Enjoyable to go with the vibes on this one for most of its pagecount, there are some painfully relatable vignettes and funny moments but in the end it never quite gets to whatever point it is really trying to make.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews