Wavering Line #3
comic, Lis Xu, Jean deMers, Anna Kwan, Wenting Li, Olivia Kim, waveringline.com
Anthologies are great. Having your work alongside your friends and peers, it’s like a miniature gallery you can take with you anywhere! This being the case, the third issue of Wavering Line is as successful a “miniature gallery” as you’re likely to find.
Comprising work from the Wavering Line collective (Lis Xu, Jean deMers, and Anna Kwan) and two guest contributors (Wenting Li and Olivia Kim) the work in Wavering Line is as different thematically as it is artistically. Kwan’s piece, “A Bedtime Story,” presents a childhood anecdote of watching ghost hunting television shows, and the fear that ensues. The contrasting moods of joy and fear are well reflected in the zine’s black and orange colour palette, effectively presenting the eeriness and the unknown of childhood. Similarly, so to do Xu’s illustrations harness anthology’s pallet — the flowing of bodies in motion as they ride both animal and bike, an enshrouded tiger sleeping amidst dark leaves. A collection of figures — a bird, a child atop a fish, a smarmy, well-dressed rabbit — all stand alone, but make sense together.
DeMers’ comic sees three figures travel to the top of a mountain to do battle with the monster waiting there. The border of each page a smoky black, helping to enforce the fantastical nature of the piece as if it were shrouded in memory. Likewise, with Li’s piece, “Sleep,” the use of the entire page helps to convey the ideas of the piece. A flooded city, then a window into the dreamscape depict the openness of fantasy, and are then contrasted with the used of closed panels when one finally awakes. Kim’s “8 o’clock pm” works in much the same way, the minutiae of one’s actions and possessions categorized into separate panels, coming together in a single united image at the end.
The five artists in Wavering Line 3 are wholly unique, each using their craft and even the format of the zine itself, to a powerful effect. I can’t wait for issue four.