Title: Swallow Me Whole
By: Nate Powell
Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole was a quirky, adolescent and (mostly) confusing graphic novel. As a 2009 Eisner Award winning book beautifully bound in hardcover and gorgeous color, I expected something…. else. What I got was somewhat of an anomaly.
An odd tale that is full of hallucinations, illness, medication and teen angst. The story is never straight out told to you until the biography of the author/artist has been read. The readers are left to sift through the whimsical, dream state drawings and narrative to come out of the story hazy and a bit distorted. Powell intentionally presents his story to the readers in this fashion to intimately include us into the minds of Ruth and Perry as they explore the dark corners of their mental instability.
For more, listen to an upcoming Panel Punchers episode (on The Nerdgasm Podcast) about this title and Any Empire (by Nate Powell as well). Available on iTunes and Stitcher.
