Boundless

The cartoonist of This One Summer and SuperMutant Magic Academy explores the virtual and IRL world of contemporary women via a lens both surreal and wry

A woman post-breakup becomes obsessed with the “mirror Facebook” of herself—seeing a life that could be hers. Another woman, besieged by bed bugs, studies her relationship and the effects her recently-ended secret affair has on it. An anonymous music file surfaces on the internet and a cult springs up in its wake. A group of city animals briefly open their minds to us; A woman finds her clothes growing baggy, her shoes looser, as she shrinks the world around her recedes.

Jillian Tamaki brings her combined characteristic realism and humor to her first collection of short stories. Boundless explores the lives of women and how the expectations of others influence their real and virtual selves. Mixing objective reality, speculative fiction, out-and-out fantasy, and a matter-of-fact feminism, Tamaki shows herself to be a short story talent equal to her peers Adrian Tomine and El-eanor Davis. As Tamaki experiments with art-styles, we see hyper-realist detailing dueling with thick chunky blocks of ink, each delicately setting the mood for her characters’ inner turmoil.