Review: Estrela d'Oeste

How about an autobiographical wonder of exceptional beauty to warm your heart with love and respect for a devoted, hard-working mother, one Walkiria Gutierrez Larkin in art as beautiful as the souls responsible? You will want Estrela d'Oeste by Ashling Larkin.

Ashling Larkin AKA Ashling Draws is a Brazilian-Irish comic artist, illustrator and educator based in Scotland. A graduate of Dundee University with a BDes degree in Animation and a Master's in Comics & Graphic Novels. Ashling is a lecturer in animation at DJCAD and co-founder of CHIP Collective. "Comics Help Inform People" is a collective with the aim of using comics as an accessible medium to share information. Ashlings previous comics include Pandemic Tales, The Enchanted Book, Hourly Comic Day 2023 and Aonarán to name a few.

This one's being published by the frankly amazing Eve Greenwood at the multi-award-nominated micropublisher Quindrie Press, along with "I Let Love Destroy Me and All I Got Was This Stupid Comic" and "Ways To Kill My Mother's Lover (With Limited Pocket Money and Minimal Mess)". Quindrie Press is based in Edinburgh and does great work providing creators the opportunity to publish passion project comics that struggle to find a home. They also donate a portion of PDF sales to different charities and organisations that support marginalised communities in Scotland. What beautiful people, now let's have a review.

So, let's start with the art. Ashling Larkin presents captivating art with a Romantic style of loving comic book presentation. The economy of art and thoughtful layouts make this one a sublime treat for the eyes. It's certainly one of, if not the most beautiful, autobiographical comics I've read. The art glows with a warmth and admiration, a warmth mirrored in the wonderful colour palette. There are gorgeous page after gorgeous page of non-traditional panel formatting that is frankly inspirational, and then the art itself just flows straight to the heart.

This art creates a level of intimacy in subject matter and design that will flow through you and feel like a personal invitation to a family dinner. This is a very beautiful book in every way that matters and a treat of an example of the medium. Ashling Larkin is a gifted artist introducing us to the magic art that captures her heritage through a window of romanticised realism. Art to warm your heart, surmised and adored. Let's move on.

Estrela d'Oeste is, as mentioned, autobiographical, but the story is as much of Ashling's mother, Walkiria Gutierrez Larkin, as it is Ashling's and the formation, understanding, and embracing of her Brazilian heritage. It's the story of Ashling's identity and the development of her relationship with her mother right up to her sad passing. Pages like "Bloody Foreigner" and "English or Nothing" offer moments of frank observation and deep personal revelation.

Throughout this book, in fact, there are many moments of beautiful honesty that shed light on a woman's battle with identity through heritage and just how much it meant to her mother. The strongest emotion that comes through with this one is love. Love and admiration from a devoted daughter. Eve Greenwood has once again helped an exceptional artist tell a vital story. Vital for creator and audience to relish and live for a moment in a story of love. It's just beautiful.

Oh no! It's italic, so please accept this reminder. Firstly, if you like the sound of this book, go and back it; it deserves it. Secondly, if you like the work done here, please donate to our Ko-fi to keep us ticking along.

For fans of autobiographical comics, love, identity, heritage, the beautiful significance of a church and its foliage in a municipality of the state of Sāu Paulo, Brazil, reclamation of a xenophobic term, Walkiria Guterrez Larkin, and art that is just stunning.

To get your copy, Quindrie Press has an ongoing Kickstarter here, with great rewards for backing this one, along with another two books, "I Let Love Destroy Me and All I Got Was This Stupid Comic" and "Ways To Kill My Mother's Lover (With Limited Pocket Money and Minimal Mess)". For more of Ashling, check out the website here. Or on BlueSky.

Rating: 5/5