PRIDE MONTH 2024! In the first issue of A Wolfgang Crowe’s four-part series Fractures the readers became witnesses to a homophobic assault the artist endured some years ago while working in his family’s shop. It was a harrowing account and the same content warnings apply to this second chapter which deals with the aftermath of Crowe’s experience and the ramifications in regards to his health, both physical and psychological. All of this is compounded by the unimaginably torturous stress coming from his assailant’s claim that it was he who was the actual victim, leading to Crowe awaiting a day in court charged with being the aggressor.
In Fractures Book Two, then, we first observe the immediate hours and days after that key incident before heading into the months of a kind of limbo life the artist lives through as he awaits for his case to come to trial. It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one to say that, if anything, this instalment is an even harder read, detailing in great depth the appalling torment of having one’s life and stability upturned not just by an act of brutality but by the perpetrator of that violence’s lies and machinations.
Exacerbating his distress are the actions of others who Crowe should be able to rely on for support. The police officers, for example, who make casually homophobic comments about how he “doesn’t look gay” (in an aside to the readers Crowe says “I’m actually pansexual but I got the sense it wasn’t worth trying to explain that to her.”) Similarly, he feels let down by his parents who he feels relegate his well-being and promote their own financial considerations regarding their wrecked shop. It’s only in the company of his university student friends that he finds any kind of support, especially Ben as their relationship becomes a more intimate one.
Once again in terms of artwork Crowe uses a mix of stark realism and the most haunting extended visual metaphor. Police officers are depicted as homogenous, monocular, indistinguishable entities – uncaring, detached and faceless. Crammed pages reflect the claustrophobic tension of his life while layouts and panel structures constantly change and reform themselves to capture the immediacy of the moment. Fractures continues to be an often excruciatingly painful read and that remains its greatest strength. Crowe’s intimate and intricate study of trauma and indifference in the face of violent bigotry is a queer comics must-read.
A Wolfgang Crowe (W/A) • Colossive Press, £8.00 (print)/£3.00 (digital)
Review by Andy Oliver
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