By Ariel Baska — Me: Can’t sleep, clowns will eat me.

Also me: The only good clown is a dead clown.

Yes, those quotes originally came from the mouth of Bart Simpson, but I need you to understand, dear reader, the depths of my own fear of clowns. It was with some trepidation, then, that I picked up the freshly printed, long-awaited trade paperback of Pirouette, a coming-of-age story set in a funhouse of horrors. Yes, this fairy tale in the midst of murderous clowns frightened me at times, but the magically grotesque imagery kept pulling me back in for more. Carlos Granda and M.L. Miller have created a most appealing protagonist in Pirouette, the clown princess struggling in a cage that’s been fashioned for her.

Granda’s linework layers so many opposing variables within each frame, creating a kind of dramatic tension that plays out in the artwork as well as in the story. Pirouette has the tears of a clown, in a mask-like face that seems to trap her, but her skirts are a frilly fussy affair that float on the breeze. Through such imagery, Miller and Granda play with visual antonyms like “trapped” and “free.” Another notable pair of antonyms are “gritty” and “fantastical,” balanced on top of each other so effectively within the same frames, that even as darkness lashes out, the fantasy kept telling me it was okay to come just a little closer.

The book does have some powerful visual metaphors that run throughout, and the idea of the inescapable mask — which try as you might, you’ll never get off — has powerful resonance. Aside from the context of the story, the opening image of Pirouette before a mirror, tugging and pulling at the edges of her identity, has stayed with me. This image is in the eye of the beholder, and could equally be commenting on body dysmorphia, gender identity, racial identity, changes happening in adolescence, or just feeling trapped by circumstance. The multiple layers to the text of this image make it a fitting representation of a book that is all about coming of age in a world disconnected from your dreams.

The circumstances Pirouette faces are hardly dreamy. A clown father who owns the circus, treats it as his own three-ring crime ring, and sees her as little more than another animal performing to earn her keep. A mother who turns a blind eye to the father’s abuse and if anything, echoes it. The only protective figures in her life are the circus “freaks” who will step in to defend her when they can. But when the chance to fly away comes, will she abandon her sense of self to take it?

What follows are some of the most deliciously-tense and hair-raising sequences I’ve read this year, and that’s saying something in a year filled with so many great horror comics, from The Autumnal to Stillwater.

The adolescent Pirouette does have echoes of that other clown princess of crime, Harley Quinn. To be fair an adolescent version of Harley already exists (in Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh’s excellent graphic novel Breaking Glass), but the closest matching aesthetic in the comics universe is actually Tim Burton’s gothy, dark, Victoriana-inspired circus of Penguin henchmen in Batman Returns. Sadly, Burton didn’t have the forethought to include the then-non-existent character of Harley Quinn.

However, the final arc of Pirouette is one Harley fans would recognize - an arc of reclamation: reclaiming agency, voice, and, ultimately, identity. I still say read it for the opposites. Take in the dizzyingly gorgeous and grotesque artwork that fascinates in equal measure, and enjoy this beautiful story that is equal parts tragedy and horror, with the magic of the circus.

Overall: Evil clowns abound in this deliciously dark story of a young girl’s dreams to escape the nightmare she sees in the mirror. 9.7/10

Pirouette

Pirouette
Writer: M.L. Miller
Artist: Carlos Granda
Colors: El Cómic En Línea Foundation
Letters: Jim Campbell
Producer: Matt Pizzolo
Publisher: Black Mask
Raised from infancy by duplicitous clowns who entertain by day and menace by night, Pirouette dreams of washing the paint from her face and escaping to a better life far away from her cruel adoptive circus family... because when the spotlights dim and the crowd disperses, the clown princess' big-top dreams give way to a nightmarish world of monsters with painted smiles.
M.L. Miller (Gravetrancers) spins Pirouette with authentic darkness and depth of character, while Carlos Granda's (CALEXIT) sweeping, exuberant line art evokes all the exotic charm and mysterious gloom of Pirouette's shadowy big top.
Release Date: November 18, 2020

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Ariel Baska pretends to know many things. And yeah, she has a pop culture podcast, Ride the Omnibus. Which may or may not be exactly as pretentious as you think.