McNally Jackson Books hosts a virtual book launch for Maids, the new true-crime graphic novel by Brooklyn cartoonist Katie Skelly! She’ll be in conversation with zinester, podcaster, and celebrity death chronicler Alissa Bennet. RSVP and get your signed bookplate edition of the new book here.
Lea and Christine are maids. Their mistress is strict. If they are fired, they will be homeless. Their mornings are for cooking and tidying. Gardening at midday. In the evening, they smoke cigarettes and reminisce. As the narrative progresses, it becomes painfully clear that family and religion has failed them. On February 2, 1933, they will murder everybody in the house. Both a true crime saga and an allegory of societal collapse, Maids finds artist Katie Skelly at her most subversively naturalistic. To observe people serving, day in and day out, is to become acclimated to the lie that some are born to serve. Everything that is, will be forever… won’t it?
Katie Skelly lives and works in New York City. Her previous comics include My Pretty Vampire, The Agency, Operation Margarine, and Nurse Nurse. Skelly holds a B.A. in Art History from Syracuse University and was awarded the Emerging Artist Prize at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus in 2015.
Alissa Bennett is a director at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery, and the co-host of the podcast The C-Word with Lena Dunham. She is also a prolific essayist and creator of several zine series, including Bad Behavior, Dead Is Better, and others.
