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“Klaus” by Richard Short, published by Nobrow Press.

I discovered R.Short’s work relatively recently but it was love at first sight, his strips are hugely original & inventive and they have the warmth & intelligence you rarely see in any modern art form. Klaus is often compared to Peanuts & Moomin, which is not surprising—all these strips have great humanity about the often unfortunate stories, an absurd love of life and all that is flawed in human nature.

Richard’s writing is delightfully poetic, intelligent and beautifully paced, each strip reads elegantly and refuses to grow old. I’ve already gone through the book a few times and I’m sure I’ll revisit it in the future. Very much like Moomin, it’s a source of great comfort for me and (I hope) many others, unlike Tove Jansson, Richard Short is still alive and is producing his strips at a very admirable rate. Let us all be thankful for that, ok.

The book is a striking beauty as all Nobrow products, the design & production is absolutely brilliant. Also check out Richard’s blog, on top of comics there’s his illustration work, including writer portraits, the sole reason why I started doing my little writer sketches (well, Dustin Harbin & John Martz also inspired me to practice that).