Not My Bag

What do you get when you put an artist in a department store selling nice clothes, all the while wondering why being so clearly in retail hell doesn’t stop him from having a modicum of ambition to move up the fashion food chain? Grace (The L’il Depressed Boy) draws upon his experience in retail to craft a graphic novel that gives us a window into the life of an artist who is forced to take a job he doesn’t really want in order to pay the bills. What make the story so moving are both the celebration of fashion Grace’s character gives us and the introspection of the artist as he looks back on the relationships that have served to define him. While making connections to The Devil Wears Prada is natural, the protagonist’s reliance on his partner’s understanding and support gets him through the retail ordeal. Grace’s attention to form and his skill with visual hyperbole (as in, for example, the saleswoman he depicts as a Skrull) are perfectly suited to the narrative. A sophisticated graphic novel that amply displays Grace’s talent for visual storytelling. (Oct.)