When Krystal and her big brother Clint visit their old uncle Birdseye, they think they’re in for a sleepy summer. But big things are happening in this small town! An enormous cellphone tower is going up. The Great Fallen Billboard demands to be explored. And uncle Birdseye can make anything out of an empty 3-liter bottle.
St. Louis cartoonist Dan Zettwoch’s debut graphic novel, Birdseye Bristoe, is an eye-catching, rough-hewn mix of homespun storytelling, modern teen angst, and Popular Mechanics-style diagrams. Want to know how to pull a nightcrawler out of the ground? How to make your own headlamp? Or the recipe for a Red Cow, aka Uncle Birdseye’s Hot Blood Shake? It’s all in the charming, funny, and inventive Birdseye Bristoe, and Zettwoch’s art is deceptively simple and wonderfully expressive. We’re excited to have Dan Zettwoch illustrating the June issue of the Slate Book Review.
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Birdseye Bristoe by Dan Zettwoch. Drawn & Quarterly.
See all the pieces in this month’s Slate Book Review.
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Previous SBR comics:
The Manhattan Projects by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra
Blue by Pat Grant
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf