Michel Rabagliati’s latest book in his semi-autobiographical Paul series, Paul at Home, is his darkest book to date with the protagonist in his early 50s and having a bit of a miserable time of things. He’s got toothache and sleep apnea, he’s divorced and struggling to get to grips with online dating, his 19 year old daughter is leaving Canada for England, and his elderly mother is slowly dying.
Yes, this is a slice-of-life comic, but that doesn’t mean that it HAS to be boring. I’ve read plenty of compelling slice-of-life comics from creators like Harvey Pekar, John Allison, Derf Backderf, Jeffrey Brown, James Kochalka, Noah Van Sciver, Seth, Joe Matt, Jason, and many more I’m forgetting. The fact that Rabagliati produces rather dull slice-of-life comics is on him, and is likely why I’ve only read one other book by this author.
Still, Paul at Home isn’t bad. His relationships with his mother and his daughter were very sweet - he clearly loves both a great deal. It was interesting to see him dealing with sleep apnea and online dating. The art style and overall presentation/storytelling is excellent - Rabagliati is an accomplished illustrator with an appealing visual style who totally understands sequential storytelling.
Some of the story elements though are too obvious: the metaphor of the dying tree, decaying teeth, and poor health are unimaginative for such an experienced cartoonist to include; these are amateur-level details.
I also found a lot of the humour to be quite unpleasantly bitter. Rabagliati rails hysterically about French people emigrating to Quebec, people using their phones too much, bank clerks making a fuss when he tries to cash a cheque in USD, and a teenager in a school causing a scene during a talk he gives. I can forgive it somewhat because he’s under so much pressure and seemingly getting nothing but grief thrown his way, but it still wasn’t funny - it came off a bit too much grumpy old man.
Other parts are plain uninteresting, when he nerds out about different types of pen to use and the fonts he likes/dislikes. And the book fair at the end felt pointless. The ending was decent though. I wonder if endings are easier in slice-of-life stories as they don’t require climactic drama/resolution - the stories just start and end, so going out quietly and/or abruptly is more natural and fitting? The book closed out satisfactorily here.
It’s not a must-read and kinda middle-of-the-road for the genre but there’s enough here to make Michel Rabagliati’s Paul at Home worth checking out if you’re a slice-of-life indie comics fan.
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