The other day I found Brian Biggs’s Dear Julia on my shelf and realized that I had never read it before. (I believe I bought it a few summers ago at used book store in White River Junction, VT). This book is beautiful. It was published by Top Shelf 11 years ago. Biggs’s pacing is incredibly regular (four panel per pages), but his compositions are a constant revolution and surprise. His style is pen and ink wash (think a more graceful-and less lively-Ben Katchor), very skillfully rendered, almost decorative. Although the drawing is in no way minimalist, what really makes this story works in what he leaves out. There’s always something pulling your eye to strain beyond the confines of the panel; you continue to ask for the next bit of story that’s not given. Basically it’s an excellent mystery novella about a strange man who is plagued by a compulsion to fly, and has lost a woman-Julia-somewhere along the way.

I looked up Biggs and found this website. Apparently he has become a prolific and successful children’s book illustrator, but hasn’t published a comic in a decade. (If you ever find this post, Brian, give us something more, please.) I found this wonderful film with voice-over and score for his first comic, Frederic and Eloise (scroll to the bottom of the linked page). Has anybody else ever read his work? For those who are interested you can read more about Dear Julia here.