Reading Through 2021 31: Nineteen, by Ancco

Nineteen, by Ancco

2000s, published in English in 2020 

I used to love Drawn and Quarterly. In the 1990s, I bought pretty much everything they published. Some time in the 2000s I started getting tired of some of their books. They branched out into more artsy fare that I didn't enjoy reading. I still think they are a publisher worth checking out though. Their 2020 release, Ancco's Nineteen, is everything I ever loved about the publisher's output.

The cover was what made me pull the trigger and buy it

This is a collection of mostly autobiographical stories, loosely drawn. No rulers, possibly no pencils. Ancco is one of those artists that just has a strong personal style. I've seen work graphically similar before, but it's not overly common in comics. It's very readable. You are quickly pulled into what's happening in each story.

The stories were done over a number of years, and her style evolves over time. They portray her life being a high school student to an independent 20-something.

I always appreciate comics where they suck the fun out of drinking

This is dark, personal comic work. It's really sad too. She very frankly portrays vignettes of her life without melodrama or self-pity. She shows alcohol use within a family without labeling it alcoholism per se, but shows how it affects family dynamics. She shows physical abuse in the family, without making explicit criticism of it. One story, she gets beaten up by her father, in another she's eating at the table with him. That's how family has tended to work for most of history: a family can have serious problems, and you just take it as the status quo. The concept of breaking things off with "toxic" family members is a relatively new Western idea (not that people didn't do it, but that you would receive widespread encouragement and support for doing so).  I think she as a writer knows the alcohol and abuse is not healthy, but that's not necessarily how people think while in the midst of their family life.

Reading this was very cathartic to me. It just tapped into a lot of emotions I don't touch on much, in my life or in other reading. If I had 50 books that were on the topic of coping with a depressing life, I wouldn't be as moved, but it's not that common, and especially not with this tone. This is not a survivor's tale, of how she escaped, it's her just showing her life. In multiple places she shows herself to be a difficult person to the people around her, and it complicates things. If you have guilt or self-loathing, it's easy to place blame on yourself despite being a victim of abuse. 

Absolutely my favorite sequence in the book

This is not a didactic book. It's simply straightforward storytelling which probably reads differently to each reader, depending on your emotional background.  

Family

I found it to be in that sweet spot of indie books: graphically interesting, very readable, and memorable. I can't recommend it enough.