Time Under Tension

M.S. Harkness is graduating from art school in Minneapolis and facing a crossroads in life. She has a strained relationship with her mother, a sexually abusive father on parole, and is in love with an aspiring MMA fighter who mostly hangs out with her to get high and already has a girlfriend and career prospects with a fight promoter. An art career feels untenable -- as one professor tells her, "Don't expect to get by on this fucked-up broke girl shit." She decides to get a personal trainer's certificate -- it seems like a feasible and sensible career option -- but continues to dabble as a sex worker and weed dealer because the money is too irresistible. With idle hands due to no classes or full-time work, M.S. has ample time to aimlessly fuck around -- or, to get her shit together. "I want to be better, I want to be stable and solid. I don't want to keep aimlessly shifting between untenable situations." Harkness's bold, precise black-and-white cartooning and eye for storytelling invites the reader in, while her sharp wit and naturalist ear as a writer takes it away from there. Never didactic, always real, Time Under Tension is a spirited and assured work of graphic memoir.

Product details

• Authors: M.S. Harkness
• Publisher: Fantagraphics
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 24.10.2023
• EAN: 9781683968962
• ISBN: 978-1-68396-896-2
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Fiction > Comic, cartoon, humour, satire; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, Graphic Novels, COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Humorous, COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Nonfiction / Biography & Memoir, COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Contemporary Women, Graphic novel & Comic book: types