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Kevin Greenlee On Goodbye To Print Iteration Of Clear Blue Water
posted September 18, 2008
 

I can't let the passing of the print version of Karen Montague-Reyes' "Clear Blue Water" go without noting that it contained what seemed to me to be comics' most honest and realistic depiction of what it is like to raise a child with autism. My daughter has that condition and I assure you that while I see nothing of our family life in, say, the hyper melodramatics of "With the Light," Montague-Reyes' work always rings very true. She never cheats to make things seem happier or more hopeful than they actually are. When, for instance, the autistic child says his first word in "With the Light", the moment merits a full page and is bathed in transcendent sunlight. When Montague-Reyes depicts an autistic child "saying" his first word via sign language, the moment is almost immediately overshadowed by the accomplishments of a "normal" child. Reyes understands that there are no endings -- happy or otherwise -- to the story of autism, only an endless series of new challenges to be surmounted one at a time. Her strip collection, "Circling Normal," is on the short list of books I recommend when someone asks me what it is really like to have an autistic child. I'm sorry to see the strip leave newspapers.