Asthma

Asthma is a collection of recent comics by John Hankiewicz. From story to story, even page to page, the book mixes a startling range of graphic and narrative styles to form a dreamlike whole. “Amateur Comics” creates a wordless lyric of body, chairs, and space. “Martha Gregory” delves into the rhyming psyches of a young woman and an old man. “Jazz” charts a single day through the lens of the unconscious. Also included are the visually abstract “The Kimball House,” the autobiographical “Westmont Is Next,” the elliptically humorous “Dance” (printed in black and red), and several other ineffable pieces. At once perplexing and moving, disturbing and playful, Asthma explores the formal and emotional reaches of the comics medium.