At this point, Gabrielle Bell’s July diary comics are as tried-and-true a ritual as the bonding process between people and animals — so combining the two really only makes sense, doesn’t it?

That being said, as the asterisk on the cover of My Dog Ivy : A July Diary, her latest single-issue “floppy” from Uncivilized Books, makes clear, the titular golden retriever isn’t hers, but belongs to the Twin Cities couple she’s house-sitting for — whose identities should be easy enough to suss out with my having to say so, I would think. Not that Ivy is the only pet she’s charged to take care of, given that two cats are also “on the scene,” and not that watching after all these animals is the only thing that she has on her plate, given that there’s a garden to be tended, as well.

In any case, Bell’s facility for drawing and writing about our furry friends is already well-established, as is her intuitive understanding of life’s slow, well-nigh-indiscernible transitions. You know going into this that it probably won’t be an easy road for Bell and this decidedly neurotic dog to become friends — or at least allies — and that the task of watching after the home and its four-legged inhabitants will almost surely prove to be a bit more than she (or they) bargained for, but you also know that in the end, things will probably work out pretty nicely for everyone involved and that parting will, of course, be sweet sorrow. And all of this is, of course, true — but it’s watching the entire small-scale “saga” unfold in daily snippets that at least approximate “real time” that holds interest and even crosses the border into the fascinating.

I think what I love best about Bell’s diary comics is not only her emotive illustration, but her unvarnished, wry wit — she’s absolutely unafraid to poke fun at herself, but the way in which she does so eschews at worst, transcends at best, mere self-deprecation and honestly conveys her sense of place in the world, however hermetically-sealed that “world” in question may be. The small things that seem overwhelming at first gradually become less so, one-time mountains are reduced to molehills, and while all never was or will be “resolved,” the process of finding a kind of detente that just might result in occasional, if fleeting, moments of joy is what the whole struggle is all about.

It’s too reductive by half to say that the end result of all this is an utterly charming comic, but it’s nevertheless true — perhaps more than any other cartoonist working today, Bell has her finger on the pulse of her own existence in a way that precludes both overstatement (although not, crucially, exaggeration) and understatement. Her frankness can be a bit uncomfortable for new readers, I guess, but she’s in such command of her entire skill-set that within a few pages, pretty much anyone — from the most jaded cynic to the most wet-behind-the-ears “newbie” — is subtly compelled to go with her flow.

All of which means, I suppose, that at the end of the day, this modest collection of what she does best relayed in the manner in which she does it best may not fit every reader’s definition of a “perfect” comic, but it’s a perfect Gabrielle Bell comic — and that will always be something pretty damn special.

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My Dog Ivy : A July Diary is available for $5.00 from Uncivilized Books at https://uncivilizedbooks.com/my-dog-ivy/

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