Alone in Space: A Collection

by Tillie Walden

Overview

Tillie Walden's complex, lyrical stories about queer love, fantasy, coming-of-age, and cats are now available in this collection.

In 'The End of Summer,' Lars is battling illness and boredom in a secluded castle at the start of an endless winter with a giant cat to keep him company and fraying family bonds to test his strength. In 'I Love This Part,' two small-town girls kill time and try to muddle through school when an unexpected romance blooms. And the surreal 'A City Inside' recounts one woman's life from childhood on, in a poetic tale about coming-of-age when you think you're past all that.

This graphic novel also includes never-before collected early sketches, webcomics, including the short comic 'What It's Like To Be Gay In An All-Girls Middle School,' which shot Tillie to fame on both sides of the Atlantic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910395585
Publisher:	Avery Hill Publishing
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Tx. She first published 3 original graphic novels with Avery Hill Publishing before going on to create her Eisner Award winning graphic memoir Spinning. After Spinning, she created On A Sunbeam which was originally published as a webcomic. Her latest graphic novel Are You Listening? won the Eisner for Best Graphic Novel in 2020 and her first picture book is due out in 2021. She currently lives in Lebanon in New Hampshire and teaches at the Centre For Cartoon Studies.

Editorial Reviews

"A gemlike encapsulation of coming-of-age narratives in gorgeous settings touched with magic." — KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Aspiring artists and fans of Walden's other books will enjoy this intimate peek into the creative trajectory of a brilliant author and illustrator." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

"We get to see a cartoonist fascinated by the medium and willing to stretch past its limits in order to tell her honest, human stories." — MULTIVERSITY COMICS

"The young storyteller [is] among the most essential graphic novelists of her generation." — ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Tillie Walden is an unstoppable force in comics… responsible for some of the most heartfelt and striking graphic novels to hit stands.” — A.V. CLUB

"Walden creates the ntoxcatng effect of a unverse as mysterous as our real one." — Rowan Buchanan, THE ATLANTIC

“Combining dreamily gorgeous artwork and lyrical, sophisticated storytelling, 23-year-old Eisner award-winning graphic novelist Tillie Walden has emerged as a master of her craft.” — O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE (Are You Listening?)

From the Publisher

04/01/2021

Gr 7 Up—This compilation of Eisner Award–winning artist Walden's early work offers a look at her artistic influences and evolution. Short comics form the bulk of the book, including several created when she was a teen. The opening entry, "The End of Summer," influenced by Little Nemo in Slumberland creator Winsor McCay, uses intensely detailed and softly dreamlike art to depict a family's decline during a yearslong lockdown in their palace. Studio Ghibli cofounder Hayao Miyazaki also inspires the immersive fantasy worlds Walden creates in this and other tales. Unbound by proportion or panels, the author/illustrator portrays cats large enough to ride on and people who dwarf the cityscapes. Other comics tackle self-acceptance, identity, and growth. "I Love This Part" and "What It's Like To Be Gay in an All Girls Middle School" use soft linework and limited color to explore the awkwardness of girls learning to embrace their queerness. In all, the collection shows a clear visual and narrative line between this work and Walden's full-length graphic novels Spinning and On a Sunbeam. Though race and ethnicity are not explicitly noted, with few exceptions Walden's characters appear to be white. An illustrated Q&A between Walden and the Center for Cartoon Studies and a gallery of her sketches provide even more insight into how she approaches her art. VERDICT Aspiring artists and fans of Walden's other books will enjoy this intimate peek into the creative trajectory of a brilliant author and illustrator.—Carla Riemer, Berkeley, CA

School Library Journal

2021-04-10
In this dreamlike collection of previously published material, cartoonist Walden presents a series of thoughtful tales about home, belonging, and powerful emotion.

Jumping easily from genre to genre, this volume features the self-contained stories of a chronically ill boy and his family in their mansion during a yearslong winter, two closeted girls negotiating first love, and a young woman’s experience of giving up her supernatural life in the sky for a relationship on Earth. The collection also includes a number of shorter pieces created during Walden’s young adult years. Exhibiting a style that references Studio Ghibli and Winsor McCay, Walden displays an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre that gives depth to the not-quite-our-reality in which her characters find themselves. Each story plays skillfully with ideas of space and atmosphere, and the most fully realized relationships throughout the collection are those between the protagonists and their often surreal and fantastic environments. The visual vocabulary provides wonder while reflecting widely relatable feelings about changing, growing up, and being in the world. Serving as a wonderful entry point for teens new to graphic novels, this collection is a gemlike encapsulation of coming-of-age narratives in gorgeous settings touched with magic. What it sometimes lacks in nuance it makes up for in beauty and immediacy. Readers will be drawn into Walden’s surreal, empathetic universe. Most characters read as White.

A seamless integration of art and feeling. (gallery) (Graphic fiction. 14-adult)

Kirkus Reviews