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Girl Town
Diana got hurt—a lot—and she’s decided to deal with this fact by purchasing a life-sized robot boyfriend. Mary and La-La host a podcast about a movie no one’s ever seen. Kelly has dragged her friend Beth out of her comfort zone—and into a day at the fantasy market that neither of them will forget. Girl Town collects the Ignatz Award-winning stories “Radishes” and “Diana’s Electric Tongue” together with several other tales of young adulthood and the search for connection. Here are her most acclaimed mini-comics and anthology contributions, enhanced with new colors and joined by brand-new work. Bold, infatuated, wounded, or lost, Nowak’s girls shine with life and longing. Their stories—depicted with remarkable charm and insight—capture the spirit of our time.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2018
803 people are currently reading
2807 people want to read
About the author
Casey Nowak
23 books85 followersCasey Nowak is an American cartoonist from Ann Arbor, Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design.
Among their works are the collection of short stories Girl Town (2018), the web comic series Lazy and illustration for some volumes of the Eisner Award-winning comic series Lumberjanes.
Among their works are the collection of short stories Girl Town (2018), the web comic series Lazy and illustration for some volumes of the Eisner Award-winning comic series Lumberjanes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 568 reviews
November 13, 2018
This was just a little too weird for my tastes 😕 womp.
June 30, 2021
6/28/21: Reread in conjunction with YA girls comics class, in conjunction with work such as Girl in the World by Caroline Cash, Girls and Magical Beatdown by Jenn Woodall).
A collection of mini-comics from Ann Arbor cartoonist Carolyn Nowak, and from the title you might (correctly) guess that it is woman-centric, women of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Like that cover, with the intriguingly angry woman coming out of he sewer? Nowak’s trying a variety of things. “Radishes” features two friends who eat magic radishes and produce temporary clones of themselves, with a touching twist ending.
But “Diana’s Electric Tongue” is the best of the bunch, in part because it is surprising. It features a woman who buys a male “companion” robot—think Alex + Ada, or Lars and the Real Girl—and develops a relationship with him that, as with these other stories, turns into something surprisingly moving.
These are “alternative” comix wildly colored, with some pretty original invention. Hard to categorize, and yet the women seem both familiar and represent such a wide range of what it means to be a woman, and so fun. Promising, I’ll say.
A collection of mini-comics from Ann Arbor cartoonist Carolyn Nowak, and from the title you might (correctly) guess that it is woman-centric, women of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Like that cover, with the intriguingly angry woman coming out of he sewer? Nowak’s trying a variety of things. “Radishes” features two friends who eat magic radishes and produce temporary clones of themselves, with a touching twist ending.
But “Diana’s Electric Tongue” is the best of the bunch, in part because it is surprising. It features a woman who buys a male “companion” robot—think Alex + Ada, or Lars and the Real Girl—and develops a relationship with him that, as with these other stories, turns into something surprisingly moving.
These are “alternative” comix wildly colored, with some pretty original invention. Hard to categorize, and yet the women seem both familiar and represent such a wide range of what it means to be a woman, and so fun. Promising, I’ll say.
November 3, 2018
I don't read a lot of sequential art fiction, maybe a half dozen a year. Honestly, I want to be blown away but I'm usually left feeling a little disappointed. Not so here.
Girl Town is brillant!
I have a general boycott in place on any book that refers to women as "girls" in the title but after looking at the sample on Amazon I knew I would be making an exception.
If I could give this book 10 Stars, I would.
Girl Town is brillant!
I have a general boycott in place on any book that refers to women as "girls" in the title but after looking at the sample on Amazon I knew I would be making an exception.
If I could give this book 10 Stars, I would.
April 15, 2019
Oh, like I'd be able to resist a cover featuring a gal wearing only a shirt and panties climbing out of the sewer . . . or is she climbing into the sewer? I had to know.
Unfortunately, you don't find out within the pages of this book.
But, I still enjoyed it. Likable characters, and stories with just the right amount of quirkiness - made my heart go zing.
The award-winning tales, Radishes and Diana's Electric Tongue were undoubtedly the best of the bunch, though I was also pretty fond of the title track, in which a budding romance/friendship somehow ends up with someone's sock doggy being callously tossed onto a ritualistic bonfire.
Yeah, it was kinda weird. (But, in a good way.)
Unfortunately, you don't find out within the pages of this book.
But, I still enjoyed it. Likable characters, and stories with just the right amount of quirkiness - made my heart go zing.
The award-winning tales, Radishes and Diana's Electric Tongue were undoubtedly the best of the bunch, though I was also pretty fond of the title track, in which a budding romance/friendship somehow ends up with someone's sock doggy being callously tossed onto a ritualistic bonfire.
Yeah, it was kinda weird. (But, in a good way.)
December 16, 2018
Nowak is a talent to watch, even if this book was a little disappointing for me. Though there were many interesting moments and characters, the short stories collected here didn't feel complete or satisfying. I think I would have enjoyed them more as middle chapters of longer works.
April 29, 2019
This is a clever collection of comics by Carolyn Nowark. Because each of the stories has an element of fantasy, the reader can never be sure what will happen next.
My two favorite stories in this collection were "Diana's Electric Tongue," which is about a woman who orders a male robot as a companion, and "Radishes," which follows two young women who visit a magical river market.
A few of the pieces were uneven, but overall I liked this anthology of Nowark's work and look forward to reading more from her.
My two favorite stories in this collection were "Diana's Electric Tongue," which is about a woman who orders a male robot as a companion, and "Radishes," which follows two young women who visit a magical river market.
A few of the pieces were uneven, but overall I liked this anthology of Nowark's work and look forward to reading more from her.
March 2, 2020
This was so bizarre and boring and I just kind of hated it. The robot boyfriend story was almost redeeming enough for 2 stars... almost.
April 17, 2019
Awwwwww I’m so sorry I have to come chop all your fingers off if you gave this book less than five stars :{ :{ :{
Jk you deserve it you damn monster
This book is perfect! Perfecto. Le perfecto. Truly I am dazzled charmed and wowed.
Jk you deserve it you damn monster
This book is perfect! Perfecto. Le perfecto. Truly I am dazzled charmed and wowed.
February 4, 2020
Worth it, even if only for the robot boyfriend sketch<3
May 14, 2019
We read a collection of short stories where nothing really happen 🤔 Some of this stories felt unfinished, two of them I really liked!!! I wanted to love it but it was too weird for my tastes... ☹️
January 15, 2021
Well, yeah. I am the proverbial choir.
This is a collection of five stories created by Nowak. All of them feature youngish queerish singleish femmeish characters I can relate to very easily. There's a lot of snark, of edge. A fair amount of cussing, some nakedness.
Each story is basically set in our reality, but they all have different twists. For example, the first story starts "I have lived with Ashley and Jolene since we all got kicked out of astronaut school for being too good-looking to be sent to space." One of the stories features a magical fruit stand. There are parts that feel almost magical realism-ish, or maybe surreal? Dunno, wasn't an English major.
All the stories are rendered in Nowak's distinctive illustrative style. Nowak uses a wide variety of panel layouts, but I found them all easy to follow. I really liked the pages with illustrations of (rooms of) houses, which felt almost like maps or blueprints. I like maps. And blueprints. And looking at pictures of houses for sale on the internet.
The most experimental piece in form was "The Big Burning House" which depicts a podcast, largely using speech bubbles spoken by off-page characters. Nowak uses color in a few different ways in the collection - a couple of the stories use just two or three colors, most of them are full color.
One thing I would have wanted warning about before I cracked this - the cover illustration depicts a side character in the first story. The protagonists of most of the stories are not fat (or blonde). As a fat person, the cover gives me lots of feels. Mostly in a revolutionary/good way. But I did feel a teeny bit misled when that character (or characters with similar bodytypes) weren't the stars of all the shows in this book. That said...
This was incredibly yummy. Definitely handed it to my partner immediately after finishing it.
Kinda want to read it again. And maybe own it?
This is a collection of five stories created by Nowak. All of them feature youngish queerish singleish femmeish characters I can relate to very easily. There's a lot of snark, of edge. A fair amount of cussing, some nakedness.
Each story is basically set in our reality, but they all have different twists. For example, the first story starts "I have lived with Ashley and Jolene since we all got kicked out of astronaut school for being too good-looking to be sent to space." One of the stories features a magical fruit stand. There are parts that feel almost magical realism-ish, or maybe surreal? Dunno, wasn't an English major.
All the stories are rendered in Nowak's distinctive illustrative style. Nowak uses a wide variety of panel layouts, but I found them all easy to follow. I really liked the pages with illustrations of (rooms of) houses, which felt almost like maps or blueprints. I like maps. And blueprints. And looking at pictures of houses for sale on the internet.
The most experimental piece in form was "The Big Burning House" which depicts a podcast, largely using speech bubbles spoken by off-page characters. Nowak uses color in a few different ways in the collection - a couple of the stories use just two or three colors, most of them are full color.
One thing I would have wanted warning about before I cracked this - the cover illustration depicts a side character in the first story. The protagonists of most of the stories are not fat (or blonde). As a fat person, the cover gives me lots of feels. Mostly in a revolutionary/good way. But I did feel a teeny bit misled when that character (or characters with similar bodytypes) weren't the stars of all the shows in this book. That said...
This was incredibly yummy. Definitely handed it to my partner immediately after finishing it.
Kinda want to read it again. And maybe own it?
April 26, 2020
A strange and delightful queer feminist collection of comics short stories. The titular/1st story was actually my least favourite, so I'm glad I kept reading after that. Two girls go to a fantasy market and find mysterious food allowing them to truly look at themselves. A woman sad about a breakup buys a robot boyfriend. Two friends discuss via podcast a cult 90s movie of which they have possibly the only copy of. Authentic, complex portraits of women.
November 1, 2019
Want to see more bookish things from me? Check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfer...
1.5/5 Stars
This is a collection of short comics following a group of girls.
I don't even know how to give this book a synopsis because I am so confused with what was happening. All the stories just felt unfinished and all over the place... Not a fan.
1.5/5 Stars
This is a collection of short comics following a group of girls.
I don't even know how to give this book a synopsis because I am so confused with what was happening. All the stories just felt unfinished and all over the place... Not a fan.
January 7, 2019
2.5. Missed opportunity in my opinion. Art was cool but stories were vitriolic and often times essentially pointless... lots of various representation in the art depictions though, hence the round up.
March 20, 2019
What a weird and wonderful book. This a collection of comic short stories, which differ in characters and style, but have a similar vibe of women’s complicated relationships with each other, and a general sense of unease and yearning. With beginning lines like “I have lived with Ashley and Jolene since we all got kicked out of astronaut school for being too good-looking to be sent to space,” Girl Town wastes no time in introducing you to a world that’s one step out of sync with our own, while still seeming eerily familiar.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
July 17, 2023
Fantastic collection of short comics. I feel like I'm going to find something new every time I read this, because there's so much here to connect with. Strongly recommended if you're into indie comics, women's stories, and fantastical happenings.
October 15, 2018
If I could give this six stars I would. I love Carolyn Nowak’s comics so much.
December 20, 2018
I had trouble finding the meaning in these stories. More just left me going, "wait, what?"
The art style was really cool though.
The art style was really cool though.
March 1, 2019
A small collection of graphic short stories, each featuring young women just being young women. As usual for anthologies, it's a mixed bag.
Girl Town--A meandering series of unremarkable, uninteresting occurrences. It starts nowhere, pauses after nothing happens for a while, and then fails to pick up where it left off. I almost wrote the book off after reading this. 1 star.
Radishes--Two friends play hooky to explore a boardwalk and find a magic snack stand. Each food does something minorly amazing, like making the eater float for a few seconds. It's emotionally insightful and ends perfectly. 5 stars.
Diana's Electric Tongue--After being dumped by her boyfriend, Diana buys a sexbot boyfriend and takes it to a wedding. Her friends all laud her "bravery". Subtext abounds. This is full of emotionally intelligent, heartfelt moments. 5 stars.
The Big Burning House--Um. I guess this is a real-time podcast in comic form, with screenshots from IMDb, Youtube, Kickstarter, and other websites to lend verisimilitude. It's about a cult movie that I don't care enough to learn whether it's real. The format is impressive, as is the realistic back-and-forth conversational tone of the two speakers. But The Big Burning House doesn't seem to have anything to say. 3 stars.
Please Sleep Over--And another Girl Town experience. Starts nowhere, pauses after nothing happens, fails to pick up where it left off, what was the point of this. 1 star.
Girl Town--A meandering series of unremarkable, uninteresting occurrences. It starts nowhere, pauses after nothing happens for a while, and then fails to pick up where it left off. I almost wrote the book off after reading this. 1 star.
Radishes--Two friends play hooky to explore a boardwalk and find a magic snack stand. Each food does something minorly amazing, like making the eater float for a few seconds. It's emotionally insightful and ends perfectly. 5 stars.
Diana's Electric Tongue--After being dumped by her boyfriend, Diana buys a sexbot boyfriend and takes it to a wedding. Her friends all laud her "bravery". Subtext abounds. This is full of emotionally intelligent, heartfelt moments. 5 stars.
The Big Burning House--Um. I guess this is a real-time podcast in comic form, with screenshots from IMDb, Youtube, Kickstarter, and other websites to lend verisimilitude. It's about a cult movie that I don't care enough to learn whether it's real. The format is impressive, as is the realistic back-and-forth conversational tone of the two speakers. But The Big Burning House doesn't seem to have anything to say. 3 stars.
Please Sleep Over--And another Girl Town experience. Starts nowhere, pauses after nothing happens, fails to pick up where it left off, what was the point of this. 1 star.
December 7, 2021
2018: It's like a small collection of short stories where nothing really happens but in a nice way. The art is really nice and it's quite possible she intentionally referenced the painting/meme "Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind" in the cover art. I skipped the podcast story cause there were too many words. But I really liked that a lot of the time they were really normal settings but kind of unusual and a little bit sci-fi or something, but not in a way that was central to the story. I read it in like 40 minutes. Good art.
January 16, 2019
I didnt realized this was a collection of mini comics, but they’re all good, all weird, and all do that short story thing I like where they hint at a deeper back story but don’t reveal too much and leave you hanging.
December 4, 2023
why does the idea of buying a non-sentient robot bf intrigue me…. like i was actually reading being like “omg he’s not like an actual human man with feelings and thoughts and he could drive me places i’d be so down with that”
September 13, 2021
Fun stories about friendship. I didn't read 'The Big Burning House.' The pages were way to busy with words.
December 14, 2018
3.5 out of 4. I really liked the two center stories, “Radishes” and “Diana’s Electric Tongue.” The others felt a bit unfinished in places. Definitely a collection that fits in with Kelly Link, Sofia Samatar, Carmen Maria Machado, and Anjali Sachdeva, only sequential art instead of prose.
Part of my second Book Riot TBR/Pigeon recommendations and read for the graphic novel book group at my store.
Part of my second Book Riot TBR/Pigeon recommendations and read for the graphic novel book group at my store.
July 13, 2018
Carolyn Nowak creates FANTASTIC work. This is a collection of her mini comics that come together to make you love, love, love every minute. It celebrates women of all shapes, sizes, and colors. It's hilarious, and it's heartwarming. And the stories "Radishes" and "Diana's Electric Tongue" will WRECK you.
May 15, 2021
The longest story about the sexbot was pretty good. The rest was kind of a slice-of-life thing, and it felt like none of the stories knew how to end.
Breakdown
Girl Town:
A story about a group of female friends, one mocks the other's underwear, someone loses an arm (maybe), and as a revenge for the underwear thing, the wronged woman burns the other's sock monkey in a pagan ritual. This is like 10 pages long, all this shit happens, and while it's kind of interesting, it definitely goes nowhere. It sounds more wacky and more fun than it is.
Radishes:
Two girls go to a marketplace. They encounter a magical food stand where the foods have mystical properties, but not TOO mystical. You can float like 2 feet above the ground, lose your hair temporarily, shit like that. I think the concept of mild magic is actually really funny, but nobody in the story seems to agree.
Diana's Electric Tongue:
Best story, pretty good. Honestly, felt like this was a solid, cohesive story, and the rest felt like filler to make a book long enough to sell.
The Big Burning House:
This is a comic book version of a fictional podcast where the podcasters are going to watch a heretofore unseen cut of a sort of cult-fan-favorite TV movie. What we read is the preamble to the podcast, before they watch the movie. The podcast isn't real, the movie isn't real, and I still felt like, "Damn, no one cares about you, 'quirky' podcast lady friends. Get to the damn movie." This one was a tough read. It's like the transcript to a mediocre podcast episode. I guess points for capturing that feel, capturing the experience of something is a skill.
Please Sleep Over:
This one is the least like a story. A couple little things happen, but golly, there's just not enough to carry this one across the finish line. This is the closest to a story your mom tells you with way too much detail and that doesn't go anywhere.
And that's one of the problems with the book: It definitely coasts to a stop. The end of Diana's Electric Tongue is a punch, it would've made a great ending. But on the other hand, if that had been the last story, I think I would've felt a little fried on the quirky, self-aware weirdness of these stories by the time I got to it, and I don't know if this story would've pulled it out of the nosedive at that point.
Carolyn Nowak is a talented storyteller. I think she's got a real knack for writing bizarre shit that has a very real feel to it. I think I'd give a chance to a longer, more filled-out story of hers. I like her weird characters. Her brand of weird is fun, and it's not floaty, dream-state bullshit. It's cool.
It's just that these short format stories didn't speak to me somehow. Didn't bring it home.
Breakdown
Girl Town:
A story about a group of female friends, one mocks the other's underwear, someone loses an arm (maybe), and as a revenge for the underwear thing, the wronged woman burns the other's sock monkey in a pagan ritual. This is like 10 pages long, all this shit happens, and while it's kind of interesting, it definitely goes nowhere. It sounds more wacky and more fun than it is.
Radishes:
Two girls go to a marketplace. They encounter a magical food stand where the foods have mystical properties, but not TOO mystical. You can float like 2 feet above the ground, lose your hair temporarily, shit like that. I think the concept of mild magic is actually really funny, but nobody in the story seems to agree.
Diana's Electric Tongue:
Best story, pretty good. Honestly, felt like this was a solid, cohesive story, and the rest felt like filler to make a book long enough to sell.
The Big Burning House:
This is a comic book version of a fictional podcast where the podcasters are going to watch a heretofore unseen cut of a sort of cult-fan-favorite TV movie. What we read is the preamble to the podcast, before they watch the movie. The podcast isn't real, the movie isn't real, and I still felt like, "Damn, no one cares about you, 'quirky' podcast lady friends. Get to the damn movie." This one was a tough read. It's like the transcript to a mediocre podcast episode. I guess points for capturing that feel, capturing the experience of something is a skill.
Please Sleep Over:
This one is the least like a story. A couple little things happen, but golly, there's just not enough to carry this one across the finish line. This is the closest to a story your mom tells you with way too much detail and that doesn't go anywhere.
And that's one of the problems with the book: It definitely coasts to a stop. The end of Diana's Electric Tongue is a punch, it would've made a great ending. But on the other hand, if that had been the last story, I think I would've felt a little fried on the quirky, self-aware weirdness of these stories by the time I got to it, and I don't know if this story would've pulled it out of the nosedive at that point.
Carolyn Nowak is a talented storyteller. I think she's got a real knack for writing bizarre shit that has a very real feel to it. I think I'd give a chance to a longer, more filled-out story of hers. I like her weird characters. Her brand of weird is fun, and it's not floaty, dream-state bullshit. It's cool.
It's just that these short format stories didn't speak to me somehow. Didn't bring it home.
August 28, 2019
I may have to read this again at some point and re-evaluate how I feel about it. This is a series of short comics that all look and feel like they belong in a Zine somewhere. I read it to intentionally read something different and something I might not normally see. Parts of this were really entertaining and interesting. Some of it was so bizarrely disjointed I lost focus. I wish I could rate this higher, but in terms of just layout and readability there was 1 story I had to skip all together because it was too "high concept" (and just terrible in terms of execution.)
I will gladly read more by Nowak as her art and voice ARE different and there should be space for that. This was just like driving with one flat tire. Not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be and more work that was really worth it.
I will gladly read more by Nowak as her art and voice ARE different and there should be space for that. This was just like driving with one flat tire. Not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be and more work that was really worth it.
May 25, 2022
This was fine but I’m left wanting more.
The opening story features some shitty, toxic group of friends with the weirdest relationship dynamic that’s (I think) supposed to be an exploration on complex friendships between women but like…any character with a somewhat developed personality just kind of sucks. I was left confused and annoyed and not at all entertained or amused.
Radishes was great.
The robot boyfriend story was just getting interesting before it ended and feels like only half of a story and the same goes for the odd home invasion story.
That last one was some thriller thrown in and then it cuts off.
All together, it feels disjointed and underdeveloped.
It had nice illustrations, though.
CW: fatphobia, nudity, home invasion
The opening story features some shitty, toxic group of friends with the weirdest relationship dynamic that’s (I think) supposed to be an exploration on complex friendships between women but like…any character with a somewhat developed personality just kind of sucks. I was left confused and annoyed and not at all entertained or amused.
Radishes was great.
The robot boyfriend story was just getting interesting before it ended and feels like only half of a story and the same goes for the odd home invasion story.
That last one was some thriller thrown in and then it cuts off.
All together, it feels disjointed and underdeveloped.
It had nice illustrations, though.
CW: fatphobia, nudity, home invasion
September 24, 2019
I really enjoyed this graphic novel which has five short stories in it. Special the drawings I really liked it. It’s such a modern kind of GN, the stories are sometimes a bit rough to get but if so, you just reread it ...Nowack has a good style and there is not really a mainstream drawn character. For me close to 4 🌿
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