David Small, Stitches
The gradations and shadows that dominate the pages of David Small’s graphic memoir are well-suited to his gloomy childhood. When Stitches begins, it is night. In a sequence of panels that begin with a Detroit skyline of smoking chimneys, Small zooms in closer and closer to his own childhood home, moving through a quiet residential neighborhood. Finally, we are deposited on the floor of Small’s living room, next to the author as a six-year-old. David is sketching a rabbit--a rabbit, who reminds us a bit of the Mad Hatter. Like Alice, we’ve fallen into a tipsy, dystopian world. Creativity offers the only exit.