Sunday Comics: Vanessa Davis
(Click on the image to see the full-sized version on Vanessa’s website.)
Vanessa Davis’s “Spaniel Rage,” is a cartoon format diary of the life of a human being of the fairer sex, a young woman with a job and the usual trials and tribulations we all go through. Not self-indulgent, but truly self-seeing, the lucidity of her point of view is what seduced me. For example, my old friend, let’s just call him “Jeff,” could probably relate to the image above. I’ve often complained about the “yeah, but,” conversation, which I’ve been subjected to by both sexes.
She’s recently been published in the New York Times, a whimsically low-key story about shopping for a pair of salt-water sandals.
Anyone who knows me will know why “The Blattarian,” is my favorite series on Spaniel Rage. In fact, this is the story that made me write to Vanessa, and we exchanged stories of aggressive cockroaches by email. Did you know that there’s a northeastern variety of cockroach known for its aggressive behavior? No? Well, that’s because there isn’t! Not officially, that is. I still believe it, Vanessa.
Here’s my favorite Blattarian image:
(Click on the image to see the full-sized version on Vanessa’s website.)
Do you want to know what it’s like to be a woman in the city? This is a classic: here.
Spaniel Rage has been compiled into a book by Buenaventura Press, which you can read about here.
Read her Gothamist interview, here.
Her work will appear in Kramer’s Ergot 6 this fall.
