I knew Danica Novgorodoff was a talented designer based on her work on the First Second fall catalog. She’s also a wonderful comics creator in her own right, as illustrated by her mini-comic, A Late Freeze.
Novgorodoff combines a marvelous design sensibility with equal portions of absurdity and romance in this short tale of love between a bear and a robot. With the exception of a few well-chosen captions and bits of dialogue, images tell the story here.
They’re incredibly varied in style and tone. They show wintry natural landscapes, tawdry commercial sprawl, tense action, and tender moments of connection, but they always feel linked and of a piece. Novgorodoff informs them all with warmth and a decidedly quirky sense of humor.
A Late Freeze is a really marvelous example of an illustrated narrative. All of its elements come together to serve Novgorodoff’s unlikely love story. I’d offer more specifics about the plot, but a significant portion of the pleasure is watching it unfold, and I’m disinclined to spoil it for anyone.
And if you need any additional persuasion, A Late Freeze won the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics over the weekend.
(You can view preview images and purchase A Late Freeze at Novgorodoff’s web site.)