Ruts & Gullies: Nine Days in Saint Petersburg #[nn]

Philippe Girard's travel memoir in comics form captures the texture of nine days spent in St. Petersburg, Russia — rendered here in a striking red, blue, and black palette. The cover draws you right in: two travelers huddle together consulting what appears to be a guide book, surrounded by a crowd of blue-toned figures, while a dramatic silhouette of a rearing horse looms overhead against the vivid red sky. Published by Conundrum Press in 2010, this is an intimate, observational work that promises the kind of quietly personal storytelling only comics can deliver.