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The Backstage of a Dishwashing Webshow
Rivi's been accepted to Mount Scopus Academy, where everyone reverts to who they were before. Escaping Mount Scopus is like escaping your dysfunctional childhood-- you end up recreating it. Is that cute boy following her, or is she dating her father? The familiar has its own gravity; just don't fall for it. Even the best of us have daddy issues.
- GenresGraphic NovelsComics
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2019
19 people want to read
About the author
Keren Katz
19 books9 followersKeren Katz is an Israeli cartoonist, writer, illustrator and performer, known for her visually experimental and poetic comics. She is the non-fictitious half of 'The Katz Sisters Duo'.
Katz is a graduate of the New York School of Visual Arts’s MFA Illustration Program and of the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. She is the author of the graphic novels The Academic Hour (2017) and The Backstage of a Dishwashing Webshow (2019). Her work has been published in anthologies by Fantagraphics, Smoke Signal, Locust Moon, Rough House, Ink Brick, Retrofit Comics, The Brooklyn Rail, Kuš!, Carrier Pigeon and Seven Stories Press. Katz is also part of Gnat Micro Press, a non-profit community for publishing experimental poetry and comics and the Tel-Aviv-based Humdrum Comics Collective.
Katz is a graduate of the New York School of Visual Arts’s MFA Illustration Program and of the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. She is the author of the graphic novels The Academic Hour (2017) and The Backstage of a Dishwashing Webshow (2019). Her work has been published in anthologies by Fantagraphics, Smoke Signal, Locust Moon, Rough House, Ink Brick, Retrofit Comics, The Brooklyn Rail, Kuš!, Carrier Pigeon and Seven Stories Press. Katz is also part of Gnat Micro Press, a non-profit community for publishing experimental poetry and comics and the Tel-Aviv-based Humdrum Comics Collective.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 28, 2019
I swear I have no idea what this book is about, set at something called the Mount Scopus Academy, but I don't think you could give any illustration work of this astonishing caliber anything less than four stars. There's dancing in it and long flowing bodies drooping and swaying like willow trees. Languid boys and girls. Languid is the word! Klimt flavor throughout.
By Israeli-born Karen Katz. She just letters any which way, which is fine for me, really, but I did notice it. And the story is any which way, too, which I just mention in case you are into plot and conventional things like that, but she is not. Here, you can see a range of her illustration work here:
https://kerenkatz.carbonmade.com
Mesmerizing, right? And as I look at the back matter it is apparent she has been around and getting recognition for her artwork for a few years. In one day, one book, I'm a fan.
By Israeli-born Karen Katz. She just letters any which way, which is fine for me, really, but I did notice it. And the story is any which way, too, which I just mention in case you are into plot and conventional things like that, but she is not. Here, you can see a range of her illustration work here:
https://kerenkatz.carbonmade.com
Mesmerizing, right? And as I look at the back matter it is apparent she has been around and getting recognition for her artwork for a few years. In one day, one book, I'm a fan.
January 9, 2025
21×23 ¦ "SA043" (spine/inside) ¦ $21.95
I wish I knew the visual codes for reading what this says underneath. She does very unique variants of circle(º)within(0)circle designs that fill fabrics either on people or flailing (following the main movement theme) seemingly haphazardly but certainly for some artistic reason- just like when she de/reconstructs objects or architecture in bizarre fashions. Then there's the single stray grape eating and weird roosters that just keep showing up on campus!
I can only read "daddy issues" in the broadest sense so far along with somebody's hiding-out and suicide attempts. Is crumpling the static theme revealing inner turmoil?
...½way still don't know if narrator is Rivi also...
It seemed like the effort/ability to present a discernable plot was abandoned in the middle where I zoned out and left off above. There wasn't anything that became more clear while words quickly dwindled and dangled away from whatever narrative I thought that I was following.
The art got more interesting and exploratory with what was being morphed about but ultimately served to confuse me in foolish hope for story.
I wish I knew the visual codes for reading what this says underneath. She does very unique variants of circle(º)within(0)circle designs that fill fabrics either on people or flailing (following the main movement theme) seemingly haphazardly but certainly for some artistic reason- just like when she de/reconstructs objects or architecture in bizarre fashions. Then there's the single stray grape eating and weird roosters that just keep showing up on campus!
I can only read "daddy issues" in the broadest sense so far along with somebody's hiding-out and suicide attempts. Is crumpling the static theme revealing inner turmoil?
...½way still don't know if narrator is Rivi also...
It seemed like the effort/ability to present a discernable plot was abandoned in the middle where I zoned out and left off above. There wasn't anything that became more clear while words quickly dwindled and dangled away from whatever narrative I thought that I was following.
The art got more interesting and exploratory with what was being morphed about but ultimately served to confuse me in foolish hope for story.
June 2, 2020
I guess I just don't quite understand this. The art is lovely in a bizarre way, but combined with the obtuse, dream-like narrative, it didn't land like I'm sure its supposed to. Kudos for thinking way outside the box, though.
May 26, 2023
The art was lovely but it was simply impossible to understand
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews