{"id":34918,"date":"2026-02-09T17:12:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34918"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:12:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:12:42","slug":"escape-from-special-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/02\/09\/escape-from-special-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape from Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Miss Lasko-Gross<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-56097-804-6 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Little Melissa<\/em> is a very difficult child: smart and constantly questioning her unconventional parents (easy-going hippie-types) as well as the guards and inmates at her elementary school (both intransigent teachers and status-obsessed kids). Even at six years old, she\u2019s a fiercely independent thinker – the kind of kid modern parents usually dope with Ritalin.<\/p>\n

She flounders in all the arenas of childhood, consequently being moved from school to school. She has a child-therapist and like many smart, creative kids has problems with reading. Painfully self-aware but ultimately adamantine, Melissa must endure the social horrors of Special Education.<\/p>\n

But please don\u2019t think this is a book about the crushing of a spirit. Whether on a tour-bus with her so-very-hip \u2018n\u2019 cool folks, fumbling with classmates or fighting off nightmares, this is a series of skits and sketches that affirm Melissa\u2019s vibrant character: one which can adapt but will never buckle. Illustrated in a powerful primitivist – almost naivest – illustrative style and symbology, the little girl endures and overcomes in tales that are charming, sad, funny, reassuring and just plain strange.<\/p>\n

Miss (that\u2019s her name now – she changed it) Lasko-Gross has produced graphic narrative for most of her life, editing the Pratt Institute\u2019s Static Fish<\/strong> comic book, working in Mauled<\/strong>, House of Twelve 2.0<\/strong>, Legal Action Comics, Aim<\/strong> and others whilst generally living the kind of life that finds its way onto the pages of fabulous books like this one. This book was followed by notional sequel A Mess of Everything<\/strong> and in 2015 macabre religious funny animal opus Henni<\/strong> which should also be on the must-see list of every thinking comics consumer.<\/p>\n

The powerfully direct stories in Escape from \u201cSpecial\u201d<\/strong> are of such a high calibre that they\u2019re far beyond some new or trendy genre and demand to be seen by a greater audience who don\u2019t even care if their reading matter has pictures or not. These tales are in the same category as American Splendor<\/strong>, Maus<\/strong> and Persepolis<\/strong> with words wedded to pictures that you\u2019ll revel in for years to come.
\n\u00a9 2006 Miss Lasko-Gross. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1902 Red Ryder<\/strong> co-creator Fred Harman<\/strong> was born, as was Spirou<\/em> originator \u201cRob-Vel<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (Fran\u00e7ois Robert Velter<\/strong>) in 1909. In 1928 Frank Frazetta<\/strong> joined the party, with Scots script wizard Alan Grant<\/strong> popping along in 1942, just like Jo Duffy<\/strong> in 1954. Two years later Timothy Truman<\/strong> was born, as was French star David B<\/strong>. in 1959. Somehow all that doesn\u2019t really balance the scales as today in 1989 Osamu Tezuka<\/strong> laid down his pens and brushes for the last time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Miss Lasko-Gross (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-56097-804-6 (TPB\/Digital edition) Little Melissa is a very difficult child: smart and constantly questioning her unconventional parents (easy-going hippie-types) as well as the guards and inmates at her elementary school (both intransigent teachers and status-obsessed kids). Even at six years old, she\u2019s a fiercely independent thinker – the kind … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Escape from Special”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[104,216,105,296,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-autobiography","category-lifestyle","category-mature-reading","category-school-stories","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-95c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34918","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=34918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34920,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34918\/revisions\/34920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}