LDCOMICS ONLINE COMICS FAIR 2025! It’s been a few years since we last reviewed work by Devi Menon here at Broken Frontier. On that occasion it was her slice-of-life graphic novel Amla Mater from Yali Books, a publisher specialising in South Asian culture. That book contrasted a childhood in India with living in London as an adult, and was one I described as “eloquently comparing cultures by reminding us of our commonality of experience.” For this month’s LDComics fair Menon has contributed a minicomic offering titled Cows, one that is similarly connective in its elegant sense of fragility.
Our players here are two cousins awaiting the outcome of their grandmother’s treatment after a stroke. They spend the time before the news of her fate reaches them by playing a word game called ‘Cows’, looking back on their elderly relative’s life, and clashing on their hopes for her future, given that her survival would mean a devastatingly reduced quality of life.
In what may appear a relatively simple story there’s actually a lot going on thematically in Cows. We have the obvious ideas of the importance of family and the transitory nature of existence. But there are also explorations here of grief, acceptance and the need to let go. Menon handles the subject with delicacy and thoughtfulness, channelling the universal through the specific experiences of the characters involved. All the while their word game deliberations also giving us another level of insight into events.
While Menon has a minimalist style artistically her pages have a considered sophistication sequentially. The pacing leading up to the deeply poignant final page, for example, proves deeply affecting in its considered build-up. Colour, in particular, is hugely evocative, touching on the sensory prompts that inform memory, and visual characterisation is vital here in capturing both the closeness of the cousins and the rift between them in regards to their positions on their grandmother’s health. This is sensitive storytelling that is quite beautiful in delivery and, at just £2.50 for 32 pages, it’s a steal. One of the bargains of the fair for sure.
Devi Menon (W/A) • LDComics Online Fair, £2.50
Review by Andy Oliver
The LDComics Online Comics Fair runs across the month of July. Read all our coverage of the comics on offer here at BF.
