Mark June 20th off on your calendar

The Latitudes Storytelling Festival is up and at them again this year in Victoria Park. And among their selection will be Mariko Tamaki!

I read Tamaki's graphic novel Skim when it was distributed infrequently and on an issues basis through Kiss Machine Magazine, now since defunct. Actually I missed the very last issue so had to wait until the complete story was issued in hardcover about a year ago. And what a story.

Beautiful, haunting, with a methodic pace, Skim is tops.

Set in 1994, Skim (Kimberly Keiko) and her friend Lisa are outcasts at school, self-imposed. Disgusted by the drama they see around them after a schoolmate has died (I'm pretty sure this is the plot, it HAS been a year since I read it), Skim and Lisa hibernate socially until graduation.

Then Skim meets Ms. Archer, a supply teacher and a babe and her world goes drama-rama.

The illustration is stark black and white and has the grace of Japanese prints. Skim also just won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Book. And she's a cool lookin' lady.

Mandy