A few years ago – on Galentines Day actually – I treated myself to Lucy Knisley’s Something New Tales from a Makeshift Bride. I wasn’t engaged, I wasn’t even in a relationship, but it sounded pretty cool. As a brief TL;DR, Something New is one of Knisley’s amazing autobiographial comics, and this one focuses on her relationship with her partner and their journey down the aisle. It’s interspersed with photos from the build up to and their wedding day, the stories behind longstanding wedding traditions, and the occasional input from friends and family. It’s a lovely comic even if you’re not remotely interested in, or close to getting married and I really rate it.
Fast forward to now, being engaged and attempting to plan a wedding during a pandemic (ha!) As someone who loves to just scroll through pretty pictures on Instagram or flip through magazines admiring styling and such, obviously a comic is going to appeal to me. That, and y’know, PhD in comics, but whatever. However, magazines – wedding magazines in particular – do make me somewhat uncomfortable because, let’s face it, they peddle patriarchal garbage for the most part. I have in recent months occasionally enjoyed the odd issue of Rock N Roll Bride as it doesn’t focus on the same skinny, white heterosexual couples in churches and country houses that pretty much every other magazine does, but even then, there’s only so many images tagged “price on asking” a girl can look at before crying into her morning coffee and overdraft.
Something New is delightfully honest and feminist. Knisley is open, sharing her discomfort and confusion towards the various traditions that the wedding industry insists upon throwing at us, and her artwork is sweet, playful and just a joy to behold. It’s really reassuring to hear that someone else is just as baffled by friends and family members’ fixating on tiny and inconsequential aspects of weddings like chair covers or favours as you are. Or that the expense of showers and hen do’s and everything in between set their teeth on edge too. That wedding magazines and vendors also rendered them wide-eyed and equal parts stressed and mildly terrified. So saying, it’s also cool to find out where and how traditions such as sixpences in shoes, or white dresses came from, as well as learn about traditions from other cultures.
Obviously friends and family saying “your day, your rules” is important, and I don’t doubt other engaged people are hearing this. And it does cut through (up until they then lecture you on how you totally need to have a ceilidh band). But… the magazines and vendors and venues also say this whilst trying to upsell and refusing to actually tell you their prices. Seeing a woman share her unfiltered and honest experiences in comic book form is an absolute delight, not in the least because it cuts through the images of expensive perfection and/or mad collections of mason jars and bits of driftwood decorations that can feel inescapable even during lockdown. It’s nice to feel that I’m not alone, or living in some alternate universe occupied by scary Pinterest wedding crafts and “must have” branded bridal tat.
And if you’re not getting married? It’s a bloody cracking read and one of my all-time favourite comics.
Image copyright Cia Jackson 2020
Yarns About a Fangirl 