Copyright Chris Wright
During an excellent interview about his debut book, Inkweed, author Chris Wright poses the question, “Is restraint a virtue?” Though the quote refers to one story from the collection in particular, that same questioning can be applied to all of Wright’s ambitious work. With his bizarre visual style, philosophical themes, and literary dialogue, his work shows a bold inventiveness and an overriding desire to elevate the medium of comics to an unprecedented level, even at the risk of alienating some readers.
Inkweed is a collection of short works produced between 2002 and 2007, yet the book feels more like a unified whole than a hodge-podge of unrelated stories. The works range from 15-20 page stories to single-page drawings, but the same high level of quality is consistent. Themes like an obsession with art, the nature of existence, despair, and futility recur throughout the book and simultaneously tie the works together and give us a glimpse into Wright’s mind and his own artistic goals.
The first thing a new reader will notice about Wright’s work is his distinctive drawing style; his characters are mostly humanoid but with distorted figures and features, their bodies often distorted to match their personalities, and the distortions are more extreme in the shorter pieces. Just as intriguing is the fact that his female characters lack all this distortion; aside from some slight stylization, they appear almost human.
Many of the stories in Inkweed feature characters at the end of their lives, reflecting on what’s come before and what’s left for them. The characters are well-written and very convincing, and this is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Wright was in college and his early 20s when he drew these stories.
Inkweed isn’t for everyone, there’s no doubt about that. But if this sounds like something you’d like, I guarantee that it’s something you’ll love. This book has really changed the way I think about comics, and art in general, and I’d say this is essential reading for anyone interested in creating. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Blacklung, Wright’s first full-length book, which is finally being published after years of difficulty with publishers, and which received a particularly glowing advance review. (I’m pre-ordering a copy)
Happy reading,
-Nate
Tired of Superheroes 
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