The green hand and other stories

Nicole Claveloux's short stories-originally published in the late 1970s and never before collected in English-are among the most beautiful comics ever drawn: whimsical, intoxicating, with the freshness and splendour of dreams. In hallucinatory colour or elegant black-and-white, she brings us into lands that are strange but oddly recognisable, filled with murderous grandmothers and lonely city dwellers, bad-tempered vegetables and walls that are surprisingly easy to fall through. In the title story, written with Edith Zha, a new houseplant becomes the first step in an epic journey of self-discovery and a witty fable of modern romance-complete with talking shrubbery, a wised-up genie, and one very depressed bird. This selection, designed and introduced by Daniel Clowes, presents the full achievement of an unforgettable, unjustly neglected master of French comics.