She’s From Away

When we moved to Halifax we found out that we were “Upper Canadians”, or more generally “come from aways”. Apparently we will never shed this distinction and become Maritimers, but Sarah has a chance.

We’re not the only people to have this kind of experience, of course, and now there’s even a weekly comic strip that’s nominally about it (although I suspect it will grow into a broader spread of autobiographic observation). The strip runs in The Coast, Halifax’s free weekly, on Thursdays but is also being serialized on the web by it’s creator as each print edition appears, so that people not lucky enough to live in Halifax can follow it. Last week was the first one, and tomorrow will be the second:

That creator is, of course, Hope Larson, who got a lot of attention last year for her book Salamander Dream. You should totally buy a copy 0f that, but if you need more convincing you can check out the Secret Friend Society website, where Hope serialized the work before it was published, and where you can still read the entire work online. (While you’re there, you can also check out the serialization of Jellaby, by Kean Soo. Read the shorts too–“You are being irrational fleshling. Would you like some Pocky?”)

Hope has a new book, Gray Horses, coming out soon. You can read about it and see some preview images at the publisher’s site. Here’s one:

Anyway, I encourage you to check out the strip for the next few weeks. I’m betting you will be hooked. And I’m not just saying that because Hope’s husband is often in my poker game 🙂