The fact that she can support herself as a cartoonist (unlike many, many of her peers), that she has opportunities for international travel, that she has an agent who helps her find some of her opportunities are unconvincing as dramatic devices or as "obstacles" to overcome. While this is only human nature (and I always get the sense that her humblebrags are unintentional), it's tough for a reader to have much sympathy for Knisley when she's worried about some details regarding the trip and moans about how much she'll miss New York, and how she finds herself torn between stability and "romance, adventure, excitement". Two pages later, she relates her nervousness and jitters regarding this amazing bit of luck. On the next page, she finagles her way into staying with her mother in France. On one of the first pages of her book, she relates having a conversation with her agent about whether she should go be a guest at a convention in Norway. To fellow cartoonists, or pretty much anyone, it's difficult to see her stress over having a film crew in her home as anything but disingenuous humility. For an example, check out this Comics Journal diary strip by Knisley. The comedian Harris Wittels is responsible for the term "humblebrag", which means to boast about something in the guise of either it somehow being a problem or a source of overpowering wonder. In terms of pure skill, she may have surpassed all of them. Her peers include the likes of Raina Telgemeier, Vera Brosgol, Erika Moen and Meredith Gran, all of whom use variations on this stripped-down, cartoony and easy to parse style. Knisley arrived at this expertise by working like crazy few cartoonists her age (27) have cranked out as many pages as she has. Her understanding of gesture and body language using this cartoony style is spot-on indeed, it's easy to understand what's going on in the book simply by flipping through it and without reading the words. The control over her line that was crucial to developing her mature style is obvious, allowing her to become bolder and more experimental with the likes of page layouts, lettering and whimsical design decisions. The mix of color and crisp black & white in An Age of License makes this the first book of hers that truly showcases her abilities as a draftsman and a cartoonist.
Relish saw her move into her mature style, though her line was occasionally overtaken by the First Second house coloring approach.
She has markedly improved since French Milk, a book that was hobbled by the occasional and unfortunate juxtaposition of drawings and photos. First, let me discuss Knisley's many virtues as a cartoonist.
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