Cosplayers [Hardcover]

This graphic novel is an ode to the defining element of fandom. It celebrates both the cultures theatricality and D.I.Y. beautyas well as its often-awkward conflation of fantasy with realityin seven interconnected short stories about two young women.Shaw has achieved a new level of literary depth in these smaller, more focused stories, and has created striking images through the use of digital patterns and washes of color.Dash Shaw is an utterly brilliant young cartoonist who has, in a few short years, advanced from the academic experiments of his earlier work... into a formalist genius whose skills encompass both a natural gift for color and a feel for subtle, indirect characterization.Kaleidoscopic... Shaw has a deft touch... Like the very best illustrated fiction, Shaw's work moves between pathos and humor, between the fantastic and the familiar.A former student of the genius artist-seer-cartoonist Gary Panter, Dash, it's fair to say, is something of a genius as well.Ive seen the future of comics and its name is Dash Shaw.This graphic novel takes a humanistic look at cosplayers, the Storm Troopers and Sailor Moons that have become the symbol of comic cons in America.