Meredith Gran’s long running “Octopus Pie” has evolved into one of the most genuine and honest cartoons online. Set right after college and before careers really take place, the comic focuses on a handful of kids in their early 20s who’ve come of age but aren’t sure where to go next. This new collection reprints everything we’ve seen in the first Villard edition, except it gets rid of that green tone Gran decided to print in, instead preserving the black linework. For that alone, this version is infinitely better.
Written and Illustrated by Meredith Gran
In this first collected volume of the OCTOPUS PIE series, we follow grumpy twenty-something Eve and her stoner roommate Hanna as they navigate post-college life. They’ll take on crazed childhood rivals, troubling art scenes, the discomfort of exes, and maybe even… friendship? All this and more in the fictional, totally made-up city of Brooklyn.
“Well paced and grounded, ranging from funny ha-ha to odd observational humor, OCTOPUS PIE’s ultimate hooks are its flawed, but genuine characters.”-BOOKLIST
“Octopus Pie” is one of those stories that if you read at the exact right moment in your life, it’s going to stick with you forever. And even if you find it at the maybe-not-right time, it remains a work you’ll appreciate. Meredith Gran’s comedy/drama of a bunch of Brooklyn twenty-somethings trying to figure out their lives is loaded with jokes and emotions and random hookups. Despite originally publishing these in a daily strip format — which is still going strong, though everything will wrap up in a year or so — Gran allows her characters to grow and mature, to make decisions whose consequences won’t be seen until much much later, and that makes for a fluid reading experience. This new collection, now published through Image Comics, assembles the first two years’ worth of cartoons in all their awkward, honest, hysterical, cringe-worthy, and truthful glory.
The story centers around Eve Ning and her roommate Hanna. Eve works at an organic grocery store while Hanna runs a business selling baked goods (literally) to local vendors. She also spends a lot of her days getting high while Eve spends it seething at the world. The stories contained here involve Eve and Hanna attending hipster parties, dealing with traffic life in the city, and mostly figuring out how they want to handle themselves going forward. Eve spends a lot of this volume trying to identify with other people; she’s never exactly sure what she wants, but she definitely knows what she doesn’t want. “Octopus Pie” vol. 1 covers a lot of the same territory as HBO and Lena Dunham’s Girls, but without characters who are nearly as off-putting. Or rich. Or white.
“We’re using superficial gimmicks to hide the fact we’re boring, miserable people,” Eve says to a bunch of hipsters, standing in the middle of the room with a parakeet on her shoulder.
From the start, Gran’s allowed the characters to act and react authentically, and not always in the best light. If it seems like she’s thrown in a wise guru character, Gran subverts the type not too much later by having them make some ridiculous life choice. It’s an identifiable story, and readers at this age might discover something that helps explain the world to them, while those who are exiting their twenties can empathize and hopefully overcome their own mistakes.
So Gran’s scripts have always felt true and real and honest, but it’s her cartooning that sees a dramatic evolution, even in this collection. At first, the strip was charming, with easily readable character designs and simple compositions solely meant to deliver the joke. She hits on some fantastic expressions and gestures, but as the story goes along, she refines these and the characters all start moving like people. One of the biggest advancements is when she switches from the clean and clinical digitally drawn lines to an ink pen. This happens around the Renaissance Faire chapter. Gran’s not ashamed to hide her experimentation with a different drawing tool, and it makes the artwork more lively and engaging. When Will punches out some other rival merchant, that energy flows through with so much more power than some slaps and smacks in the digitally drawn lines.
Continued belowGran continually pushes herself, whether it’s putting more into the frame (like a scene with Eve stuck on the freeway) or letting the images alone tell the story — that masterful last chapter. She tones it with manga ziptones (the comic later switches to color), and she knows exactly how to convey depth, both physical and emotional.
“Octopus Pie” vol. 1 provides a nice, confident lead-in to the Gran’s Brooklyn. As a cartoonist, Gran doesn’t allow herself to grow stagnant with the material and she challenges herself to find new ways to deliver the story. It’s clear she loves all these characters, but she also loves them for their flaws and mistakes, and her willingness to embrace those flaws lend the book with more authenticity, truth, and reliability. “Octopus Pie” Vol. 1 is great, and the series only gets better, and it’s well worth diving into.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – a strong start, especially for a cartoonist growing with more confidence with each passing strip.
Correction:
An earlier version of this article mistakenly claimed the green-toned edition of the book was from TopatoCo. It was actually published by Villard.
