Categories: reviews
Edwin Turner recently reviewed Chrysanthemum Under the Waves on Biblioklept: Maggie Umber’s Chrysanthemum Under the Waves blends horror, surrealism, and poetic fragmentation into a haunting vision of the uncanny. When I happened across his blog I was drawn into his coverage of the arts and literature, especially of his interest in Goya, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. He writes compellingly about the influences and essence of my book:
Most of the work in Chrysanthemum is confined to single, expansive images. Yet, these full-page spreads do not recall the bombastic splash pages of Jack Kirby or other Golden Age comics. Instead, they underscore the inherent incompleteness of storytelling. No artwork, no story, can ever present a full picture of reality—there are always gaps, always gutters. And in these gaps, dread and unease fester.
Umber’s comics aren’t so much about exploring the fragmentation of storytelling; rather, they showcase it as an aesthetic choice. It’s a choice that generates a palpable tension, a constant refusal to return to any resolution. There is no resolving tonic chord here. The uncanny permeates these pages—not in the sense of something foreign intruding upon the familiar, but as if the familiar itself has been subtly warped.
Visit Biblioklept to read the full review.
🖤 Maggie