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"The Reveries of E.A. Bethea"
The Comics Journal, by Rob Clough
E.A. Bethea's comics read as detailed, confessional fever dreams. Her comics have the cadence of poetry, the text and images coalescing into commentaries on visual detritus, hilarious observations, charged and frequently sexual memories, and fascinating personal and cultural details.
"The World You Know, As You've Never Seen It Before: E.A.Bethea's 'Book of Daze'"
Ryan C's Four Color Apocalypse, by Ryan Carey
These are the observations of a lifelong romantic, but one whose object of affection is human existence itself — with its foibles, its frailties, its finite nature seen not as flaws, but as the very things that make it worth living and loving; a lyrical expression, told in prose as precise as it is fluid, of the sad everyday magic that is found in times, places, and people forgotten; an appreciation of all things forlorn that loves them both for what they are and how they came to be that way. If you think there is no beauty to be found in desolation, 40 slim pages of panel-border-free, yet tightly-formatted, comics have the power to disabuse you of that notion once and for all.
"Book of Daze – E.A. Bethea Provides a Strong Reminder of the Intimacy and Immediacy that Comics Can Have"
Broken Frontier, by Robin Enrico
This collection of brief and simply constructed visual poems is dripping with a mix of lust and sadness that, while common in prose and poetry, is rarely touched on in comics. The kind of feelings you have buried deep in the private places of your heart until they bubble up to the surface when you are reminded of a past that is now long gone.
"The Last Two Comics I Read"
Longbox Coffin, by Brian Nicholson
It’s said Bethea thinks of her work as relating to cinema, and editing, the narration heavy style makes me think of Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil as the closest corollary. I think also of Lynda Barry, and the method of image-first writing she teaches, where the story originates in the image, as that is what lingers in memory, and then its meaning is explicated in text.
"It’s painfully rare to come across work as deeply personal, unabashedly human, and spiritedly open to life in all its many forms as that of E.A. Bethea. Her comics approach experience with curiosity, acceptance, warmth and good humor. Exceptionally literate, brave, and purely singular, it’s art like this that reminds us of how important and beautiful our lives as human beings are, no matter what."
- John Porcellino on "Book of Daze"
"If you're in pain, which you are, the Book of Daze will cure you." - Laurie Weeks on "Book of Daze"
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