A comiXologist recommends:
Sea Urchin

by: Eric Arroyo

Knetzger has honed her ability to express feelings and ideas beneath the skin. Her cartooning communicates depression and internal challenges in ways that highlight the empathic power of comics. While the earnest and pained laughs throughout the book gently guide the reader into sympathy, the work doesn’t act like a private diary to list one’s problems in. It pulls you into another person’s fears and insecurities, making them tangible. Knetzger’s abstract imagery is not used as a disruptive veil between author and reader; instead, it carries a specificity and intention that captures the immaterial sensations that a camera could never show you.

Laura’s drawings carry a raw honesty, with each line appearing precise and full of intention. I’m taken aback by how expressive and unpredictable her drawings are, iterating upon and transforming the iconic imagery that forms her style, while still being focused and clear above all else. From above, Knetzger’s pages can look loose and improvised, but her strength in communicating emotion comes from a marriage of directed, formal expertise with honest drawing.

Sea Urchin is a portal into another person’s pain, shared with a passionate sense of whimsy and a reminder that even if we never recover, we can still keep growing. Knetzger’s cartooning can help you understand and feel the burdens that other people carry into their everyday lives, and you may find some solace in seeing your own sea urchin reflected back at you.

Sea Urchin reminds me that I’m not alone, and I’d climb a mountain for that.

[Read Sea Urchin on comiXology]

Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.