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An insider account of the European migrant crisis.
About the author
Veronica Post is an award-winning graphic novelist and multi-disciplinary artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She attended university for Philosophy and Fine Arts, before moving to Montreal where she completed her studies in cabinetmaking, and discovered the DIY culture of self-published zines. She joined a zine distro and began creating comics, while following a path towards becoming a furniture-maker.
Her path took a turn when she left Montreal for the allure of travel. She spent 8 years exploring Canada, America and Eastern Europe, where she began working on what would become “Fugitive Days”, published by Conundrum Press and awarded with the Doug Wright “Nipper” award in 2020.
She has shown her work at the Monastiraki Gallery in Montreal, the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, and the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax. She has been a guest presenter in Canada Performs! Hal-Con, the Festival International de Bande Dessinee Angouleme, the Afterwords Literary Festival, and the Toronto Comics Arts Festival.
Today, she is the wood studio technician at the Centre for Craft, where she taught furniture making for 7 years, and she continues to create comics based on her life with her characters Langosh and Peppi, and looks forward to publishing more books exploring their world, and her own.
Summary
This debut graphic novel tells the story of the 2015 European “migrant crisis” in Budapest, Hungary through the perspective of Langosh and Peppi, a vagabond and his faithful dog. The pair brings to mind an older, down-on-their-luck Tintin and Snowy with adventures to match. A semi-autobiographical work based on Post’s own experiences, Langosh and Peppi escape the pressures of conformity by exploring out-of-the-way places, where they stumble on the vestiges of the war torn region’s hidden past. We follow them through streets, alleys, tunnels, train stations, cheap rooms, abandoned buildings and the countryside and witness the effects of various social, political and interpersonal situations through their eyes.
The story illustrates a sort of “Huckleberry Finn” existence, of travelling freely with no responsibilities except finding food and shelter, and meeting fascinating people along the way. However, Langosh and Peppi soon discover the stark difference between choosing a transient lifestyle, and being forced from one’s home and country. We meet people whose tragic personal struggles are enmeshed with the national struggles that continue to divide and destroy so many lives, see families torn apart due to ignorance and fear, and witness the disturbing global rise of nationalism. Influenced by Hideo Azuma, Joe Sacco, and Julie Doucet, Post examines the modern dilemma of what it means to be human and to call a place home.
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