Vera Bushwack
Creator: Sig Burwash
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Publication Date: September 2024
In Vera Bushwack — cartoonist Sig Burwash’s debut graphic novel from earlier this year — our protagonist, Drew, is building themselves a new home. They are deep in a forest in Nova Scotia — fucking bugs! — with a plot of land and plans for a cabin. They are well-prepared to build this cabin, having taken time to learn construction, adopted a new dog, and done all of this very deliberately. But first, they must learn to safely use a chainsaw to clear the trees in the woods where their cabin will one day stand.
This drive to learn dangerous machinery is an engrossing narrative that runs throughout the book. There are scenes of characters discussing the literal danger of felling trees with a whirring blade, and these imbue the story with a tension that serves it well. It’s a person vs. nature narrative at a core level in this way. It is also the story of a major moment in Drew’s life, and as such it’s not without a bit of danger, as any major move in life stands to be.
In between the work to build a new home deep in nature, Burwash also gives readers so many wonderful and lush visual sequences built around their protagonist’s interiority. We watch as Drew spins across the pages, clad in assless chaps atop a powerful horse, wielding a chainsaw and lopping down all the trees and branches in their path. It’s a great use of comics to clue us in on how the action makes our character truly feel, and it makes for excellent cartooning that also speaks directly to the protagonist’s journey as well as broader themes around gender conformity, freedom and self.
It also melds seamlessly into the reality of the book. There are bits where the internal sequences take over and run for pages, and there are moments where they share space with other things happening in the physical world, giving us insight into not just what Drew is doing but how it’s making them see themselves, indeed be their authentic self.
And that was one of the things I loved most about this book. I felt so close to Drew as a character, as if I came away with a deep understanding of their experience with the world. There’s also something deeply relatable about wanting to get away from it all, but Vera Bushwack resists the urge to make moving to the woods a magical cure for everything. Drew must still deal with locals who misgender them, a creepy professor from their past with a romantic interest, and even a heartrending sequence in which their dog wanders away (don’t worry, the dog makes it back…phew).
The world of Vera Bushwack is well-drawn, complex, and real. It’s also deeply empathetic. Drew has a neighbor teaching them to safely use the chainsaw, who presents initially as a pretty standard sort of nature bro. As the book progresses, we slowly learn more about this character, about their own life and challenges and traumas. It’s not a proscriptive character either, not one meant to rap our knuckles and remind us everyone has their own story. No, this is just a real person being real, and I thought it was a very well done micro-arc that added quite a bit to an already excellent book.
In the end, Vera Bushwack is a stunning debut, an engrossing story that raises questions around freedom and self and actualization. Don’t miss it.
Vera Bushwack is available now from Drawn & Quarterly.
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