Pittsburgh by Frank Santoro
2018
This is an incredible book, a piece of art in comic form. Santoro reflects on the relationships between him, his parents, and his grandparents, and also how his understanding of their relationships has evolved and gotten more complicated as he got older. He bases it around his family house, which has been in his family since his grandparents bought it.
It uses mixed media to put it together: pencil crayons, markers, tracing paper and tape. I've never seen cheap markers look so good.
And here's the thing, it's an easy read. I love Chris Ware and Dan Clowes or any other titan of comics, but their work can be hard to dig into. They can be intimidating. I think a lot of non-comic readers (with some taste in art) could intuitively read and enjoy this. It's a book you could leave out on a coffee table, and I mean that as a complement. I read his last book (Pompeii) and liked it, but I wasn't prepared for this.
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