Synopsis
A short autobiographical comic about the cartoonist’s family.
Notes on This Title
The comic depicts terminal illness and parental/spousal behavior that can be considered emotionally abusive.
Awards
2018 Ignatz Award Winner for Outstanding Online Comic
Reviews
“One of Monir’s best attribute as a comic artist might very well be the way she’s able to balance melancholic stories with a lighter aesthetic. This allows her story to land emotional punches really well. Her story revolves around understanding a specific and troubling aspect of her family life, yet her work is sparse, with light touches of purple for colours and single panels with just a few words. Her stories are heart-wrenching tragedies about identity, family, and emotional devastation and Lara Croft Was My Family manages to blend everything perfectly.” (Source: The Beat)
“Believe it or not, while it’s direct and earnest in the extreme, it’s actually remarkably subtle in terms of the complex and even contradictory emotional responses it engenders in readers, telling a tale that touches on issues of emotional abuse, parental mortality, gender dysphoria, and yes, good (okay, not so good) old-fashioned family dysfunction by means of a strung-together series of rapid-fire memories that cover a number of years in, as we’ve already established, a small number of visually-pleasing panels that stress an economy of linework in the same way that the story stresses an economy of dialogue.” (Source: Dysfunction Junction)
“Nothing about Lara Croft Was My Family is overly technical. It’s all square panels, there’s not a lot of action, and the designs of the people in the frames are just enough to tell who is who. Yet it’s extremely powerful, because Carta picks just the right image for each scene and uses the supplemental color to provide additional power. It’s a great comic, and a worthy contender for an Ignatz Award.” (Source: Panel Patter)
“It is a slow, creeping story, which illustrates how family dynamics change yet remain the same. This story also showcases Monir’s strong sense of pacing, which is one of the less talked about but most important aspects of strong comics storytelling. What results is a sophisticated yet raw tale of love, loss, coexistence, and transformation.” (Source: PEN America)
Interviews
The MNT: “Computers Full of Secrets: An Interview with Carta Monir”