Selected for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016
Borb
by Jason Little (
Shutterbug Follies
,
Motel Art Improvement Service
) is the story of Borb, a severely alcoholic homeless man. Borb is a downtrodden urban Candide whose misfortunes pile up at an alarming rate. The narrative is presented as a series of daily newspaper strips as the author draws on the long and complex tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond archetype. At once hilarious, horrifying, and full or heart,
depicts the real horrors specific to present-day urban homelessness.
is Little's most complex and challenging work.
Jason Little
studied photography at Oberlin College, and now resides in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their daughter Zelie Goldberg-Little. He has been drawing cartoons since he was a child. In addition to acclaimed
and
, he also created the Xeric Award–winning
Jack's Luck Runs Out
, as well as a number of short works for various cartoon anthologies.