by

was packed with people who like everything from high art to seedy
pop culture and the discussion was more eclectic and animated than at your
average literary event.
is full of Ahlers’ girly and weird collage
art, for the first time in full colour. Ahlers is drawn to images which tell
stories about the tightrope of femininity – the soft and innocent (fluffy
bunnies) with touches of the demented (Sybil). Her sensibility is profoundly
affected by icons of female style and influence from the ‘80s – the young
Princess Diana, the heroines of teen romance novels, young Michelle Pfeiffer –
all juxtaposed with her own words and drawings which are sweet, strange and
devastating.
is a twisted and funny fairy tale in which little girls
lost in the woods come into their own power.

is
beautiful but it is also just paintings of leaves. The artist found a
government volume of pictures of leaves on a grid for scale and was inspired to
create her own, more passionate, record. I guess the coolest thing is the interaction
between the original volume and the artist to produce this new work. It can be
a little puzzling without context but further reflection reveals that it has a lot of impact.

is a light and compact book by Argentinean artist

. The main character is a funny creature (a bit Moomin-esque) in a fantastical world
who wears a crown and is charming and innocent, but sometimes cruel. It is a
series of simple four panel strips with just a little dialogue and is strange
and sad but sometimes lovely.

is a substantial and heavy book (don't try to throw it) of comics and drawings made by the American artist
over a period of about six years. Her illustration style edges towards the
grotesque and is sometimes intentionally sloppy, with erased sections still visible,
messy text and smudges. But it is all too funny and charming to resist, as
Davis chronicles her attempts at relationships, work and being a competent
adult. The style wouldn’t normally be my favourite but it really grew on me and
seemed to mesh perfectly with the obsessive character and text-heavy frames. I am rarely won over by comics or graphic novels because I usually feel they would have been better with more words and less pictures, but