One page might be various shades of red or purple, another might be based in yellow but offer greens and blues, pinks and oranges as the colors of Summer Land, creating a dreamy mood that is matched by the flow of the narrative.

Paloma Dawkins embellishes these visions in fascinating and different color choices by using different color pages as the base and then building from there. That backdrop is the real star of the show here, a cascading wonder of fluttering psychedelia created by beach floors and canyons and crowds of people, mixing and swirling to create a heightened reality. Specifically it’s where cousins Gwen and Santana take part in a play together, as well as attend a beach party and become ensconced by the stark natural surroundings that tower and creep around them.Ī jet into the future shows what has become of the cousins, how their fates are prefaced in their younger desires and, though imperfect, their lives take place against a dreamy backdrop. Summer Land, from Retrofit and Big Planet Comics, concerns that magical place which is host to that pivotal moment in our youth, where dreams unfold and futures courses are set in motion. The most significant crossover artist of 2014 was Aidan Koch, whose beautiful pencil-and-gouache graphic novel Impressions debuted at the NYABF from.

It’s best approached as a poetry chapbook, offering nothing but sections of Koch’s soul in an attempt to make contact with parts of her reader’s. 2014 Impressions, Peradam Press 2012 Field Studies, Floating World Comics 2012 The Blonde Woman.

I can’t say that Koch is for everyone, and the more entrenched you are in the world of narrative comics, probably the less likely you are to take to this easily. 1988 in Seattle, WA Lives and works in New York, NY and Landers, CA EDUCATION 2009 BFA Pacific NW College of Art, Portland, OR SOLO EXHIBITIONS. JEAN-PHILIPPE BRETIN, CARLOS GONZALEZ, HUGO RUYANT, SAMMY STEIN, TOM LEBARON KHÉRIF, FLETCHER HANKS, STEFANIE LEINHOS, LÉO QUIEVREUX, ALEXIS BEAUCLAIR, AIDAN KOCH, ROXANE LUMERET, LASSE & RUSSE, NOEL FREIBERT, LOUIS GRANET, C.F., NACHO GARCÍA, AMANDINE MEYER, AMANDA BAEZA, LÉON MARET, LEON SADLER, JÉRÉMY PININGRE, OLIVIER SCHRAUWEN, JEREMY PERRODEAU, BAPTISTE VIROT, ANTOINE COSSÉ, ACACIO ORTAS, STATHIS TSEMBERLIDIS, JONNY NEGRON, BETTINA HENNI, YÛICHI YOKOYAMA.Warmer is the most linear of the entries, despite the abstract conversation presentation of a relationship between two people, but it is indicative of the intangibles that Koch often tries to express, such as connection to nature or the emotional content of movement, the stuff that most comics won’t touch, partly because they don’t know how and partly because the creators may not even notice such delicate weights exist.

Impressions by Aidan Koch