Tara Booth punctuates jokes about her inner life with an eye-popping two-page painting of nature’s glories. Credit: Sonny Figueroa/The New York Times
“When you look at my butthole, it’s as if you’ve found a halo, dropped by an angel on its way back to heaven.” swoons Tara Booth in one of the many appallingly funny and beautiful comics in her generous collection, PROCESSING: 100 COMICS THAT GOT ME THROUGH IT (D&Q, 396 pp., $24.95). Messy moments tend to be punctuated by two-page spreads showcasing Booth at her most virtuosic; she revels in the contrast, painting herself in jokey peach blobs on one page and then rendering a panorama of exotic animals in shocking jewel tones arranged so perfectly that the colors never seem to run together.
Booth has a flair for making the reader laugh at her pain. “Wow you look amazing, sooo skinny!” breathes a friend. “Thanks I’ve been super stressed out and using my eating disorder to cope,” Booth-in-the-comic replies. She’s also a part of her own mosaic of brightly-colored impasto, albeit a part cursed with self-awareness. Some diarists want you to believe they make the world better or worse; Booth seems happiest simply making the world.