6/19/2023 0 Comments Awkward chmakovaBleeds and diagonals are few, progress tends to be more horizontal than vertical, most pages are tidily contained within a white frame, and the effects lettering is fairly subtle and contained (with one terrific exception that you can find for yourself). Granted, shōjo manga still looms large in Chmakova’s style, which favors outsize expressions and exaggerated, super-deformed bursts of feeling-but she damps down the manga influence here by working through a gridlike page-and-panel aesthetic that follows the reigning style of US children’s graphic novels. Yet her manga influences now seem to be retreating, or quieting down, in favor of a Raina Telgemeier-like aesthetic of clarity and containment. She has described herself as a “manga author,” and Awkward takes a very manga-like pleasure in the absurdities of school life. Like Vera Brosgol, Chmakova is a Russian immigré with an animation background, but her career path has been different.
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