PRIDE MONTH 2024! There’s a fascinating irony in the idea that comics that are presented in abstract, even oblique terms, can actually communicate with us all the more articulately for their symbolic approach. Leo Fox’s My Body Unspooling was originally published as part of the ShortBox Comics digital fair a couple of years back and is now available in print via Silver Sprocket, those great purveyors of all things radical and alt in indie comics. It’s an offering that combines a kind of stream-of-consciousness dialogue with a visceral embodiment of lived experience, from a true rising star on the indie scene.
Described as exploring “the push and pull between body and mind, and what ties them together” My Body Unspooling is ostensibly a visual essay on the philosophical issue of the mind-body problem and the questions that asks about dualism. “My name is Lucille and me and my body have broken up” says our protagonist as the comic starts, and from there we are launched into a 30-plus page examination of Lucille’s conflicting relationship with his physicality.
The story is told from both Lucille’s perspective and that of his body’s, both co-narrating the metaphysical and yet very immediate ideas My Body Unspooling investigates. Lucille’s belief that “We tried to make it work, but it was too hard” is counterpointed by his body’s view that “He is cruel to me, and he punishes me because he hates himself.” This friction between them, a kind of sensory antagonism that feels irreconcilable, leads to a meeting with God to request separation and from there a pivotal moment of understanding.
As a study of dysphoria and trans identity, My Body Unspooling is a remarkable piece of work, making its points all the more acutely for its borderline graphic surrealism. This is a comic that asks us to immerse ourselves in its juxtaposition of poetic commentary and sprawling imagery on an instinctual plane as much as to interpret it on a literal one. Fox’s art has an eerily organic feel, all floating emotion and potent visual metaphor, with a careful colour scheme that accentuates the comic’s blend of emblematic introspection and conceptual evocation. Fox’s Boy Island is coming from Silver Sprocket in August. My Body Unspooling is a perfect prologue for those wishing to discover more about his work in the interim.
Leo Fox (W/A) • Silver Sprocket, $9.99
Review by Andy Oliver
Read our Pride 2024 articles all in one place here
Check out our LGBTQIA and Trans and Non-Binary Resource Lists here
Great book, met Leo down Plymouth Comic zine fair this year.