Guest Edited Comics

Flower Memory

by Sarah Shaw

The text reads "Like an oil painting, framed by the windshield, forsythia in bloom." Yellow trees show through a car windshield.

The text reads "I recall five years ago" above a painting of a hand holding three film photo strips. The negatives display nature scenes, similar to the previous slides. Beneath the pictures, the text says "young girl, new license, on our country road."

A painting of a black car driving on a country road. The road goes through green grass and trees. Ahead, there is a house. The text reads across the painting, "At the bend she crashed, into the telephone pole, gazing at flowers."

On the left side of the panel, a woman wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and red and white striped socks sits in a blue wing-backed chair in her living room with an open book in her hand, glancing out the window. Outside the window, there are flowers and bushes similar to the landscape of the previous scene. The text to the side says "Glimpse of flashing lights, huddled figures, wrecked bumper." On the right side, a small version of the woman jogs down a gray stretch of road beneath the text "I rushed to the scene."

On the left side, bees hover and fly around a jar of honey. The text says, "Or did they come to us? Like the beekeeper, who asked to use the land?" On the right side, a woman wearing purple stands on the shoulders of a large, gray human head. She opens the back of the head’s skull flap like it’s on a hinge and looks in. There seems to be paper, books, and other items within. The text says, "It was spring of 2020. Hard to trust my jumbled memory."

The scene changes, and a painting depicts tall green grass and flowers, yellow daffodils and red tulips. The text says, "It's no wonder the tulips and daffodils, only brought more wreckage."

On the left side, a Maine driver's license sits in the grass. It shows the face of a smiling, dark-haired woman. The text above it says "She was fine, just shaken." On the right side, a framed photo of a smiling woman with a very similar appearance. The text around it says, "We found her license in the grass, looked like mom."

A hooded figure wearing a rain jacket walks a dog on a leash along a small footbridge through a wet landscape. Trees and grass surround the puddle-covered path. It is raining. The text reads "Now I park, at the trailhead, near my new home. Get out, greet the downpour."

A close-up of the same figure walking her dog, but now she is shown from the front and smiling with no background behind her. The text above her says, "Cold and drenched, a stranger says, We're crazy dog people!" On the right side of the panel, one singular yellow flower. A plain, white background. Above it, it says "Spots of yellow."

Sarah Shaw is a cartoonist, illustrator, and professor. She makes autobiographical, socio-political, and historical comics with a handmade, decorative flair. She also crafts visual essays, zines, and comics poems that capture the everyday. Her visual narratives have been published in The Boston Globe, The Boston Art Review, The Rumpus, Rustica, Pencil Magazine, and more. She lives in Maine and teaches at Maine College of Art & Design.

FROM Volume 75, Number 2