cover image Dull Margaret

Dull Margaret

Jim Broadbent and Dix. Fantagraphics, $29.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-68396-098-0

Greed is unquenchable in this bleak meditation on vengeance and desire by Dix (Klaxon) and Academy Award–winning actor Jim Broadbent. Margaret—dull marsh-dweller, eel-catcher, and hermit—pursues her desires through dark magic. She is granted lovers and gold in abundance, but she remains unsatisfied and swiftly descends into covetous madness. This is a determinedly desolate fable of mud, tarnish, and viscera, rendered in swampy earth tones with brief, rich interludes of red. Margaret’s monologue comprises nearly every word in the book, and she mutters to herself constantly: as she reels in her catch, as she degrades a man in her thrall, and as she counts her ill-gotten riches. It is her chant, her ceaseless, abject assertion of “I’m Margaret, I’m Margaret... strong and clever,” which lingers most hauntingly after the last page is turned. The book’s inspiration, the painting Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is most faithfully represented in this aspect; Margaret’s desperation mirrors Griet’s frantic trek across a hellish landscape. The ruthless, brutal Margaret proves a satisfying antiheroine for this vicious morality play. (July)