THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! Laughing at the pretensions and idiosyncrasies of the art world – whether doing so with fond and gentle humour or scathingly acidic wit – is hardly new ground to tread. What has always marked out Anna Haifisch’s The Artist as different in its approach, though, is that this satire feels more wearily observed than bitingly critical. Slacker comedy with an aesthetically focussed twist.
Originally published by VICE a decade ago and then collected in two volumes in the late 2010s, Breakdown Press recently compiled the whole run as one book – The Artist: The Portfolio Edition, which also features all-new material too. The titular character is a bird-headed practitioner attempting to make his mark on the scene despite seemingly resenting everything about it. He’s a sadly pathetic figure but one who somehow still engenders our sympathy – if not our empathy – as he struggles to build a profile despite effectively and continually self-sabotaging his own development.
We follow this rather lonely soul as he attends dreadfully affected private views, is rejected by an establishment he seems destined to exist only on the periphery of, and endures daily dealings with the ostentatious pomposity of his peers. In the midst of all of this, however, a spark of inspiration and a desire to create somehow remain intact.
Haifisch’s comedy works on a number of levels. Sometimes it relies on squirmingly confessional humour as we wince at the protagonist’s gauche interactions with his contemporaries, family and friends (often with alcohol involved somewhere along the way). On other occasions it plays with scenarios familiar to any art school graduate. A trip home to his parents elicits perhaps the funniest take on the “free work for exposure” chestnut that you’ll ever read, for example, while the destructive slapstick moments of his disastrous flirtation with “drone art” are brilliantly timed in comedic terms. There’s also the odd instance of meta humour, adding a welcome playfulness and knowing wink at the reader.
Much of the early work herein is in the form of three-page strips which start with a thematic full-page scene-setter giving the book a noticeable reading rhythm. Haifisch’s distorted, anthropomorphic characters – set against a familiar backdrop – ensure that The Artist feels both rooted in our reality and yet slightly to one side of it as well; its absurdity simultaneously recognisable and yet also totally alien.
As the collection progresses Haifisch begins to break out of that structure, notably in the ‘Songs of a Feather’ sequence where we join the Artist some years later when, as unlikely as it sounds, he has found the success he has always craved, and yet remains unfulfilled. Split into thirteen acts here we are presented with a more abstract account of his journey in mock operatic form. It’s less direct than the earlier satire but complements it rather than undermining it.
Doomed aspirations, fragile egos and listless ennui abound in this very funny catalogue of humiliation, degradation, pretentiousness and abject shame, all embraced in the name of art. Sometimes surreal and bizarre, and sometimes more down-to-earth in its commentary, The Artist: The Portfolio Edition embodies a form of satire that is all the more telling for placing jaded self-awareness over caustic parody. This new edition, replete with extras and new material, is a must for new readers, established fans, and anyone who has trod a similar creative path.
Anna Haifisch (W/A) • Breakdown Press, £24.99
Review by Andy Oliver
Breakdown Press are at Table A20 in the 2000 AD Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
