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(From a recent series on the website)
Meredith Gran's Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars in Brooklyn started life as a webcomic in 2007 and has now been released in book form by Villard. Eve Ning is a geeky/sharp Brooklyn resident who lives with a childhood friend. The episodic strip follows Ning's adventures through a landscape of rivals, members of the art world, and a series of boyfriends. Booklist wrote that Gran's creation is "well-paced and grounded, ranging from funny ha-ha to odd observational humor, featuring stylized and quirky artwork...the ultimate hooks are its flawed by genuine characters."
Slice of life, yes, but with an edge, and sometimes an absurdist tone. The artwork itself is purely at the service of story, which is just fine, and the vignettes and extended strips are often very funny. One of my favorites follows Ning during Halloween, during which she encounters what looks like a guy in a goiter costume and another one in a rock iguana costume. Favorite lines include Ning's announcement of "No more existential boyfriends!" and "Just so no slurred parties are involved." It's also quite nice to see a comic where the two main characters are women, and the strip does a nice job of depicting life in a big city.
If you'd like an entertaining dose of realism in your comics, I highly recommend you check out Octopus Pie.
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