Like a Dog
In the afterword to this shaggy-haired collection of 15 years' worth of artful zines and comics, Sally notes that he had always assumed all his favorites artists had never dealt with moments of paralytic, debilitating doubt and fear. Those insecurities and worries are deeply threaded throughout this book, which reads at times like a history of psychological warfare. Sally (more known for his work with the droning lo-fi Minnesota rock band Low) tends toward richly dark, semiautobiographical, and tightly etched tales of tension and self-recrimination. Creepy dreams and images of anatomical self-analysis are recurring themes, along with the general sense of transience that marked Sally's life while relentlessly touring with Low (he quit the band in 2005 and now operates his own publishing house). At times the book—which collects his self-published zinesRecidivist 1and2, plus sundry other material—breaks out of that shell to address topics that are usually no lighter in tone though, as with of his excellent retelling of Dostoyevski's imprisonment, they benefit from the change in perspective. The art is equally claustrophobic when not downright disturbing. Revealing and witty, even when mired in darkness.(Nov.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.