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Her Bark & Her Bite
Soon after young artist Rebecca arrives in the big city, she stumbles headlong into the arms of the charismatic Victor. When they fall madly in love, she's thrown into his socialite world of glamorous parties, devoted fans, and layabout debutantes. The people, the art, and the acclaim are exhilarating -- until Victor s affections start to wander to his new pug, Princess. With her new boyfriend slipping away before her eyes, Rebecca s jealousy and fear threaten to upend everything. Can she hold onto the man she loves? Does she even really want to?"
72 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2017
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61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 27, 2017
Her Bark and Her Bite is a sort of alternative comics story in a small package, set in France, where the artist lives, about a young shy and serious artist named Rebecca who moves to a city to paint and encounters a lively “arts” scene where people vaguely interested in dress up and party all the time. There she meets Victor, a wealthy guy who doesn’t seem to do much but drink and entertain, with no talent for anything except for partying, but they get together, and she gets more popular in the social scene, and begins to sell some of her paintings. Victor and Rebecca declare their love for each other and finally move in together. Then the Trouble Begins.
An old friend of Victor buys him a Pug, who becomes just the latest distraction for Victor. As Rebecca becomes more successful at her painting, Victor begins to separate from Rebecca, and Rebecca becomes increasingly dissatisfied with the shallow social life Victor drags her into. Then surprises (I’m not telling) begin to occur that make for an interesting sort of art world gossip type story.
This is Albon’s first graphic novel. His artwork is fluid, sketchy, colored with pencils; feels a lot like a sketchbook, airy and light and unique. The lettering is all done quickly as the art seems to have been done, sketchily, both in the dialogue and in the narration, and it is quite hard to read as it might in someone’s sketchbook, but that is sometimes annoying when you are trying to figure out what the actual thing is someone says. But not always annoying, because the actual characters do come to life. And Rebecca, our hero, isn’t perfect, facing all these shallow, talent-less partiers. That’s a nice twist, since we see this world through her perspective.
Here’s six sample pages and other art on his website:
http://www.jamesalbon.com/hbhb#/id/i1...
An old friend of Victor buys him a Pug, who becomes just the latest distraction for Victor. As Rebecca becomes more successful at her painting, Victor begins to separate from Rebecca, and Rebecca becomes increasingly dissatisfied with the shallow social life Victor drags her into. Then surprises (I’m not telling) begin to occur that make for an interesting sort of art world gossip type story.
This is Albon’s first graphic novel. His artwork is fluid, sketchy, colored with pencils; feels a lot like a sketchbook, airy and light and unique. The lettering is all done quickly as the art seems to have been done, sketchily, both in the dialogue and in the narration, and it is quite hard to read as it might in someone’s sketchbook, but that is sometimes annoying when you are trying to figure out what the actual thing is someone says. But not always annoying, because the actual characters do come to life. And Rebecca, our hero, isn’t perfect, facing all these shallow, talent-less partiers. That’s a nice twist, since we see this world through her perspective.
Here’s six sample pages and other art on his website:
http://www.jamesalbon.com/hbhb#/id/i1...
June 19, 2017
I loved the premise, and the idea of the book; the problem is that the hand-lettered captions were virtually unreadable. The frenetic colored-pencil drawings matched the pace of the whirlwind courtship and wildly hedonistic nightlife of the city, and are beautiful and ugly at once, much like the city can be. But the writing, man alive, I had to WORK to figure out what was being said, which is pretty sad in a graphic novel. I guess I just don't appreciate an author/artist sacrificing the reader for the sake of "style."
March 28, 2018
The art is absolutely beautiful. The story is pretty weird and whirlwind and reminded me a little of Roald Dahl's adult stories -- simply written, not too serious, a little morbid, and with a twist at the end. Some of the people in the story reminded me strongly of people I have known in real life; the characterization was very deft and spot on.
I have to say, I did feel sorry for the pug, though.
I have to say, I did feel sorry for the pug, though.
June 7, 2020
A smaller format does no justice to the art, and the sloppy lettering challenges the reader. That's two strikes right there. Having Victor's favourite bar named Le Chien Mort pretty well gives much of the plot away. I wanted to enjoy this more than I was able to. Sad to say — it bites.
August 10, 2021
Some great line work with fun colors and plays on perspective. The art is as lively as the story.
February 5, 2024
A deep story about shallow people. A young woman, determined to be a painter, connects with someone who seems to share her passion, but ultimately cannot commit to anything beyond two weeks. Through him she become swept up in a Parisian club life, where she has to decide between a life of shallow idle ease or pursing her art. The art is beautiful, delicate, filled with richness and color. It grabs your attention and hold it throughout. The only difficulty some people might have is the cursive wording style, but I didn't find it much of an impediment to my enjoyment of the book. It fits perfectly with the artistic choice.
October 15, 2017
A beautifully painted and intriguingly strange story of love, jealousy and art. A new artist in town rises to popularity with the "in" crowd only to discover it's dark side. In an act of rage, she takes a mean-spirited and ugly revenge on the man she blames for her problems. She tries to hide the evidence, but it is revealed in the most public and scandalous of settings.
October 17, 2017
Um. OK story. Hard to read. color pencil drawings.
October 31, 2017
Don't trust men
February 19, 2022
Colors were nice. That’s just about the best thing I can say about this.
March 4, 2025
I love the artwork. It’s unique, with beautifully vibrant colors and incredibly lively drawings. It almost feels like they’re dancing in harmony with the characters.
February 5, 2026
The virtually illegible and frantically-written handwriting made me squint a fair bit to understand the narrative, which significantly dampened the overall reading experience.
February 17, 2026
It's more than 3 stars, but not quite enough for me to round up to 4, but oh snap, I did not see that end coming!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews