Customer Reviews

Cecil and Jordan in New York: Stories by Gabrielle Bell

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I am a big fan of autobiographical comics, and have a special place in my heart for ladies cartoonists (Julie Doucet, Julia Wertz, Alison Bechdel, etc...). When my partner picked this book out of the library, I didn't know what to think. The stories were clearly not all autobiographical -- some were based on noted source material, some were clearly surreal -- but there was an intimacy and an honesty to them that made them feel autobiographical. I really liked all the stories in the first half of the book, which balanced heartbreak and hope, personal focus with multi-person perspective. The stories in the later portion of the book aren't as strong to me, but I tend to like more traditionally structured stories, and the ones towards the end tended to be less straight-forward / more surreal than I prefer. Still, the artwork is clean, yet complex. And I love the various type of women -- real women! -- which are represented in the book. I recommend this book, and look forward to more work from Ms. Bell.