Excuse Me: Cartoons, Complaints, and Notes to Self collects more than 500 of New Yorker contributor Liana Finck's stand-alone pieces. It has all the pathos of her previous book, Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir, plus an added perk: laughs.
The book's contents, largely culled from Instagram, have been bundled into eight themed chapters. In "Animals," a snake prepares to use a typewriter with only one key: an S. In "Strangeness / Shyness / Sadness," a thought bubble beside a mermaid reads, "I want wings." Finck's images, which get a two-color treatment here, are stark and diminutive, calling to mind a trepidatious Jules Feiffer. Finck's lettering is so bracingly beautiful that it's easy to miss that some of her pieces are text-only. One page hosts what looks like a flyer bearing these words: "Engagement!!! Engagement party!!! Bachelorette party!!! Bridal shower!!! Wedding!!!!!! Honeymoon!!!! Pregnant!!!!! Baby shower!!!!!! Baby!!!!!!! The end."
Finck's talent is for clanging the bell of wry recognition, especially for those who are, like her, young women navigating the single life. For "Things I 'Liked' for Men," Finck lists 40-odd items that include "Polyamory / Scuba diving / Hegel / Gatorade." Heterosexuality gone wrong is also the subject of some of Excuse Me's most biting cartoons, as when the scales of justice show the words "He assaulted me" significantly outweighed by "No I didn't."
In her piece "Things I'd Like to Be Told," Finck lists "Whether to be serious or light." Excuse Me's audacious charm is that it's both. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer