Check Out Kat Leyh

Back at C2E2, I picked up a small book called Pancakes from Yeti Press. It's by Kat Leyh and, despite only being a seven page story, it was one of the best single issues I picked up at the show. I've been meaning to get around to a proper review of it, but haven't been able to. Let's just say that it's a small moment of happiness between two people that is just brilliantly executed on several levels. And I'm totally not doing the book justice here. Reminds me a bit of Terry Moore.

But then I picked up Leyh's series Bird Witch this weekend at CAKE. It's got a slightly different look to it, but many of the same sensibilities. Very positive vibe presenting gender and race issues as complete non-issues. Like how half the cast of Red Dwarf were black but that was NEVER brought up in the show? People are people, and it didn't matter how much pigment you had in your skin. Same idea in Bird Witch -- only with gender and race. (I do wish "Uncle Ollie" could have been "Aunt Sally" or a non-descript "Cousin Chris" or something, but that's only for one short scene towards the end of issue #3 and I may have to revise that opinion depending on how Uncle Isaac gets portrayed in subsequent issues.) Again, I'm totally not doing these books justice.

But Leyh's is not a name I'd heard before a couple months ago, and I suspect that it's a name not many of you are familiar with either. So I wanted to call attention to a very deserving artist, and I really hope to see much more of her comics work in the future! (Publisher RJ Casey tells me she's working on a sequel/continuation of Pancakes and the Bird Witch story isn't done yet either.) You can find samples of Leyh's work on her website, though I urge you to pick up print copies if you're able. Fantastic stuff!

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