Controlled motion
Dunlap-Shohl depicts himself in wobbly, jagged strokes in pen and ink that seem to pulsate with movement. In the book’s cover image, his own face is a mass of quivering lines suggestive of an imbalance that is both internal and external. The comic theorist Scott McCloud has suggested that American comics artists are especially innovative in their use of zip ribbons, or motion lines, at conveying movement. Dunlap-Shohl's work supports that observation. Movement --and the author's own capacity to control his movements as a walker, a runner, and a visual artist--is at the very heart of his narrative and this story of acceptance and repair.