{"id":30465,"date":"2024-09-04T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30465"},"modified":"2024-09-02T16:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T16:56:00","slug":"goblin-girl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/09\/04\/goblin-girl-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Goblin Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Moa Romanova<\/strong>, translated by Melissa Bowers<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-68396-283-0 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Scandinavian artists and authors seem to have a real knack for combining comics with therapy and producing truly memorable books you really want to tell your friends about. Like this one…<\/p>\n

Stockholm resident and dog-lover Moa Romanova (Moa Johanna Strinnholm as was) came into the world in 1992 in Bollstabruk, Kramfors Municipality, Sweden. She\u2019s an artist and musician who studied painting at the Gothenburg School of Fine arts before becoming a worthy graduate of the wonderful Malm\u00f6 Comic Art School. She\u2019s done a whole bunch of other stuff too, such as fanzine On Tour<\/strong> and second graphic novel P\u00e5 glid<\/em> (Off the Rails<\/strong>). Today, though, let\u2019s plug her multi-award-winning debut graphic novel which English-language readers can see as Goblin Girl<\/strong>. Available in at least seven languages so far, it started life as Alltid Fucka Upp<\/em><\/strong> when first published in Sweden by Kartago f\u00f6rlag<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Goblin in question is a young woman of artistic temperament and ambitions who suffers from crushing panic attacks and other contemporary insecurities. Despite being broke and stuck in a grotty squat over a shop, she\u2019s getting by, thanks to mum, friends and a counsellor I personally wouldn\u2019t give house room…<\/p>\n

Looking for love – aren\u2019t we all? – she hooks up online with a minor TV celeb who\u2019s far too old for her, but at least he seems to listen. It\u2019s not undying passion, but in the absence of anything better…<\/p>\n

He seems to want nothing, and validates her life …even offering to sponsor her art career. Are things finally looking up? Aren\u2019t there always strings attached?
\n\"\"
\nAnd so, her life progresses via drink, panic attacks, other people, concerts, social services, work, no work, body issues, relationships, fraught travel, psych evaluations and admissions: all the crap making up a modern life if you\u2019re not born perfect but still have a brain to be unhappy and discontented with…<\/p>\n

Dealing with contemporary life, mental health issues and the inescapable problem of unequal power dynamics in all relationships in an uncompromising but astonishingly steady – if not upbeat – manner, Goblin Girl<\/strong> (available in breathtaking oversized hardback or digital editions) is a remarkable testament and to modern living and appraisal of the costs involved, beautifully drawn in a deliberately ugly way and deeply, inescapably moving. You won\u2019t all like it, those who do won\u2019t like all of it and those of you who take it on will read it over and over again and still come away wanting more…
\n\u00a9 2020 Moa Romanova. English translation \u00a9 2020 Melissa Bowers. This edition \u00a9 2020 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Moa Romanova, translated by Melissa Bowers (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-68396-283-0 (HB\/Digital edition) Scandinavian artists and authors seem to have a real knack for combining comics with therapy and producing truly memorable books you really want to tell your friends about. Like this one… Stockholm resident and dog-lover Moa Romanova (Moa Johanna Strinnholm as was) … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Goblin Girl”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[214,348,216,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european","category-health-2","category-lifestyle","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Vn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30468,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465\/revisions\/30468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}