A Body Beneath: Collecting Issues of the Comic Book Series "Lose"
In the wake of the critical praise for DeForge’s Ant Colony (2014) comes this timely sampling of his earlier work, collecting issues 2 through 5 of his comic-book series Lose. Like Ant Colony, these short stories feature maladroit characters whose inability to fit into the world leads to an unpleasant ending. They feature many of the themes found in Ant Colony—the horrors lurking close to the surface in quotidian life, the constant threat of pestilence and infection, and the terrifying awkwardness of adolescence—and possess the same overarching mood of dread. But lacking the distancing device of the characters being insects, the stories are even more disquieting. Drawn over four years, the comics show the young artist growing more assured and the artwork becoming more confident without losing its bizarre simplicity. The final issue’s “Living Outdoors,” in which a pair of high-schoolers bond over a shared love of natural science and a curiosity about hallucinogenics, is the volume’s high point. Fans who discovered DeForge with Ant Colony will not be disappointed by what preceded it. --Gordon Flagg