Irmina #[nn]

Barbara Yelin's Irmina is a quietly striking graphic novel whose cover immediately draws you into two distinct worlds: above, a young woman and a man in a hat share a bicycle ride through a sun-dappled park, rendered in warm, loose watercolor strokes; below, that idyllic scene dissolves into a rain-puddle reflection of a somber, grey city streetscape. Published by SelfMadeHero in 2016, every line — pencils, inks, color, and story — flows from Yelin's singular hand, giving the work a deeply personal, unified artistic vision. The visual contrast between the carefree upper image and its dark, distorted mirror below promises a story of longing, memory, and the complicated distance between joy and history.