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Chrysanthemum Under the Waves is a book of mourning from Sound of Snow Falling author, Maggie Umber.
In the nine comics collected here, Umber grieves for the loss of her former self – a wife, a co-founder of a successful publishing company, and a person with good health living in a pre-pandemic world. Over the course of nearly 300 pages, she says goodbye to all she held most dear. In Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Umber uses the demon lover theme, first as a way to hold on to her past, and finally, as a way to let it go.
Reviews
Umber (Sound of Snow Falling) presents nine unsettling graphic shorts that delve into darkness, grief, and the author’s fascination with James Harris, a demonic figure from a 17th-century ballad. The collection eschews a standard comics-style narrative in favor of evoking an eerie and contemplative vibe, through ephemeral black and gray story fragments and portraits. In “Rine,” a faceless man and woman marry in an abandoned Victorian mansion before the man fades into shadow, leaving the woman alone. A woman on a ship falls in love with a cloven-footed man in “The Devil Is a Hell of a Dancer,” only to drown in the sea on which they sail. A ghost rows a lonely, lost woman in a small boat in “The Rock.” Harris haunts the collection, showing up as a suit-clad suitor, a dapper lover, and the devil himself. Umber’s gestural sketches with gothic tones add to the spectral atmosphere. Fans of Frank Gogel’s Grief anthology will find a comfortable discomfort here. (Self-published)
