Every Colossive Press-related review at the moment needs to start with a reminder that the South London micropublisher will be celebrating five years of their Colossive Cartographies series with a special party night at London’s Gosh! Comics on Friday, June 20th. An especially important thing to note given that today’s subject – davidt dunlop’s ‘Heartbroken’ in #66 of the series – will be the last of the Cartographies that we review here at BF before the big day.
Some background on this one first because although Colossive Cartographies #66 can be appreciated on a purely visual basis as a brutally visceral piece of imagery there’s a back story that acts as a narrative foundation to ‘Heartbroken’. In early 2024 dunlop had a series of heart-related emergencies including two cardiac arrests. As he says on the Colossive Press website: “recovery was slow and it put all my work on hold. I had to rehab and therapy myself back into drawing again.”
‘Heartbroken’ works on two storytelling levels. There’s the harrowing, graphic illustration that works on a symbolic level to represent trauma, despair, and the feelings of helplessness and lack of control when our bodies fail us. It’s uncompromising and powerful, and hypnotic in its starkness. On another we have dunlop’s words circling around the anatomical detail; poetic reflections on condition, guilt and consequence, combined with reflections on past “heartbreaks”, with an onomatopoeic pounding punctuating his thoughts with an irregular rhythm.
The last time we covered dunlop’s work was the poignant Poor Little Ghosts back in 2021. In its own way ‘Heartbroken’ is an even more haunting offering. Unflinchingly honest work that is unforgettable in impact.
davidt dunlop (W/A) • Colossive Press, £2.00
Review by Andy Oliver
