Woman World

July 9, 2018
The apocalypse wreaks its havoc gently in this comic chronicle of women’s fortitude. Men worldwide have died out after a mysterious dearth of male births, leaving only women and girls to carry the flame of civilization forward. Ruins litter the landscape, medical advances find no way to produce viable male embryos, and knowledge of a past with men slips steadily away. But Dhaliwal’s snippets of story happen between and beyond those terrifying developments: romances, laughter, and family persist, as well as games of Boggle and love of Twinkies. Emiko, a young girl, worships Kevin James’s Paul Blart movies. The mayor is naked, not as a feminist statement, but to feel “the cool breeze on my underboob.” The simple-but-exuberant line drawing, with characters posing dramatically with bold facial expressions, alternates in black, white, and grays with pages of warm pastels. This comic is defiantly a comedy, albeit a dark one. Women’s creativity, sexuality, and fearlessness are unleashed by Dhaliwal’s end of days. These unlikely heroines are unafraid to meet Armageddon with irreverence as they laugh, love, and raucously live on in this unusual and charming farce.

Starred review from September 1, 2018

Years after all men on Earth die out owing to a mysterious genetic defect, a village of women strive to rebuild society, make sense of the ruins of the old world, and relate to one another without the burden of any sort of patriarchy in this thoughtful, hilarious first book from Disney animation director Dhaliwal, originally serialized through her Instagram account. After an opening sequence explaining the origins of the crisis (and perfectly skewering modern societies' inability to take action against an obvious, impending natural calamity), the balance of this volume is devoted to one- to two-page gags, the most memorable of which center on a grandmother old enough to remember the world before the male population died off and her young granddaughter whose curiosity about "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" provides a great recurring joke. For all the laughs here, Dhaliwal ultimately has larger ambitions--exploring love, politics, progress, and feminism with great compassion and a keen eye for what makes her characters human. VERDICT It'll be hard to find a funnier, more moving or original debut this year.--TB

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
Once upon a time there were men. So begins this whimsical, feminist look at what the world might be like if only women were left to run it. In Dhaliwal's capable hands, it is one filled with friends and lovers who support and nurture each other, and with a noticeable lack of violence and the youngest generation informed by 1990s D-list films and Starbucks ruins, it's hard not to wonder if it might be a better place. The diverse cast of appealing characters, including a nudist mayor and transgender matriarch, focus on the practical realities of running a village, but the lack of conflict leaves plenty of time for leisure, including a memorable exploration of an adult novelty store. The sequential panels feature uncluttered, simple line drawings and grayscale tones that are energized through highly expressive body language and dry, humorous dialogue. Although their web-comic origins lend an episodic feel, several longer story arcs and the overall tone bind these vignettes together into a highly enjoyable, cohesive volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)