Gast

In this graphic novel by Carol Swain, a bird watcher investigates the disappearance of a rare bird, aided by talking dogs.

Helen is an amateur bird watcher and naturalist who lives in a rural community in Wales. When a local farmer Bill tells Helen that a rare bird named Emrys killed himself at Cuddig farm, she decides to investigate. One of the dogs at the farm tells her, by way of explanation, that Emrys had no feathers and couldnt fly. She plucks an old cosmetic kit from a dumpster and discovers it belonged to Emrys. Inventorying the kits contents, she finds a spent .12 gauge shotgun shell. Her attempt to learn more about Emrys turns into a journey of self-discovery and ultimately a hard-fought reconciliation with the world as it is. Carol Swains Gast is the rare kind of contemporary graphic novel critics are conjuring when they exult over the promise of the art form a philosophically mature vision, uniquely executed by an artist wholly in control of her craft. In Gast, Helens inner life is slowly revealed through a mixture of naturalistic detail and phantasmagoric occurrences. Black & white