A review by bluepigeon
Curses by Kevin Huizenga

4.0

Curses is a graphic collection of Glenn Ganges stories. Glenn is an everyday middle-American guy with a wife, Wendy. There's a ghastly story about Glenn finding a vicar back in 1800s who had similar eerie hallucinations as him. A humorous surreal search for an ogre so that Glenn and his wife could get pregnant, whereby setting off a curse (another story), in the form of an infestation of European starlings in the neighborhood. There's Glenn and Wendy exploring the Hot New Thing, only to disagree about it in the end. There's Glenn's obsession with the "Have You Seen Us?" mailings, which results in a desire to clean the carpets, only after a long, meandering look at the history of Sudan's Lost Boys. There's adoption case file contents set against tranquil nature scenery. There's a story that's sort of an ode to late night diners and the undead in small town cemeteries (of course!) Jeeper Jacobs, the longest story in the collection, is a strange mix of golf and theology, which will probably challenge most readers (this one was probably my least favorite, though I enjoyed the conversations between Glenn and Jeepers; and the art, clean lines, superb colors and shades, was great.)

Overall, the collection is fun and interesting (except maybe the long theological stuff, which had a lot of humor buried in it, but required patience). The art and paneling is fantastic. Recommended for those who like plastic bags, libraries, monkeys, gutters full of leaves in the fall, and murmurations.