Schappi

By Anna Haifisch. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Softcover, 92 pages, Colour, 2022. 

A collection of absurdist comics short stories navigating etiquette and diplomacy within the vicissitudes of the animal kingdom: from proud ostriches to racist mice, and delicious-looking weasels.

In Schappi, Anna Haifisch blurs the boundaries between humans and animals in subtle and absurd ways. In these five collected comics short stories, carnivores and herbivores meet at a disastrous congress of the animals; we get to know a merciless, art-collecting lizard; and are introduced to dancing ostriches and a melancholy, meditating octopus. With singular humor and charm, and a brilliant eye for color, Haifisch tells of the everyday struggle from the prairie to the drawing table, of self-imposed isolation and friendship. At the end of the day, there is hope, even for crying weasels. Haifisch's wry sense of humor reveals many truths lying underneath her absurdist wit. Printed in five gorgeous Pantone inks, Schappi will shine from a bookshelf like a mad husky's iris.

With dry wit and understated visual flair, Haifisch finds new things to say in an age-old anthropomorphic tradition." — Publishers Weekly

"Haifisch's work is very funny [with] a charming, scratchy line and a faintly unsettling colour palette." — The Quietus