Space: An Eschew Collection

by Robert Sergel

"The influence of films, newspapers, music, and social scenes take a strong position in Sergel's work giving a sense of life lived and the detached moments that stay with us as a kind of narrative memory of ourselves."—The Beat
Space collects Robert Sergel's Eschew, a Best American Comics selection, and an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Comic. Eschew takes an unflinching look at those little moments on the way to adulthood that happen when no one's looking, that you laugh out loud to remember, that you'd think twice before sharing, and that are the building blocks of wisdom.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels

156 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

About the author

Robert Sergel (b.1982) is a cartoonist, illustrator & graphic designer currently residing in Cambridge, MA. He draws the Ignatz-nominated comic series Eschew, a Best American Comics selection.

SPACE: An Eschew Collection was published by Secret Acres and counted on Paste Magazine's best comics of the year. Bald Knobber is his first novel length comic.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short droll and well drawn comics collection by a guy I don't know. Anders Nilsen blurbs it as mastery of the "short form comics koan," a phrase I love. Lots of one pagers, one about a drawing of The Churkendoose, which develops into a longish piece about visiting its aging illustrator. That's the best piece. Eating lobster brains; does it take you smarter? First kiss, which as you know never goes well. Reading Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus. A piece about Thirteen Bad Experiences Involving Water. Random and good and pretty promising stuff!

[João Teixeira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lido no Inglês original.
Demasiado disperso para se conseguir entrever uma linha narrativa coerente. Percebemos, no entanto que, à partida, todas as histórias podem ser autobiográficas e que a personagem masculina é a protagonista das diferentes pequenas hsitórias, em diferentes momentos da vida. Apesar de parecer estranho, estes pequenos argumentos mantêm-nos interessados nos que vêm a seguir e, de certa forma, queremos que o livro não acabe... é um dom difícil esse, que aparentemente Sergel tem! Gostei especialmente da história "It's an awsome thing when the spirit leaves the body". Escelente economia narrativa.
Traços muito simples e apenas preto e branco. Um caso em que menos é mais: as histórias são contadas com a expressividade e sentido temporal muito bem conseguidos. Um bom livro, portanto.

[tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

what the hell sure. I like the art style, it’s a cute little book. kind of just about a guy though. wasn’t expecting all the Boston references, HUGE!

[jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird, airy, sparse, kinda cool tho

[Laci Carrera | Book Pairings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Space is not what I was expecting, which may be why I did not enjoy it. It's a collection of short comics that are only connected in that they are all autobiographical. There wasn't any trace of an overarching story and there's no trace of vibrancy in terms of character or color. All in all, I didn't find this collection to be memorable and I thought it was bland.

Sorry for such a short review, but I just did not enjoy it.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories (mostly short) by Sergel remind me both visually and in narrative and thematic tones of Anders Nilsen's Big Questions (although, Sergel's work makes less of an impact on me than Nilsen's lengthy narrative), with some sprinklings of Adrian Tomine (e.g. Shortcomings and Summer Blonde .

The collection had me pretty much on the fence for most of the read; it is a solid work in terms of visual storytelling, but many of the short pieces nevertheless left me rather lukewarm. In all honesty, I was expecting to give it three stars rather than four, but then came the slightly longer closing piece, "It's an Awesome Thing When the Spirit Leaves the Body", which is a quite sublime piece of existential contemplation grounded in autobiography. And here Sergel really hit the mark for me.

All in all, I am rather pleased to have picked this up at the library on a spur, and I may well read more of Sergel's work in the future, should I come across it.

[J.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly quietly mournful comics. Strangely, though, it's drawn in such a precise clean way (with only blacks & whites, no shading or cross-hatching) as to belie emotion. Very different from Secret Acres' other recent publications by Gabby Schulz (best GN I've read this year) and Mike Dawson that are so expressive in their linework.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of simultaneously droll and poignant short comics, drawn in unnervingly precise, high contrast black & white. Sergel is a real talent and this is the best book from publisher Secret Acres since Mike Dawson's Angie Bongiolatti in 2014.