Special Exits #[nn]

Joyce Farmer's Special Exits is a graphic memoir that wears its emotional honesty right on its cover — two oval-framed portrait sketches of an older man and woman, rendered in Farmer's precise, tender linework against a muted sage green. The restrained, dignified design signals something thoughtful and deeply personal, and R. Crumb's blurb ("right up there with Maus") speaks to the quiet power waiting inside. A genuinely moving addition to the Fantagraphics catalog, this 2014 edition is a graphic memoir that takes the form seriously.