Fictional Father #[nn]

Joe Ollmann's Fictional Father, published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2021, announces itself with a disarmingly spare cover: a weary, bespectacled man rendered in loose blue-ink linework holds an inkwell in one hand while raising an ink-stained finger on the other, a painted-on smile doing little to mask his melancholy expression. The scratchy, expressive draftsmanship is pure Ollmann — every wrinkle and hesitant line communicates volumes before you've turned a single page. With Ollmann handling every creative role himself, this is as personal and singular as graphic storytelling gets.