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Bottomless Belly Button
This is a reprint of the graphic novel that launched Dash Shaw as a major young cartooning talent: Official Selection, 2009 Festival International de la Bande Dessinée de Angouleme; named one of Publishers Weekly' s 2008 "Best Books of the Year: Comics."
Bottomless Belly Button is a graphic novel comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family. When the parents announce their divorce, the family comes together at their beach house for a week. Dennis, the eldest son, is having marriage troubles of his own, and searches for clues, trap doors, and secret tunnels. Claire, the middle child, is a single mother with a troubled 16-year-old daughter, Jill. The youngest child, Peter, is a hack filmmaker suffering from paralyzing insecurities who establishes an unorthodox romance with a mysterious day care counselor at the beach.
Black & white illustrations with some color.
Bottomless Belly Button is a graphic novel comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family. When the parents announce their divorce, the family comes together at their beach house for a week. Dennis, the eldest son, is having marriage troubles of his own, and searches for clues, trap doors, and secret tunnels. Claire, the middle child, is a single mother with a troubled 16-year-old daughter, Jill. The youngest child, Peter, is a hack filmmaker suffering from paralyzing insecurities who establishes an unorthodox romance with a mysterious day care counselor at the beach.
Black & white illustrations with some color.
720 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
43 people are currently reading
2,663 people want to read
About the author
Dash Shaw
62Ìýbooks189ÌýfollowersDash Shaw is an American cartoonist and animator, currently living in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaw studied Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He has been publishing short comics and illustrations in a number of anthologies, magazines and zines since his college years. In 2008 Fantagraphics Books published Shaw's first long format graphic novel, the family comedy-drama Bottomless Belly Button. Among his other notable works: BodyWorld (2010, Pantheon Books), New Jobs (2013, Uncivilized Books), New School (2013, Fantagraphics), Blurry (2024, New York Review Comics).
Shaw's animated works include the Sigur Ros video and Sundance selection 'Seraph', the series 'The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD' and the movies My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea (2016) and Cryptozoo (2021).
Shaw studied Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He has been publishing short comics and illustrations in a number of anthologies, magazines and zines since his college years. In 2008 Fantagraphics Books published Shaw's first long format graphic novel, the family comedy-drama Bottomless Belly Button. Among his other notable works: BodyWorld (2010, Pantheon Books), New Jobs (2013, Uncivilized Books), New School (2013, Fantagraphics), Blurry (2024, New York Review Comics).
Shaw's animated works include the Sigur Ros video and Sundance selection 'Seraph', the series 'The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD' and the movies My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea (2016) and Cryptozoo (2021).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 345 reviews
July 19, 2008
This review is kind of like an "it's not you, it's me" break-up, because I should really acknowledge that Dash Shaw's The Bottomless Bellybutton represents a certain side of art-house indie cartooning that just doesn't resonate with me. There is a scene late in the comic when the grandmother is at the grocery store, and the man in line in front of her gives her an angry look for not putting a divider between their items. It seemed like an outrageous response to a fairly common situation, and I realized that most of the world is angry or annoyed at the family that is at the center of The Bottomless Bellybutton. As a reader, I should be sympathetic to their plight in the face of hostility, but truth is, I was angry and annoyed with them, as well. I didn't care at all if they got where they were going, and the book is way too long to put up with a group of people who the author seems to be telling us are really the source of their own problems. It's like watching a remake of Little Miss Sunshine by Todd Solondz.
There was one nice moment I really liked, where Peter, a boy portrayed with a frog's head, reverts back to his real face for a moment, when he realizes his new girlfriend doesn't see him as a freak. It's very subtle, revealing that the reason Dash Shaw has chosen to draw Peter as a weird frogboy is because that is how he sees himself, but he's really as normal as the rest of them. The book has multiple instances of characters having warped self-images, but this is the one place where it really comes through as something special.
Overall, the cartooning is about as unappealing to me as the writing. It has a rushed, unfinished quality that grows tedious in the book's first couple of hundred pages. Given that the whole novel is 720 pages, that's a lot of unattractive comics to plow through. I suppose Shaw could be trying for what Douglas Wolk calls a "beautiful ugly" aesthetic, but for me he's way too heavy on the second half of that equation.
Again, I'm more than willing to concede that all of this criticism stems from my personal tastes and is not necessarily reflective of the quality of Shaw's work. There are actually some very good, emotionally heavy moments in Bottomless Bellybutton that struck me despite my struggles to connect with the overall product. Likewise, though I was originally going to complain about an ongoing annoyance with indie cartoonists being overly obsessed with urine, semen, and boogers, as I read, I saw that this was the low-end of a sophisticated thematic metaphor about the way the transmogrification of water is similar to changes humans go through over their life.
In other words, despite myself, I get it; it's just that "it" is not for me.
There was one nice moment I really liked, where Peter, a boy portrayed with a frog's head, reverts back to his real face for a moment, when he realizes his new girlfriend doesn't see him as a freak. It's very subtle, revealing that the reason Dash Shaw has chosen to draw Peter as a weird frogboy is because that is how he sees himself, but he's really as normal as the rest of them. The book has multiple instances of characters having warped self-images, but this is the one place where it really comes through as something special.
Overall, the cartooning is about as unappealing to me as the writing. It has a rushed, unfinished quality that grows tedious in the book's first couple of hundred pages. Given that the whole novel is 720 pages, that's a lot of unattractive comics to plow through. I suppose Shaw could be trying for what Douglas Wolk calls a "beautiful ugly" aesthetic, but for me he's way too heavy on the second half of that equation.
Again, I'm more than willing to concede that all of this criticism stems from my personal tastes and is not necessarily reflective of the quality of Shaw's work. There are actually some very good, emotionally heavy moments in Bottomless Bellybutton that struck me despite my struggles to connect with the overall product. Likewise, though I was originally going to complain about an ongoing annoyance with indie cartoonists being overly obsessed with urine, semen, and boogers, as I read, I saw that this was the low-end of a sophisticated thematic metaphor about the way the transmogrification of water is similar to changes humans go through over their life.
In other words, despite myself, I get it; it's just that "it" is not for me.
August 11, 2008
Let's see...dysfunctional white family; goofy low self esteemed guy who can't make it with chicks but has a quirky chick quick to go for his sausage conveniently pop up solely for the purpose of going for his sausage; did we mention unsympathetic bored whiney dysfunctional white family...
This is the kind of stuff Daniel Clowes and Jeffrey Brown make sing. This does not sing. This is like Parker Lewis Can't Lose compared to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
If Zach Braff were a graphic novelist this would be his output. All that would be missing would be the cd insert chockful of hipster montage music primed to manipulate the audience into emotions the visuals and dialogue fall short of stirring.
This is the kind of stuff Daniel Clowes and Jeffrey Brown make sing. This does not sing. This is like Parker Lewis Can't Lose compared to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
If Zach Braff were a graphic novelist this would be his output. All that would be missing would be the cd insert chockful of hipster montage music primed to manipulate the audience into emotions the visuals and dialogue fall short of stirring.
October 30, 2014
Is it possible to write a review for a story about a family of eccentric personalities and the comedy and tragedy that results from the comingling of their individual personal dysfunctions without mentioning The Royal Tenenbaums? Apparently not.
Now, with that out of the way: Bottomless Belly Button is a story about a family of eccentric personalities and the comedy and tragedy that results from the comingling of their individual personal dysfunctions –but it's also a bravura performance at comic book writing as an artistic medium. After forty years of marriage the paternal hierarchy of the Loony clan has decided to divorce; and so Mom and Dad summon their children home for a week of strained familial bonding as the final papers are signed and ways are finally parted. Naturally, the three Loony children act accordingly and proceed to wallow in their own personal inadequacies. The eldest son—a grown man drawn as nearly always wearing a child’s anachronistic football uniform (metaphor!)� spends his week ignoring his overweight wife and young son, devoting all of his time to crawling through hidden passages in the house, sneezing through dusty old photo albums and interrogating his parents on what’s the real reason behind their divorce. Middle daughter—a wishy-washy willow of a woman—tries her best to relate with her uncomfortably 16-year-old daughter, while bemoaning her own long-past divorce with a selfish cad of an artist. And youngest son, a 26-year-old anthropomorphic cartoon frog (yes, he has the head of a frog and the four-fingered-glove hands of Mickey Mouse) deals with an abiding sense of self-loathing, angst, and loneliness brought about in part by the casual indifference and lack of affection he receives from his parents and siblings…but hope may be budding on the horizon (i.e. he may lose his virginity to the sweet yet slightly off-kilter beach babe he’s just met)!
Weighing in at 700+ pages, Bottomless Belly Button is a shockingly compulsive read (I waded through it all in one engrossed, two and a half hour session) that bops around from eviscerating its characters� flaws to sympathetically digging deep into their psyches. Shaw deserves a standing ovation for the way in which he infuses comic exaggeration, a harsh refusal of sentimentality, innovative meta-comic-ing, laugh-out-loud moments of comedic humiliation, marital despair, and touching insight into being old, young, married, alone, unhappy, teenaged, a parent, a child, a failure, and (dare I go there? …Dare!) a human being. Reminiscent of Chris Ware, albeit not quite as hopeless, triple-B is a graphic novel/comic book/words-with-pictures-whatever that I cannot recommend highly enough.
Now, with that out of the way: Bottomless Belly Button is a story about a family of eccentric personalities and the comedy and tragedy that results from the comingling of their individual personal dysfunctions –but it's also a bravura performance at comic book writing as an artistic medium. After forty years of marriage the paternal hierarchy of the Loony clan has decided to divorce; and so Mom and Dad summon their children home for a week of strained familial bonding as the final papers are signed and ways are finally parted. Naturally, the three Loony children act accordingly and proceed to wallow in their own personal inadequacies. The eldest son—a grown man drawn as nearly always wearing a child’s anachronistic football uniform (metaphor!)� spends his week ignoring his overweight wife and young son, devoting all of his time to crawling through hidden passages in the house, sneezing through dusty old photo albums and interrogating his parents on what’s the real reason behind their divorce. Middle daughter—a wishy-washy willow of a woman—tries her best to relate with her uncomfortably 16-year-old daughter, while bemoaning her own long-past divorce with a selfish cad of an artist. And youngest son, a 26-year-old anthropomorphic cartoon frog (yes, he has the head of a frog and the four-fingered-glove hands of Mickey Mouse) deals with an abiding sense of self-loathing, angst, and loneliness brought about in part by the casual indifference and lack of affection he receives from his parents and siblings…but hope may be budding on the horizon (i.e. he may lose his virginity to the sweet yet slightly off-kilter beach babe he’s just met)!
Weighing in at 700+ pages, Bottomless Belly Button is a shockingly compulsive read (I waded through it all in one engrossed, two and a half hour session) that bops around from eviscerating its characters� flaws to sympathetically digging deep into their psyches. Shaw deserves a standing ovation for the way in which he infuses comic exaggeration, a harsh refusal of sentimentality, innovative meta-comic-ing, laugh-out-loud moments of comedic humiliation, marital despair, and touching insight into being old, young, married, alone, unhappy, teenaged, a parent, a child, a failure, and (dare I go there? …Dare!) a human being. Reminiscent of Chris Ware, albeit not quite as hopeless, triple-B is a graphic novel/comic book/words-with-pictures-whatever that I cannot recommend highly enough.
April 22, 2008
Far and away Dash Shaw's best work yet; the story is a little more straightforward/less surreal than some of Dash's other books, except for a character who appears as a frog, but he continues to play with the comics form, and without doing it in such a way that it distracts from the narrative. A huge thick book that maybe reads quicker than it looks it will, but undoubtedly will reward repeat readings...
December 26, 2018
This book doesn’t make you happy. It doesn’t make you feel good at all. The characters are frustrating. But it’s just SO WELL MADE. I loved the descriptions of visual details, motion, even colors or lighting. Those descriptions do not make up for any shortcomings in the drawings, because those are fantastic and lively in themselves. It’s just a great book that needs to be read and reread over and over.
March 7, 2018
We follow a dysfunctional family in great detail as each member goes about his and her daily routine.
Nothing interesting, really. This person masturbates. That person has sex. At a point, it gets very repetitive. For some reason, we had to see every single character take a shower. WTH?! No wonder this crap is 700++ pages long.
Nothing interesting, really. This person masturbates. That person has sex. At a point, it gets very repetitive. For some reason, we had to see every single character take a shower. WTH?! No wonder this crap is 700++ pages long.
July 31, 2011
This was OK, the drawing is a bit meh, but the author overcomes that with an innovative storytelling. It feels like another attemp to write the "great american graphic novel". Sorry but, in my opinion, Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan is still in the lead. Worthwhile reading but couldn't but feel a bit disappointed, after all the hype, the two different covers... Just another novel about a disfunctional family in crisis.
February 24, 2022
Fun :p
April 16, 2020
Shaw wzbija się na komiksowe wyżyny, przedstawiając rodzinną obyczajówkę z wieloma smaczkami i porozmieszczanymi w wielu miejscach ciekawymi rozwiązaniami formalnymi, jednocześnie wciągając czytelnika w dynamiczną i pełną napięć fabułę. Jestem pod wrażeniem całej palety osobowości spotkanych w tej 700-stronicowej cegle. Od odpowiednika Barta Simpsona, z wszystkimi satyrycznymi konotacjami, jakie ta postać ze sobą niesie, przez archetyp zbuntowanej nastolatki również na granicy śmieszności, po samotną matkę, która od lat nie może "wyluzować" ciągle żyjąc przeszłością. Są starzy rodzice, którzy wychodzą z przypisanych - zdawało się, że na zawsze - ról, burząc tym porządek i dezorientując bohaterów, jak również gość z głową żaby, odpowiednik wyobcowanych i często nieporadnych postaci z komiksów Daniela Clowesa czy Chrisa Ware.
To nie jest opowieść o rodzinie Shawa, więc autor trzyma odpowiedni dystans do wykreowanych postaci. Całość cechuje słodko-gorzki posmak, teatralność i budowanie napięcia niemal filmową dynamiką (podążanie za kilku bohaterami równocześnie, prezentując na przemian kadry z różnych miesc i sytuacji). Sporo tu zabawy możliwościami formalnymi, jakie daje komiks oraz różnymi perspektywami, co wiąże się także z tym, że Shaw dużo miejsca poświęca kwestiom architektury.
Obraz współczesnej rodziny w "Bottomless Belly Butoon" to tragikomedia, gdzie między uczuciami, wynikającymi z przywiązania i wspólnych doświadczeń jest miejsce dla całkiem pokażnej górki dysfunkcji. Czytając miałem mocne skojarzenia z "Korektami" - Jonathana Franzena, a to chyba spora rekomendacja.
To nie jest opowieść o rodzinie Shawa, więc autor trzyma odpowiedni dystans do wykreowanych postaci. Całość cechuje słodko-gorzki posmak, teatralność i budowanie napięcia niemal filmową dynamiką (podążanie za kilku bohaterami równocześnie, prezentując na przemian kadry z różnych miesc i sytuacji). Sporo tu zabawy możliwościami formalnymi, jakie daje komiks oraz różnymi perspektywami, co wiąże się także z tym, że Shaw dużo miejsca poświęca kwestiom architektury.
Obraz współczesnej rodziny w "Bottomless Belly Butoon" to tragikomedia, gdzie między uczuciami, wynikającymi z przywiązania i wspólnych doświadczeń jest miejsce dla całkiem pokażnej górki dysfunkcji. Czytając miałem mocne skojarzenia z "Korektami" - Jonathana Franzena, a to chyba spora rekomendacja.
February 22, 2023
While initially intimidating with a 700+ page count, Bottomless Belly Button is easily one of the more riveting graphic novels I've read - so much so that I read it twice in a row. The story introduces us to three grown up siblings who bring their respective families back to their parent's beach house for a small family reunion. The elderly parents reveal something shocking: they're getting divorced. The reactions of the individual family members drives the remainder of the narrative.
What makes Bottomless Belly Button so engaging is the contrast of the relatively slice-of-life style storytelling with the mish-mash of eccentric personalities of the characters. Most of the characters are depicted in a hyperrealist way, though Dash Shaw expertly introduces bizarreness at times. It's much less surreal than many of Shaw's other works, but the hint of eccentricity is all this specific book needed. The story feels very human, while also being weird enough for someone of my tastes to really revel in.
Despite the lengthy page count, the pacing is immaculate. Shaw never cramps the pages with excess panels - indeed, this might be the most "safe" graphic novel Shaw has ever drawn. The formalisms are simple and orthodox, but the inventiveness still comes through with the nature of the story telling. It's not as experimental or ambitious as his other works, but it is easily one of the most refined books he's put out.
What makes Bottomless Belly Button so engaging is the contrast of the relatively slice-of-life style storytelling with the mish-mash of eccentric personalities of the characters. Most of the characters are depicted in a hyperrealist way, though Dash Shaw expertly introduces bizarreness at times. It's much less surreal than many of Shaw's other works, but the hint of eccentricity is all this specific book needed. The story feels very human, while also being weird enough for someone of my tastes to really revel in.
Despite the lengthy page count, the pacing is immaculate. Shaw never cramps the pages with excess panels - indeed, this might be the most "safe" graphic novel Shaw has ever drawn. The formalisms are simple and orthodox, but the inventiveness still comes through with the nature of the story telling. It's not as experimental or ambitious as his other works, but it is easily one of the most refined books he's put out.
August 9, 2008
a massive brick of cartooning, shattering the staid glass window panes of other so-called graphic novels with its & its visual swagger -- using maps, & to detail the tale of a family, where no one resembles another*, impacted by the divorce of the parents after forty years of marriage.
It's almost overwhelming, but I totally ignored one of the caveats of this graphic novel and read all three parts all 700 odd pages straight through early Friday morning.
But the other caveat, repeated on both spine & 1st page, really should not be ignored (at yr peril!) this is a comic that is definitely NOT FOR CHILDREN).
*& why one son is drawn with a froghead is eventually, poetically explained, no worries.
It's almost overwhelming, but I totally ignored one of the caveats of this graphic novel and read all three parts all 700 odd pages straight through early Friday morning.
But the other caveat, repeated on both spine & 1st page, really should not be ignored (at yr peril!) this is a comic that is definitely NOT FOR CHILDREN).
*& why one son is drawn with a froghead is eventually, poetically explained, no worries.
January 19, 2011
The Bottomless Bellybutton is an absorbing mammoth graphic novel for a rainy day or two. There are some great "comic-matic" moments without dialogue and a great use of cartoon space, and a clever use of the lack of color and a fancy use of diagrams and letters and zany gimmicky stuff like that I usually really enjoy. Ultimately, though, there's not much substance to this big thing, a case of style trumping sensation in the end (and by style I mean more book design than the actual art, which is fine at serving its purpose but not amazing by any regards). This book often seemed like the product of a talented but neophyte artist testing out the medium with the various tricks up his sleeve, but ultimately bereft of an interesting story that went anywhere or had anything original or interesting to say.
Nonetheless it was fun to read and I was sad when it was all over, because I had gotten attached to the characters, or at least the frog-faced boy, by the end.
Nonetheless it was fun to read and I was sad when it was all over, because I had gotten attached to the characters, or at least the frog-faced boy, by the end.
March 26, 2010
Surely the fastest 720-page read in the bookstore. The faster I moved through it, the closer reading came to watching a film, sort of like a flip book. Maybe reminds me of a sad quirky not-so-funny indie comedy crossed, at its best, with some Ozu-y sweetness? By which I mean it's totally in favor of affectationlessly portraying minor life moments until they seem to achieve "poignancy" and therefore deserve an elevated term like "quotidian" instead of common/dull? The drawings aren't close quality-/complexity-wise to other leading graphic novels I've seen, but crude simplicity lets it accelerate and sometimes even seem to take off, like a chair with tons of helium balloons tied to it. One LOL pretty early on. As such, I give it an affectionate three stars and look forward to maybe "watching" it again one day.
August 17, 2008
The things that Shaw does with light, with water, with sand will confound your eyes and uproot your mind.
There is detail here. Shaw has paid attention to it and so should you. Note the coming of dusk. Note the one "true" glimpse of Peter. Note how the "x" marks the "spot."
Sound is not usually something you think of when you think of comics. Shaw offers up a cacophony. A melodic cacophony. His is a noisy book.
Floor plans. Portraits. Cinematic scenes. I felt like I was watching a movie directed by the protege of Wes Anderson.
There is detail here. Shaw has paid attention to it and so should you. Note the coming of dusk. Note the one "true" glimpse of Peter. Note how the "x" marks the "spot."
Sound is not usually something you think of when you think of comics. Shaw offers up a cacophony. A melodic cacophony. His is a noisy book.
Floor plans. Portraits. Cinematic scenes. I felt like I was watching a movie directed by the protege of Wes Anderson.
April 23, 2022
Dag Loonys, ik ga jullie missen! Jullie wonen prachtig (jaloers!) en bewonder de moed van (vooral?) Maggie en David. Het was een heerlijk weekend, veel meegemaakt en - geloof me - jullie redden het wel, zo met elkaar. Wedden?
February 23, 2023
I had trouble getting into this. It's weird and definitely feels like an "indie" comic. In my view, the story felt like peeking in on family drama, almost like watching reality TV. There are some scenes that are intermingled, which made it a little hard to follow the back and forth. Finally, it is long. There's a lot of wordless panels and empty space. You could say that it added to the atmosphere and pacing, but for me it was fluff. Maybe if I re-read this with a more open mind I would like it more, but I'm not sure I'm willing to devote the time.
Read for my local library's graphic novel book club
Read for my local library's graphic novel book club
March 22, 2019
Drama familiar é um sub-gênero de que gosto muito, seja em livro, quadrinho ou cinema. Umbigo Sem Fundo é enorme, a ponto de demorar para ler mesmo sendo quadrinho. Em uma avaliação bem calculista, acho que ele exige tempo demais para o que entrega. É bastante realista ao retratar eventos marcantes de uma famÃlia comum, mas mesmo nos pontos de clÃmax não me empolgou muito, assim como no desfecho. Me pareceu que segue aquela linha que se justifica com "mas a vida é assim", mas talvez pela forma essa história não tenha se destacado para mim.
June 12, 2021
meu deus essa história!!
October 2, 2023
Este cómic me ha dejado la misma sensación que al ver la tÃpica peli indie estadounidense con mucho costumbrismo de gente menos rara de lo que querrÃan ser. Es cuqui.
March 29, 2025
“My whole family looks at me like I’m a dumb, weird frog. Do I look like a frog to you? Sometimes I think I look like a frog.�
January 4, 2014
This is a challenging book and it is hardly surprising that it polarises people. Personally I loved it
It is superficially simple and the drawing may appear rough- even crude (it is actually highly accomplished). The storyline - a family coming together for a last time in the house they grew up in to mark their parents' separation - does not create much narrative drive and is really a framework for Shaw to explore characters and themes.
But the remarkable quality of this book is Shaw's very subtle and mature understanding of the comics medium and its potential and this may not be apparent to readers who are versed in conventional narrative. For example, in addition to the text he constantly pulls away from the narrative to draw people's subjective state and experience of their own bodies - one insecure character is shown throughout as a bemused frog except in one panel where he actually accepts that he could be attractive to a lover. It's a bizarre and risky experiment and it works supremely well. Shaw also creates complex visual themes that cut across the narrative (for example keys, doors, sand and water), and is constantly experimenting with time through the pacing and location of panels (a quality unique to comics) and space through the different ways he visualises the landscape and house. He also plays delightful games with the graphics, weaving conventional cartoon forms with aerial views, technical drawings, graphs, personal letters, and floor plans
It is also - and here I disagree strongly with some of the other comments- very well scripted with an excellent ear for character and real speech patterns. Dash Shaw has far more writing talent than many other comics creators and does not have to depend on his own experience for his storylines.
I found it totally absorbing, though I would not recommend it to someone as a first graphic novel to read.
It is superficially simple and the drawing may appear rough- even crude (it is actually highly accomplished). The storyline - a family coming together for a last time in the house they grew up in to mark their parents' separation - does not create much narrative drive and is really a framework for Shaw to explore characters and themes.
But the remarkable quality of this book is Shaw's very subtle and mature understanding of the comics medium and its potential and this may not be apparent to readers who are versed in conventional narrative. For example, in addition to the text he constantly pulls away from the narrative to draw people's subjective state and experience of their own bodies - one insecure character is shown throughout as a bemused frog except in one panel where he actually accepts that he could be attractive to a lover. It's a bizarre and risky experiment and it works supremely well. Shaw also creates complex visual themes that cut across the narrative (for example keys, doors, sand and water), and is constantly experimenting with time through the pacing and location of panels (a quality unique to comics) and space through the different ways he visualises the landscape and house. He also plays delightful games with the graphics, weaving conventional cartoon forms with aerial views, technical drawings, graphs, personal letters, and floor plans
It is also - and here I disagree strongly with some of the other comments- very well scripted with an excellent ear for character and real speech patterns. Dash Shaw has far more writing talent than many other comics creators and does not have to depend on his own experience for his storylines.
I found it totally absorbing, though I would not recommend it to someone as a first graphic novel to read.
August 16, 2009
I've been having extraordinary luck hitting on extraordinary examples of graphic novels recently. Here's another one. The semi-primitive drawing and confessional tone put me in mind of David Heatley's 'My Brain is Hanging Upside Down,' although this is a full-blown, even epic narrative (if a week with a dysfunctional family reuniting to inaugurate the parents' divorce can be epic in scope). The weightiness reminded me of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's 'A Drifting Life'--some 700 plus pages--a format that is pure joy. If you want to go to another world for a few hours and learn more about your own, read this. I especially liked the use of language connected to image. For example a two-tone sunset popping with words--'purples,''pinks,''pinks,''purples,''pinks,' etc.--or a hand feeling for a dotted-line doorknob in a dark punctuated by stroboscopic words--'cold,''smooth,''knob,''doorknob.' Shaw has said this book is about perspective. The angle that we perceive from is hardly objective. It's a function of language and culture, what is said and what is not said. This fits in with the revelations about brain plasticity found in Norman Doidge's 'The Brain That Changes Itself,' and studies conduced by Standford psych prof Lera Boroditsky which suggest 'that the grammar we learn from our parents, whether we realize it or not, affects our sensual experience of the world' (quote from an April 6 NPR story). A provocative, revolutionary work based in the everyday and ordinary. Highly recommended.
January 5, 2009
This is alt-comics by the numbers. The obsessive attention to mundane details, the diagrams, the quirky page designs, the daddy issues, the sarcastic and confused teen girls, the general patheticness of the majority of the cast: all these elements come straight from previous books by Chris Ware and/or Daniel Clowes.
Fortunately, Dash Shaw knows how to entertain. The dialogue is uniformly sharp, and a few bits are even laugh-out-loud funny. Some favorites of mine include Chill Jill meeting "the nicest person" on a bus, only to have them hit her up for money and walk away, Peter's desperate struggle to get out an unfortunate t-shirt stain, Aki's battle against a sheet that just won't fit right on the bed (this happens to me always), and the one-date "Top Three Reasons We Didn't Work Out" note that Peter receives. Best of all, Shaw captures the hazy, lazy feeling of beach houses and boring family vacations perfectly with his sand-toned artwork and his breezy, shambling pacing. It may be derivative as all hell, but "Bottomless Belly Button" is a lot more fun than most of the stuff it rips off, and hey, the ending even affected me a bit emotionally. I liked it. Thanks, Alece!!
Fortunately, Dash Shaw knows how to entertain. The dialogue is uniformly sharp, and a few bits are even laugh-out-loud funny. Some favorites of mine include Chill Jill meeting "the nicest person" on a bus, only to have them hit her up for money and walk away, Peter's desperate struggle to get out an unfortunate t-shirt stain, Aki's battle against a sheet that just won't fit right on the bed (this happens to me always), and the one-date "Top Three Reasons We Didn't Work Out" note that Peter receives. Best of all, Shaw captures the hazy, lazy feeling of beach houses and boring family vacations perfectly with his sand-toned artwork and his breezy, shambling pacing. It may be derivative as all hell, but "Bottomless Belly Button" is a lot more fun than most of the stuff it rips off, and hey, the ending even affected me a bit emotionally. I liked it. Thanks, Alece!!
November 4, 2014
Most people who like comix will probably like this more than i did and i found it mostly satisfying.
As much as i simply enjoy reading comic books, i'm still frequently disappointed that i don't get as much pleasure from the illustrations as from the stories and language. When the plot's intriguing and/or the characters are interesting but the images seem redundant and/or unnecessary, i tend to give 3-star ratings.
I haven't read anything else by Shaw so maybe this book's style is deliberate. If so, he gave himself quite a challenge because simple line work fails to convey subtleties such as sunsets, beaches at high tide, or even the experience of going through a car wash. Other reviewers praised Shaw's drawings, so maybe my visual acumen is too weak to appreciate his art.
My favorite part was waiting for the penny to drop regarding Peter's peculiar appearance. I trusted that Shaw had a good reason for it and he validated that trust.
I also quite liked breaking the father's love letter code. But that doesn't make this a better than average book for me.
As much as i simply enjoy reading comic books, i'm still frequently disappointed that i don't get as much pleasure from the illustrations as from the stories and language. When the plot's intriguing and/or the characters are interesting but the images seem redundant and/or unnecessary, i tend to give 3-star ratings.
I haven't read anything else by Shaw so maybe this book's style is deliberate. If so, he gave himself quite a challenge because simple line work fails to convey subtleties such as sunsets, beaches at high tide, or even the experience of going through a car wash. Other reviewers praised Shaw's drawings, so maybe my visual acumen is too weak to appreciate his art.
My favorite part was waiting for the penny to drop regarding Peter's peculiar appearance. I trusted that Shaw had a good reason for it and he validated that trust.
I also quite liked breaking the father's love letter code. But that doesn't make this a better than average book for me.
May 13, 2011
The story of one family - including elderly parents, three adult children, one daughter in law, and two children - as the kids come home for a visit after the news that the parents are getting a divorce. Everyone reacts in their own ways.
For one thing, this seemed pretty blatantly autobiographical. The title infers self-inspection, and one character (and only one) is depicted as having the head of a frog in all but one frame (where he is asking a love interest if he looks like a frog). I admire the fictionalized autobiography as a rule, and I loved how Shaw was able to pick out this one short period of time for his piece.
Also, the craft here is truly notable. Shaw is an innovator, playing with the number of frames per page, placement, including maps, picking out mundane acts... I could go on. Truly admirable and affecting, even though the drawings themselves aren't particularly accessible or beautiful at first glance.
For one thing, this seemed pretty blatantly autobiographical. The title infers self-inspection, and one character (and only one) is depicted as having the head of a frog in all but one frame (where he is asking a love interest if he looks like a frog). I admire the fictionalized autobiography as a rule, and I loved how Shaw was able to pick out this one short period of time for his piece.
Also, the craft here is truly notable. Shaw is an innovator, playing with the number of frames per page, placement, including maps, picking out mundane acts... I could go on. Truly admirable and affecting, even though the drawings themselves aren't particularly accessible or beautiful at first glance.
Read
June 15, 2017The book starts s-l-o-w-l-y, but stay with it, because in part 2 what began with isolated pieces weaves a compelling picture of how families fragment and regather. By the end, both the reader and the characters have experienced alchemical changes. Much of the book’s charm is in that slowness as it documents the daily, forgettable dialog that cements relationships.
10 days after I put down the book I got the joke of the title. Self-indulgent metafictional navel-gazing with literal interstitial exploration. Did I include enough buzzwords? And it works. At least it worked for this reader, partly because of the slow burn it ignited in the back of my brain.
I read this book after having seen Dash Shaw’s vibrant animated film, “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.�
10 days after I put down the book I got the joke of the title. Self-indulgent metafictional navel-gazing with literal interstitial exploration. Did I include enough buzzwords? And it works. At least it worked for this reader, partly because of the slow burn it ignited in the back of my brain.
I read this book after having seen Dash Shaw’s vibrant animated film, “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.�
September 21, 2008
A friend had recommended I read everything Dash Shaw had ever done. I started on his bewildering earlier books THE MOTHER'S MOUTH and GODDESS HEAD, but I put them both aside when I learned BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON had arrived. This is by far the best graphic novel I've read in several years, impressionistic, textured, synechdotal (?). Whatever. It's incredible. I've been putting this book, at once cosmic and deeply personal, in the hands of everyone I know who likes graphic novels. (and also, Dash, thanks for the warning to take breaks while reading. If it hadn't been for that I would have ruined a nights sleep finishing it in one go.)
September 30, 2020
Qualcuno ha detto “come un romanzo di Franzen�, io direi forse più “come in un film di Baumbach�, ma comunque l’elevazione di questo fumetto al canone del “classico americano contemporaneo� non è troppo azzardata, al netto delle differenze fra medium e medium. Il tono del racconto convince, così come certe invenzioni sui personaggi (uno dei protagonisti è sempre ritratto come un animale, non rivelo qui quale) e sul contesto (le finte onomatopee che danno voce a oggetti e movimenti). Senza dubbio un autore da scoprire, che contribuisce a rendere il fumetto sempre più “maturo�.
March 1, 2015
Genius east coast family drama. Comics wizardry.
February 11, 2017
Muy humano y con capacidad de movilizar. Es altamente cinematográfico, un placer de leer y dejarse contar la historia.
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