Keeping Two, pgs. 139, 140, 141 (2022)

Content warning: cartoon depictions of self-harm..

This three-page sequence from Jordan Crane’s late 2022 masterwork Keeping Two (Fantagraphics) showcases one of the formal conceits of the book: overlapping moments within overlapping narratives.

The sequence depicts a woman who has recently suffered a miscarriage engaging in various forms of suicidal ideation as her husband attempts to engage her in banal conversation.

These characters, however, are also fictional characters in a novel being read by the main character of the story, who isn’t able to locate his wife after she runs out for a quick errand. The novel he is reading while he waits for his wife to return amplifies his anxiety and he begins to imagine his wife perishing under increasingly dire circumstances. Readers, too, will also read this book in the context of their own relationships with their loved ones and the everyday worries that can fire the imagination.

The confident, minimalist line Crane uses in Keeping Two is ideally suited for a story like this, which flattens the distinction between catastrophic and ordinary moments. Few artists could so sensitively depict both types of moments in a story.

A quick final word about Jordan Crane, one of the most influential yet unheralded cartoonists of the last 25 years. His relatively slow pace of production plays against him in this regard. I’m happy that he’s finally finished his book. Based on what he brings to the table as a storyteller and artist in Keeping Two, I hope it won’t be another 20 years before he produces another one.