Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen #[nn]

Dylan Horrocks's Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen is a quietly compelling graphic novel from Knockabout that wears its themes on its sleeve — quite literally on the cover, where a weary-looking man holds a pen in his mouth, surrounded by a cluster of green-tinted figures pressing in around him. The muted, olive-toned palette and Horrocks's clean, expressive linework give the image a dreamlike unease that hints at a story where imagination and reality blur. A thoughtful, self-contained work from 2015 that feels both personal and inventive.