Vera Bushwack

By Sig Burwash. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. 

Softcover, 236 pages, Colour, 2024. 

A uniquely thrilling and emotive fantasy ride along a sea-bordered highway

The wondrous rustic landscape of Nova Scotia bursts from the page in Vera Bushwack, where reality gladly gives way to fantastical flights of fancy before gently coming back down to earth. A chainsaw fires up and Drew’s vision blurs. Their body vibrates alive with the whrrr of the engine, the whiff of gas. Drew dissolves as their alter-ego, Vera Bushwack, takes charge. Assless-chaps-wearing, unflinching Vera slashes through thick trunks, felling trees righteously from the back of a majestic steed.

Vera’s here to help, of course. Drew needs to clear the land for their future cabin in the woods. And if it weren’t for Vera’s brazenness, Drew may, ironically, fall reliant on others to learn self-reliance. Nevertheless, men enter Drew’s orbit, all too eager to explain how things work—an aggravating occurrence that comes crashing into Drew as dependably as the nearby ocean waves.

Joy, anger, grief, and self-acceptance ripple through these pages with Sig Burwash’s hilariously expressive pencil drawings and flair for buoyant watercolors. Approaching something like liberation, our protagonist comes to terms with past traumas, boundaries, and the many expressions of themself.

"Vera Bushwack is a perfectly fully formed comics debut, like Athena from the head of Zeus. But that is not entirely true—Sig Burwash’s prowess in illustration and long CV of gallery work precedes them, and that skill transfers so well here. When the rigid panel grid gives way, it is most likely to explode into furious figures on bucking horses, or of quiet emotion enveloped in the protection of nature. And it is a story with a lot of those feelings to sift through, sit with, or chainsaw apart (if you will). I hope it is the first of many books we see from Sig Burwash."—Kate Beaton

“A gorgeously rendered meditative love story between a human and their dog. An intimate and wild ride through a lush landscape chock full of chainsaws, wild horses, magical dreamscapes, deep friendship, trauma, masturbation, cabin building how tos and assless chaps. What more could you ask for?? I loved spending these pages with Drew and Pony as they build a life and a home together.”—Gaby Hoffmann

"I didn't know how much my heart needed to read a story about a chainsaw-wielding chaps-wearing cabin-building non-binary hero until my eyes found the first pages of this book. A tough on the outside romp through the bush, tree-felling, tool maintenance, rural life, and so-called men's work that reveals a tender story about the insides of loneliness, sexual violence, and building a model for progressive masculinity at the same time as you build yourself a home. You might even learn a few things about framing up that tiny house you've always dreamed about."—Ivan Coyote

"If it’s possible for a graphic novel to feel ambient (think Kelly Reichardt’s films), that’s happening here. In a story about building a home, expressed through gender and the acquisition of practical skills, Sig Burwash flings big spinning elements of architecture at the viewer like a deep video within the frames. It’s unsettling and lush, their landscapes tingle and the narrator’s cowboy fantasies swirl away from squares and plans into a wet animal realm where all their hopes become one."—Eileen Myles

"Readers will relish this fresh and unforced celebration of a wild and precious life."—Publishers Weekly