Kayla E.'s "Precious Rubbish" (Fantagraphics Books, 2025)

New Books in Literature · Apr 18, 2025 · 56m

Kayla E.’s Precious Rubbish (Fantagraphics, 2025), is an experimental graphic memoir drawn in a style that references the aesthetics of mid-century children’s comics and tells the story of a childhood shaped by maternal emotional dysregulation, rural poverty, and incest. The author’s childhood is portrayed as a collection of short-form comics and gag panels punctuated by interactive elements like paper dolls, satirical advertisements, games, and puzzles.While the work is concerned with violence and a particularly Texan brand of Pentecostal fanaticism, it is presented in a playful visual…