The Last Starry Night: Vincent van Gogh

This gentle homage to Vincent van Gogh by Odone (My First Pandemic) recaps the familiar beats of the painter’s mental health struggles but focuses on a period of respite he found shortly before his death in 1890. At age 35, van Gogh battles with a “most wild and fragile mental state” and gets kicked out of Arles by townsfolk who fear the “redheaded madman.” He spends a year in an asylum, where he paints furiously, but discovers unexpected serenity when he’s discharged and settles at the Ravoux Inn on the outskirts of Paris. Surrounded by vast wheat fields and towering sunflowers, van Gogh is treated like family by the innkeeper and his children. The tranquility enables a last burst of creative energy before his mental health crashes and he dies by suicide. Odone depicts van Gogh as vulnerable and unexpectedly witty—on his deathbed, he jokes about having stained his shirt with blood—and imagines him sailing into the afterlife to paint forever. The sweeping landscapes and minimalist, crosshatched drawings, with simple dialogue and narration, recall Tomi de Paolo’s picture book art—which serves to highlight van Gogh’s tenderness. In the crowded field of comics biographies, this stands out. (Aug.)