Vera Bushwack [Paperback]

A uniquely thrilling and emotive fantasy ride along a sea-bordered highway

The wondrous rustic landscape of Nova Scotia bursts from the page in Vera Bushwack, where reality gladly gives way to fantastical flights of fancy before gently coming back down to earth. A chainsaw fires up and Drews vision blurs. Their body vibrates alive with the whrrr of the engine, the whiff of gas. Drew dissolves as their alter-ego, Vera Bushwack, takes charge. Assless-chaps-wearing, unflinching Vera slashes through thick trunks, felling trees righteously from the back of a majestic steed.

Veras here to help, of course. Drew needs to clear the land for their future cabin in the woods. And if it werent for Veras brazenness, Drew may, ironically, fall reliant on others to learn self-reliance. Nevertheless, men enter Drews orbit, all too eager to explain how things workan aggravating occurrence that comes crashing into Drew as dependably as the nearby ocean waves.

Joy, anger, grief, and self-acceptance ripple through these pages with Sig Burwashs hilariously expressive pencil drawings and flair for buoyant watercolors. Approaching something like liberation, our protagonist comes to terms with past traumas, boundaries, and the many expressions of themself.Vera Bushwack is a perfectly fully formed comics debut, like Athena from the head of Zeus. But that is not entirely trueSig Burwashs prowess in illustration and long CV of gallery work precedes them, and that skill transfers so well here. When the rigid panel grid gives way, it is most likely to explode into furious figures on bucking horses, or of quiet emotion enveloped in the protection of nature. And it is a story with a lot of those feelings to sift through, sit with, or chainsaw apart (if you will). I hope it is the first of many books we see from Sig Burwash. Kate Beaton

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