Palookaville 22 ‘worth a read’

The latest instalment in Seth’s long-running series showcases seemingly disparate projects: a chapter from a graphic novel-in-progress, a photographic profile of his wife’s debonair barbershop and a digressive excerpt from an ongoing memoir. Still, this collection of oddments somehow makes for a satisfying whole, not only because of its unifying vision of small-town Ontario as spectral and forlorn, but also since this issue represents a culmination of the artist’s efforts to cobble together meaning out of tiny, telegraphic fragments. The episode presented fromClyde Fans – Seth’s continuing story about a family business – at one point creates the impression of a road trip by compiling abstracted glimpses of concession roads, hydro pylons and King’s Highway signage. Later, the autobiographical Nothing Lasts summons details from childhood memory – street corners, knickknacks, family photos – to construct a patchwork image of bygone years. Seth no longer invents stories about the past so much as he draws up itineraries that try to evoke it, mundane in their details, but crushing in cumulative effect.