Preparing to Bite - by Keiler Roberts (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Achingly human auto-bio comics that extract big laughs from the small moments

Cartoonist Keiler Roberts quit making comics. Or did she?

Preparing to Bite, her latest collection of all-new, one-page comics is a return to perfectform. Roberts skewers innocuous aspects of everyday life and dissects them for theirunique absurdity: from cooking meals, to keeping doctors' appointments, to owning pets, and even navigating now-inescapable zoom calls. These vignettes portray a woman inmiddle-age grappling with the realities of being a mother, a wife, a friend, a daughter, andlastly (perhaps even least of all), a practicing artist--all while dealing with the long-termeffects of a debilitating disease.

From page to page, Roberts jumps from moment to moment, expertly using the comicsform as nobody else can while showing off what it can do that no other form can. Preparingto Bite captures the transient gestures of life in the modern age, both mundane and inane.

Review Quotes

"Roberts has the amazing ability to slow down time and focus on the smallest of moments." --NPR

"I just cannot stop laughing when I read her comics because I feel like she has peered deep into my soul and [into] the absurdity of parenting life." --Slate

"Roberts's slightly warped perspective hilariously and poignantly reflects back to readers the transient absurdity of domestic life." --Publishers Weekly

"Her work gives off a kind of radical stillness. It always lowers my blood pressure... Keiler Roberts is my new hero." --The Chicago Tribune

"[Keiler Roberts's] comics... are fairly existentialist. They feel like part of a mindfulness practice, exercised to keep the creator's mind on the world and her body and brain involved. If you slow down while reading them, they can do the same for you." --The Comics Journal

About the Author