Holy Lacrimony

Cartoonist: Michael Defore
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
PUBLICATION DATE: March 2025

Sub reviews are difficult the material is difficult to explain. Holy Lacrimony is a bit difffult to explain and experiencing it is probony best, but This isn’t why i’m Having Difficulty. Sub reviews are Harder to Sitate in the Moment, They’re Less Obviously Prescient Which Is Also True of Michael Deforge’s Newest Book. But, Again, This isn’t Why I Stuggled With This Review. And The Book Does Feel Timely, Though Time is a Hell of A Thing Right Now. This Review was Hard Because, Subtimes, You Just Love An Artist So much that you finish One of Their Books and say to Yourself, “Yes. This was good. ” The Thoughts Stop There. It hit the spots you knew it wasoold and you feel satened. That’s where i am with Holy Lacrimony.

So, imagine me saying this after each paragraph: i’m going to say more than “I liked it.” I’M Going to Review This Book and Explain What is that Makes Me Want You To Read it. I’M not the coworker who’s just Found out you like comics and suggests a Really Great Book they’ve read, but when you ask what the book is about responds, “it’s just so cool. You’re Going to Love It. ” Deep Breath.

This Book is Really Cool, Though, and I Think You’re Going To Love It.

Deforge’s Newest Book Deals with A Musician Named Jackie Who Gets Abduced By Aliens Because He’s The Saddest Person In The World. The Aliens Want To Know What It’s Like To Be Sad and, Like We All Do, Consult An Expert. The Rest of the Plot Goes Through the Abduction and Jackie’s eventual return to Earth, which is Most of the Plot. But Plot isn’t Really where the fun, The Poignant, or The Meaningful Comes from in This Book.

Mostly, The Book Reies on Moments of Interaction Between Jackie and The Aliens and Then, Later, Jackie and Other Self-described Abducees. These conversations and Connections that are made in the art, dialogue, and movement through the comic are Truly where the book Stands out. From the dialogue Between Jackie and the Alien Kara, who is the alien studying Sadness to perform it for other aliens, to the end of the book landing like an open field of possibility at the end of a long walk this the woods, a lot of the strength of Holy Lacrimony RELIES ON WHAT IS BEING TALKED AROUND.

PERFORMATIVE EMOILS, BEING CONSTANTLY WATCED BY OThers, Wanting to Belong To Subject (Anything), and What Connection Means All Drip ThroughSSe Pages. Kara’s Study of Jackie’s Sadness is an Excellent Example of these ideas While Presenting to Believable Absurdy That An Alien Race Would Reach Out Beyond the Stars To Learn How To performing an Emotion Foreign to Their Existence. It Feels Deeply Connected to Our Lived Experiences, Now. We Love To Watch People performing Anger, Love, Contentment, Wealth, Joy, Interiority, But when we push ourselves to Experience The Same We inevitbyry experience Them As the Messy, Imperfect Things they are. So We He Head Back To Our Short Videos to See What They Are Like performed well. We Study. We try again. The Way Deforge Plays with This Idea and Expurses Moving Beyond It is Gorgeous.

This Feels Ridiculous in the Comic, But Not Too Much. In Truth, The Mirror that the narrative is holding up, Albeit a Funhouse version, Is a Powerful Look at Sections of Contemporary Life. Thinking About How We Present, Process, and Consume Emotion (What A Write) is Worth the Book’s Weight All By itself.

Within This Absurd Is Also The Comedy of It All. This Book, Like A Lot of Deforge’s Work, Retains A Cool Sense of Humor and a Recognition of the Ridiculousness. The People Jackie Has Group With Are All Caricatures That I Feel I’ve Seen People Perform Many Times Through My Life. In the Room That Jackie Is Held Captive On The SpaceShip, There are Four Slits in the Wall. One for Eating, One for Drink, One That Needs to Be Fed (which, Waste Maybe? But also like This Think it’s Caring for Sub Substead Instead), and The Last One for Sex. Kara Also Offers Her Body Because The Alien’s Study of Earth has concluded that a Lot of Mentor/Ampprentice Relationships Sexual Involve Acts Between The Two. This Tongue in Cheek Moment is One of Many Wonderfully Sly Comments That Deforge Makes Thourout To Ground The Reader In The Wild World That’s Been Created.

WHICH, Besta it is Deforge, IS Made More Because of the art. If you’re unfamiliar with deorge’s art, The Best Way I can describes it is that there always sems to be submisso Dripping. The World He Draws Melts in Places that are inconsistent but logical. The Lines Are Thin But Hold Up The Immensity of the World. There’s a Lot of Thinness Overall, Specially in This Book, as The Aliens Shift their Shapes. A Lot Of The Characters Feel Like They Could Be Absorbed into the Space Surrounding Them, Like They’re Incidental, Yet Pointy. This isn’t the Best Description I admit and there mong It Feels Privately Him, No Matter What You Read Which Not Only Makes His Style Immedialy collectible BUT INCONIBLE TO FOLLOW.

The Art, Too, Is Incredibly Imaginative. The Alien Ship is a mouth inside to Mouth Inside Mouth with a Lash-Like Tongue Which Sems Like I Copy and Pasteed That Too Many Times But I Swear It’s Accurate. These imaginative Worlds are present on pages Before/after sum Drawings of a Coffee cup on a table, The Night Sky, or A Desolate Street. The Strangenges Next to the regular Highlights that Strangenge, of Course, But There’s a Way in Which Deforge Does It That Makes You Desire that Strangengess More. It Doesn´t Always Feel Like Something Out of The Ordinary, But Like Subject You Want To Be Drawn Back To. In This Book, That Shows The Deep Connection Between The Ideas/Concepts That Are Being Worked On and the Art That Accompanies It.

At the end of the day, Holy Lacrimony Is Wonderful Book to Engage With. The idea of observing and performing emotion resonate so explicit with our contemporary existence, though maybe not with all the moments of chaos that are currently holding our attention. STILL, IT’S SUBTHING POWERFUL AND MEANINGFUL AND WORTH YOUR TIME. WHILE MICHAEL DEFORGE’S ART MIGHT NOT BEYONE’S CUP OF TEA (THIS IS SUMTHING TOLD TO ME ONCE WHICH I REFUSED TO BELIEVE, YET DES A Little Closer to The Chest. If you Still Find Yourself Stuggling A Little, Repeat The Comment Kara Says To Jackie When He Wkes Up From Being Abduced, “Hmm! I’ll let you get your Bearings. ” And you’ll get This Just Fine.

VERDICT: Get Your Bearings and Dive In

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