10 YEARS OF THE BF SIX TO WATCH! Earlier this week we took a look at another of the recent releases from the Colossive Press Colossive Cartographies range of fold-out zines – Beatty Hallas’s ‘In a Rage’ – noting the series’ wide remit meant that traditional comics were just one aspect of their largely graphic narrative output. Tal Brosh’s ‘Loose Ends’, though, is 100% comic strip and indicative of Brosh’s powerful command of sequential imagery – as evidenced in the past in her collaboration with Chino Moya in Flat Filters and her own recent Trigger Shot – this time combined with a heartrendingly pithy style of narration.
‘Loose Ends’ is about loss and grief; the things left unsaid and the opportunities untaken and lost. It focusses on the contemplations of one woman as she finally tries to process the feelings that come with bereavement; one room representing the compartmentalisation of those emotions, replete as it is with the artefacts of a life abruptly cut short. Questions abound, answers remain elusive, and a steady sense of sorrow holds sway.
Brosh’s panel layouts here are as quietly effective as ever. Panels sit within panels giving us multiple perspectives on events with a central image of protagonist interacting with environment having a particular intensity in communicating the central character’s depth of emotion. Meanwhile the unresolved loose ends of the title weave between panels, forever reminding us that sometimes confronting our grief is about accepting the things that can’t be changed. Consider Brosh’s colour choices here, too, and the way in which their selective use helps heighten the melancholy of the piece.
Tal Brosh’s back catalogue of comics is not as extensive as some of her contemporaries and for that reason, perhaps, her practice has not had quite the profile it should have to date. ‘Loose Ends’, however, proves what a truly distinctive voice she is.
Tal Brosh (W/A) • Colossive Press, £2.00
Review by Andy Oliver
Tal Brosh will be a guest artist at the ’10 Years of the Broken Frontier Six to Watch’ Party at Gosh! Comics this coming Saturday, August 31st. Full details here.
2024 marks the tenth year of Broken Frontier’s ‘Six to Watch‘ initiative. Look for articles throughout the year celebrating the work of those artists who have been a part of the programme.
