Fine
A Comic About Gender
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
Washington Post • 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2022
A vibrant and informative debut with “great documentary power” (Alison Bechdel), Fine is an elegantly illustrated celebration of the transgender community.
As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns—and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art—and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Ewing's ambitious debut, they conduct and draw dozens of interviews over a decade to chart the murky waters of gender. The scope demonstrates the diversity of experiences and personal relationships to gender within the trans community; some participants hold concrete ideas, while others describe gender and its performance as "loose" and celebrate its contradictions and complexities. Portraits include such folks as Black trans tomboy Monei and Ignacio, a two-spirit person who complicates Ewing's perspective on race. The author also spotlights cis-identified perspectives and how they're not spared gender's social ramifications, either. Each section (titled "Masculinity," "Expression," "Body Feelings," and so forth) opens with an expressionistic, tone-setting splash page, and the portraiture art is clean-lined but nuanced enough to handle the diversity of characters. Ewing's initial interviews concluded by 2018, and several participants reflect on how their positions may have shifted over the interim. But much of the subject matter is evergreen, such as navigating being trans and a person of color in America, the complicated decisions that often surround hormone therapy, and the problems with how queer communities police themselves. This thought-provoking work will appeal to those seeking a robust, personal exploration of how gender shapes lives.
