It’s about doing something that’s really hard, doubting oneself and then finding the courage and resolve to keep going. There’s almost no use of a grid in this comic, as Davis prefers flowing, open-page layouts to depict action and dialogue.ĭavis doesn’t hold much back in this book. Davis can do both with ease there’s a scene where she’s taking a break in a bar with a pool table that explodes with life-and it’s not a still life. The McCloudian idea that time can only pass in a comic by use of panel breaks is reductive and ignores years of cartoonists using single images to tell a story. I’ve always disagreed with the notion that a single image can’t be used to portray movement and time passing. Her use of gesture is so true to life that it’s almost painful, even as she takes her rock-solid understanding of anatomy and distorts it. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Davis’ art just brings me pleasure to look at from a sheer, aesthetic standpoint.

The book is in black and white, and Davis uses her loosest, chunkiest, blockiest lines that rely on basic shapes and expressive techniques. This isn’t surprising, considering how many mental health professionals emphasize exercise as something that can improve mental health, but this trip felt like an extreme prescription for perhaps what felt like an intractable state of mind.

The physical exertion of biking combined with it allowing her to slowly take in her environment was something that made her feel good. Her decision to bike from her parents’ home of Tucson, AZ to her own home with her husband in Athens, GA was about many things, but her mental health was one of them. Her travelogue You & A Bike & A Road (Koyama Press) is very much about her personal fight with depression. That includes the ways in which it’s warped, the ways in which we find ways to repair it, the ways in which art addresses it, and much more. While she has explored everything from science fiction to kid lit to satire and beyond, there is a constant theme running through them: mental health. One reason why Eleanor Davis is such an intriguing cartoonist is because her output is so unpredictable.

You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis