Vagabond Comics & Books

"Flop Sweat" #1 by Lance Ward



5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages. Full-color covers and interior. Saddle-stitched $6 Cover price.



Flop Sweat is an ongoing serialization of Lance Ward’s autobiographical comics arranged chronologically. Previous self-published collections of these comics were featured in The Best American Comics. Ward’s life has been rife with pitfalls: abandonment, addiction, mental illness, s*xual assault, arrest, attempted suicide, and even a death experience (not “near-death”, he was clinically deceased!). Yet, through it all he has somehow maintained a positivity about and loyalty to his art, even after crushing his drawing hand!



This first issue covers Ward’s preteen years including a devastating accident, his parents’ divorce and mom’s subsequent dive back into dating, bullying, shoplifting and more!



from Robert Kirby's TCJ review on 4/20/20:

Ward is a talented artist who creates and publishes comics in a variety of styles, including many that are much more polished than Flop Sweat (some of his work was even featured in the 2016 edition of Best American Comics). He explains Flop Sweat’s off-the-cuff aesthetic in a brief introduction: “I did it in a loose, scribbly style, as I was operating on pure recollection. I felt that had I penciled them first, I would have lost the essence of my raw memories.” I back this choice wholeheartedly; whatever the drawings lack in refinement is made up for in their immediacy and sincerity. There’s something about this approach to art that I have always found appealing, an anyone-can-do-this aesthetic that feels like an invitation to do just that. There are a few scattered panels where we can see Ward cramming the text into the panel, underscoring his resolve to communicate by every means necessary through this improvisation. And like certain other memoir cartoonists such as Tatiana Gill or Max Clotfelter, there’s a sense that Ward’s telling his story straight, with no adornments—less confessional than pure catharsis.



Ward is possessed of a forceful and uncompromising voice. Autobio and memoir comics fans, please take note."