Review: Busiek & Lieber's Thoughts on a Winter Morning

Thoughts on a Winter Morning

, an autobiographical short story from writer Kurt Busiek written in 1998 and originally published (with art by Steve Lieber) in 2005 has returned to publication through Monkeybrain Comics, where you can get it on ComiXology starting today, recolored by Lieber and with a new afterward from Busiek. The story is a great little piece, quiet and contemplative and beautifully paced, that's well-served by the digital format in a way that few action-driven stories are because so many writers and artists are still constrained by a traditional sense of what the comics page is supposed to do. Thoughts on a Winter Morning is a warm and touching portrait of Busiek's life at a time shortly after the birth of his daughter--an experience this reviewer has just had. It's a small and important change in perspective and it's still fresh enough for me that there's great empathy with Busiek's version of himself in this story--but even without that, the easygoing way Busiek crafts the narrative, along with the universality of the experiences he shares and the simple, lovely artwork provided by Lieber would make the story relatable to just about anyone. It's a short story on the passage of time, the sense of perspective that you gain as you age and mature, and the ways that sometimes there's simply no way of telling your brain that your subjective experiences are objectively untrue. It's charming, a little profound and one of my favorite comics stories of the last couple of months. Check it out.