Vera Bushwack by Sig Burwash. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467118.
Drew lives in the woods with her new dog, Pony. She's learning to fell and buck trees by working with Spoons, a neighbor who seems to be doing a little too much mansplaining. Living alone in the forest offers Drew the freedom to be herself, though her friend Ronnie (a firefighter) keeps trying to convince Drew that she deserves more. And we can see that she's found it, or at least that she's on the right track; when she chainsaws, she sees herself as the bareback riding, assless-chap-wearing person on the cover. She also "transforms" when playing with Pony and when she rides her motorcycle.
Burwash's art is superb. But when Drew is in the zone and she and her world change, there's a joy in the drawings that's overwhelming and contagious. I haven't wanted to visit the woods this much in a long while. And it's worth noting Burwash uses their talents to convey Drew's trauma, too, especially her alarm when Pony goes missing.
Such a great graphic novel, and it has a hopeful ending that came, for me at least, from an unexpected direction.
