25 years of writing reviews, and when a new book comes out by an artist I thoroughly enjoy, my first instinct is just to say “____ put out a new book, go read it!” and leave it at that. I’ve been reading and reviewing Katie’s comics for maybe 20 years here, and she’s absolutely reached the “master of her craft” stage. Go back and look at some of my reviews of her early minis if you’re curious; she was solid pretty much right out of the gate, but she’s on another level now. OK, it’s clear that I’m recommending this, right? Obviously. So if you don’t want even a hint of a spoiler, go read it now, I won’t be offended. For anybody who’s curious what this is about, stick around! We start off with a nearly unconscious man being attacked by a pasty white person, then go back to meet our hero, who’s getting a bad grade in class for a recent essay. She runs into a school friend that she’d lost touch with and her friends, they go out for pancakes and reveal their plan to her: there’s a mysterious strip club that seems to disappear and reappear, but since none of them are 18 they can’t go check it out. But Dolly is 18, so they goad her into checking for them. Dolly has a friendly conversation at the door of the club, but something seems to end the conversation abruptly, so they all head home. Dolly has an idea of what caused the conversation to end so she takes drastic steps to fix it an ends up deciding to try to get a job at the strip club. Things start off slowly, as we see the mundane daily events of a strip club before it’s full of customers, Dolly learns the ropes, and all the while odd things keep happening at the strip club. She also starts losing even more focus at school, and her friends get more and more worried about her, before everything finally comes to a head. Which is as far as I’m willing to go with a synopsis. Nobody, but nobody establishes a mood like Katie; nothing I write here is going to do any of that justice. And the colors! This would still work as a black and white book, but it wouldn’t be this gorgeous. Despite the subject matter it’s almost sweet (in an earned way, not a sappy way), and I can think of a dozen images off the top of my head that have been lodged in my brain since I read this last week. I’d say this is her best work yet, but to be sure I’d have to go back and read her older books again. Hey, what a great idea! In the meantime, this is going to end up on all kinds of “best of” lists by the end of the year, so get a jump on things and read it now! $19.99
Posted by Kevin 
