Monday, February 12, 2007

The Only Child by Warren Craghead, story by Erin Pringle

Warren Craghead’s illustration of Erin Pringle’s “The Only Child,” appearing in Barrelhouse, is nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Warren sent the SIZE MATTERS office a copy of the 20-page story, so lucky readers get to see something cool instead of that damn picture of Kate and I gearing up for the Super Bowl.

Warren Craghead created the lovely and amazing mini-comics Jefferson Forest, Thickets, and Jefferson Estates. (Each link, has a couple sample pages courtesy of USS Catastrophe.) I’ve always enjoyed Warren’s work for its restraint. He consistently blindsides you with the quiet nature of his faltering, often disappearing, line.

The work here is different. It’s more substantial, less fleeting. The lines are more solid, the structure of things doesn’t fritter away like it does in much of Warren’s mini-comics work. But “The Only Child” still has that unmistakable charm of the minis.
The children in “The Only Child” accompany their father to his office, only his office is anything but typical. It has drawers and filing cabinets, but they’re not filled with paper.

Grab your own copy of Barrelhouse to get the full story. It’s definitely worth any cover price to see 20 pages of Warren’s work. You can also check out his blog, Drawer for more of his work.

I’ll leave you with this little doodle from the back of the accompanying note: This perfectly captures what I like about Warren's work.

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