Disquiet by Noah Van Sciver Review

Disquiet is a pretty decent anthology collection of Noah Van Sciver’s comics, some of which have been published before as single comics. Like The Lizard Laughs, the best story here, about a young man reconnecting with his estranged, deadbeat dad who abandoned his family years ago. 

I recently read One Dirty Tree, Noah’s memoir of growing up, and, re-reading Lizard, it’s clear that the deadbeat dad in the story is Noah’s real dad (going by his appearance, personality and the doodle he draws). I doubt the events of the story actually happened but it’s an illuminating insight into Noah’s feelings towards his dad and adds another dimension to an already stellar comic. “Weak men can become fathers, too” - ain’t that the truth. 

The Cow’s Head is a weird and interesting fairy tale of a poor girl spending the night in the woods in the company of a disembodied, talking cow’s head! I also love the unsettled, foreboding atmosphere of the untitled story of a 30 year old woman spending Christmas with her family (which previously appeared in Slow Graffiti). 

Dress Up is an amusing short about a random old guy who dresses up as Batman and stops a robbery. And I liked elements of Down in a Hole, about a former clown kid’s presenter spelunking, and Night Shift, about a directionless young woman looking for a way out of her current life into a better one. 

I still don’t like the outright silliness of Punks v. Lizards, which is about, yup, punks fighting giant lizards because, I guess, Noah finds that hilarious (the story also appeared in his previous collection, Youth Is Wasted). It’s Over is an unimpressive break-up story. By far the least enjoyable story was The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, which is a (rightfully) discarded extra from Noah’s book The Hypo, about an abolitionist printer who gets killed by ignorant thugs. 

Like most anthologies, Disquiet is hit and miss but, even if you’ve read some of the stories here before, like me, there’s still enough here that’s worth checking out. And if you’re a Noah Van Sciver fan, re-reading some of the stuff is just as good as reading it the first time around anyway.