Threadbare

by Gareth Brookes

Beginning with an embroidered tweet informing his followers ‘I can hear 2 elderly ladies on the train talking very candidly and movingly about the last time they were in love’, an intimate eavesdropped conversation is related alongside erotic double sided embroideries that explore the ways technology intercedes and regulates our modern amorous relationships.

Genres: Graphic Novels

56 pages, Saddle-stitched

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Gareth Brookes is a graphic novelist, print maker, textile artist, small press publisher, teacher, event organiser and researcher. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2003. He makes experimental graphic novels and handmade comics utilising unusual materials such as embroidery, pressed flowers and fire. In 2012 Brookes won the First Graphic Novel Prize. His teaching experience includes being a tutor in Foundation Studies at City & Guilds of London Art School and a visiting lecturer in Illustration at the University of Lincoln. Brookes organised the South London Comics and Zine Fair in 2017-18. He is currently a PhD candidate at University of Arts London researching materiality and metaphor in comics.

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Threadbare is an expansion on the short comic titled "No Strings" first published in š!#27 "BFF". Gareth Brookes renders the story entirely with embroidery, an ambitious effort that yields a truly impressive looking comic. The conceit of Threadbare is that Brookes is illustrating a random conversation overheard on a train by two older women who reflect about the last time they were in love. The conversation is filled with wistful reminiscence and some cynicism, but it's also remarkably poignant and morose due to the way Brookes lays out the dialogue. Portions of the story are told solely through images instead of dialogue and even the word balloons are allowed to hang in the negative space of the page, creating a beautifully quaint flow to the entire conversation. Much of the embroidered images are of lovemaking such that the lewder aspects of the story aren't spoken aloud which just adds to the overall grace of the conversation between these two women.

This is a short and direct comic, but Threadbare employs enough subtlety to craft something fairly layered. There's an understated sense of sensuality permeating throughout the conversation that adds a lot to the story. Though the ambitious aspect to this comic solely lies in the intricate embroidered artwork, the story itself is impressively delivered to make this feel like a rewarding read despite the brevity. Another great piece by a cartoonist who always finds new ways to innovate with form within the medium.

[GigiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this incredibly moving, in a way that feeling was almost intensified by how short it was. It reinforced the fleeting nature of the conversation and how quickly reality crept back in and those feelings had to be re shelved.

There is something really captivating about using the reverse of the embroidery, especially when backed with the heart wrenching narrative.

Something I will return to again and again.

[Claire (find me on Storygraph) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually quite moving, but a bit too short, maybe?

[丰春苹༄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

a short poetic experiment in eavesdropping and embroidery 🪡