Agony

Mark Beyer’s inimitable self-taught style—mixing off-kilter imagery and boldly geometric compositions—has been featured in Art Spiegelman’sRAW and on MTV’s Liquid Television, but Agony is its most essential expression. Originally published in 1987, this East VillageCandide is an eccentric, grimly hilarious delight.

Amy and Jordan are just like us: hoping for the best, even when things go from bad to worse. They are devoured by fish, beheaded by ghosts, menaced by bears, and hunted by the cops, but still they struggle on, bickering and reconciling, scraping together the rent and trying to find a decent movie. The perfect solace for anxious modern minds, courtesy of one of the great innovators of American comics.

Now if only Amy’s skin would grow back. . .

Mark Beyer is a self-taught artist who began making comics in 1975. His work has appeared inThe New York Times, The Village Voice, and many other publications, and was a mainstay ofRAW magazine. He created a series of animated shorts for MTV’s Liquid Television, designed album covers for John Zorn, and collaborated with Alan Moore. Amy and Jordan, the stars of his graphic novelAgony, were also featured in a newspaper strip that ran from 1988 to 1996, and which was collected inAmy and Jordan in 2004. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited around the world, including in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

Colson Whitehead is the author of five novels, including Zone One, Sag Harbor, and The Intuitionist. His latest book is The Noble Hustle, a nonfiction account of the 2011 World Series of Poker. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.