Notes on a Case of Melancholia is truly an impressive book on all levels. I’m hoping now that this book is finished, it will mean Gurewitch’s return to PBF full time. My wrist started hurting thinking about the hours he spent carving these blocks. This unusual approach has fantastic results and gives the book a gothic, almost carnal, feel. Although this book deserves a better format of larger and embossed pages (if possible), you can still make out every scratch on each panel. Every page is to be studied to truly get the full effect. It took Gurewitch years, but he painstakingly carved the artwork of Notes on a Case of Melancholia onto woodblocks. But really, it’s the artwork we should be talking about here. It is most definitely a dark book, and for fans, it’s a perfect extension for the dark content you find in his comics. Notes on a Case of Melancholia is a short and straightforward story, full of Gurewitch’s twisted sense of humor. It’s taken years for him to complete it but the results are downright astounding. Even more impressive is how Gurewitch has laid low (voluntarily or not) for the past several years, almost abandoning his wildly popular webcomic, to focus on an ambitious new project: Notes on a Case of Melancholia. Clearly, PBF is the creation of a disturbed mind, and as far as comedy comics are concerned, the current gold standard in my book. I’ve been reading it for more than 10 years and am still genuinely in awe of how this webcomic consistently excels both in its writing and art. When it comes to webcomics it’s hard to find a better equalizer than Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship. Nicholas Gurewitch’s Notes on a Case of Melancholia, or: A Little Death is a very darkly amusing tale which you can read in no time at all, both of which fit with Gorey’s style, and may not leave much of an impression story-wise but the art.

The whole book looks like this:Īnd it’s a good thing the art’s so good because that’s pretty much all there is - this is a mostly silent comic so there’s not much to read! The designs of Death’s family members were cool, Little Death was very cute and the use of the colour purple was masterful. Scratchy, spindly, spidery-black art fill the pages - the gothic look of this one is perfect. I loved the art so damn much - it’s a gorgeous-looking book, perfect for the season.

I’ve never understood the appeal of Edward Gorey and can’t say I’ve enjoyed any of his books but I quite liked Gurewitch’s pastiche of his style here.

Like he did in his previous book The Perry Bible Fellowship, Nicholas Gurewitch adopts the artistic and storytelling style of a recognisable comics talent - in this instance Edward Gorey - for his latest comic, Notes on a Case of Melancholia, or: A Little Death.

A father seeks out a psychiatrist to unburden himself of his fears for his child - do they have what it takes to follow in his, and his family’s, footsteps? Also the father is DEATH!

Notes on a case of melancholia