Categories: reviews
Chrysanthemum Under the Waves was named one of the best comics of 2024 by 5 contributors of The Comics Journal. Thank you to Alex Dueben, Hagai Palevsky, Leonard Pierce, Andrew White, and Chris Mautner (honorable mention).
Alex Dueben included CUTW as one of the
new comics I read this year which I haven't been able to get out of my head.
On the opaque end of the spectrum, Maggie Umber's Chrysanthemum Under the Waves (self-published) and Bhanu Pratap's Cutting Season (Fantagraphics) are both striking displays of previously-published work that is made even stronger by curatorial cohesion. Both of them are also, not coincidentally, works of emotional submission: Pratap's characters are destroyed, emotionally and physically, by their yearning, while Umber's protagonists — an explicit extension of the author — surrender themselves to the future as a way of making peace with the fundamental gone-ness of the past.
I found Maggie Umber’s latest and best work both surprising and rewarding, and it has only increased in my estimation since then. A series of interpretations, retellings, and echoes of the folk tale of the Demon Lover, influenced by the circumstances of Umber’s own recent life and health, the almost wordless work does something that I find immensely satisfying: It imposes harsh limits on itself and then meets them in a spectacular manner. This book deserves a much wider audience, and while I’m happy that Umber was able to bring it into existence herself, I hope a publisher who can pay her and give her that audience will take an interest in one of the most haunting books of 2024.
Andrew White recorded these thoughts:
There's a quiet confidence here in Umber's willingness to let images speak for themselves, with just a few panels or a single drawing per page in this mostly wordless comic. Her strength and range as an artist means there's raw, undeniable emotion in her markmaking. I found it very moving.
Congrats to everyone who made the list! This is a good place to look for books to read by some of the best creators working today: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors. I look forward to reviewing my own favorites on my website in 2025!
🖤 Maggie