LDCOMICS ONLINE COMICS FAIR 2025! One of the great joys of this inaugural LDComics Fair has been discovering so much experimental work. Comics that really grasp the potential of the page, do things with it you have seldom seen before, and make a concerted effort to give us something very different to consume and digest. Madeleine Burt’s Poet is one such comic. This is an exploration of the mindscape of someone composing a poem, as we view their creative process through a mixture of the symbolic and the experimental.
Burt combines the sequential and the abstract as our poet protagonist attempts to bring their thoughts to paper. They remain unseen but letters float intangibly around them; synonyms are constantly crossed through; and research brings evocative imagery to the fore. Literary figures, mythical creatures, fossils, artefacts, mummified remains and historical names flit in and out as the poet looks for inspiration, and hones their craft. Eventually all elements coalesce as they find their voice and vision, and the reader sees the fruits of their labours.
This is a wonderful representation of the act of creativity. Ideas are sometimes formed, sometimes thrown away, pulled apart and reapplied, as we observe and are drawn into the twists and turns the formation of this poem takes along the way. Burt uses sketchy, scribbled notation in handwritten form to denote the poet’s chaotic working while a less ephemeral procession of illustrations root us in something more ordered.
It’s rare to look at comics work that genuinely feels like it’s treading if not new ground then ground that has scarcely been traversed before. This month I have been able to say that about multiple offerings from the LDComics Fair. Madeleine Burt’s Poet is yet another fine example of that.
Madeleine Burt (W/A) • LDComics Online Comics Fair, £4.50
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.
