Comic Tragics/Emma Talbot

I have a bunch of work in a show called Comic Tragics at the Art Gallery of Western Australia at the moment. The Guardian just did a nice little piece about it, showing a few pages by Ron Rege (who also did an amazing wall-drawing for the show), Gabrielle Bell, Dash Shaw and others, including one Emma Talbot, who I had not heard of before the invitation to the show. There are a number of reasons why I wish I could have made it out to see the show – not least because I've just never been to Australia – but I'm sorry not to be seeing Talbot's work in person. It looks pretty much unlike anything else – super strange and beautiful, sweet and creepy... and heartbreaking. She does really nice things with panels, something I've been thinking about a fair amount lately, and with facelessness, which is also a thing I can relate to, especially in dealing with similar themes. Surprised I hadn't come across her work before, maybe because she's in the gallery world, rather than the book world. Hopefully that will change.