Tillie Walden, Comixology, and The End of Summer-ish Things

Hey, have you ever heard of Tillie Walden? Well, I hadn't either until a few minutes ago. But I was cruising Comixology, looking at the Recently Reduced and then, when that didn't pan out, at the Sales, and a thumbnail of the cover of something called The End of Summer caught my eye. 

It looked a lot like Adrian Tomine's work...and if you've ever seen an Adrian Tomine book, then you know that that is high praise. There's a crispness to his line that I don't think I've ever seen in anyone else's work. Well, until Tillie Walden, anyway.

So I gave The End of Summer a click and looked at the preview--the cover and three pages. In the interior pages, the similarity to Adrian Tomine was less obvious, but it was nice stuff, for sure. And the Comixology blurb was certainly intriguing:

In a secluded castle, at the beginning of a winter that is predicted to last for three years, Lars is battling illness and boredom. He passes the time with his siblings and his giant cat, Nemo, as secrets are revealed and tensions within the family begin to simmer…

Factor in that this thing was 100 pages and on sale for $2.99 (regular list price $6.99), and it was official: I had to have it. And now ahmo go read it. Hang on a sec.

Well. That was something, brahs and tahs. Well worth $2.99, for sure. Worth quite a bit more than that, actually. The art ceased to remind me of Adrian Tomine almost immediately. But that's okay, because the art was quite lovely. Quite personal, too. As in not like the other children.

Still there is more. Such as:

James Sturm wrote an introduction to this book. James Sturm, man. And it was more paean than introduction.

Tillie is only 22 years old. 

There's a giant cat in The End of Summer.

And it's named Nemo.

And this Tillie is good. There's a section where the main character is going through a medical emergency, and the panels start splitting in weird spots and sliding off center...so that you can, for instance, see enough of a word to know what it is, but you can't see the whole word. It was very effective. And I don't think I've ever seen that bit before. And I've read a lot of comic books. Like at least 10,000. Probably more like 20,000, actually, but I thought I'd low-ball it, because I know for sure that I've read more than 10,000. Anyway...it was a very cool way to present that part of the story.

There's also a bit Tillie does wherein a word triggers a memory in a character, and the memory is shown as a panel that temporarily interrupts the "present" moment. Just like memories really do. Pretty cool shit there.

And Tillie can tell a story, for sure. It's interesting...but also elusive. I am going to have to read it again in the near future, just to make sure that I got everything. But that will not be a chore. Not at all.

Also, Tillie has a way of turning a phrase. There are some very arresting lines here.

So...yep. You should go buy this. Might as well get it on sale, but even if the sale ends, you should still go for it. It couldn't be any better even if it was sitting on a Ritz.