Press

★ “Ewing’s art beautifully reflects the individuality and wishes of their subjects, whether it’s the joy of a man talking about his children deciding to call him Mapa as he transitioned, the confidence of someone who wanted to be drawn as a superheroine, or the anger of a young activist at the inequity of the world. Recommended for everyone who cares about better understanding the complicated, varied, gorgeous mess that is gender.”

– Sarah Rice, Booklist starred review

“The understanding of one’s gender through the mapping of other experiences of gender, and the way one’s selfhood mirrors, refracts and echoes other selves: this seems to me the radical project inherent in Rhea Ewing’s Fine, a book so alive with possibilities that it makes my heart swell. Rhea’s own path to reckoning with their own gender and the emotional and physical milestones that mark this path, are presented here in parallel with a panoply of experiences from a broad swath of genders, lovingly collected, that glow with a sparkling visual and textual clarity. Rhea’s interpretations of these interviews are rendered with such empathy and deftness – there were more than a few moments in Fine that made me choke up, and not just out of a sense of self-recognition, but maybe more importantly, because I was transported squarely into the center of someone else’s sense of hope, pain, elation, gratitude. Thank you, Rhea, for this kaleidoscopic archive.”

– Bishakh Som, author of Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir, and Apsara Engine

“Fine is a valuable resource for anybody who has questioned their gender but was afraid to compare notes. Ewing infuses every interview with nuance, dignity, and respect for the stories being told.”

– Blue Deliquanti, author of Across a Field of Starlight and O Human Star!

"Rhea Ewing has done a masterful job of weaving their personal memoir with stories they collected from interviewing others about their experiences with gender identity, emphasizing the value of community and interpersonal connection in coming to a deeper understanding of one's own relationship to gender. The medium of comics brings these stories to life in a unique and engaging way, and fosters a deeper connection to the people depicted in this book."

— Dylan Edwards, author of TRANSPOSES

“There’s great documentary power in Rhea Ewing’s collection of interviews on the question of what gender is. The respondents blow the inquiry wide open with their particular and varied voices, and Ewing’s own story provides an intimate through line. FINE is a significant and highly readable contribution to our understanding of the gender spectrum.”

– Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

“It's a wonderful and ponderous thing to examine, and you have done it with such sensitivity and thought… I was very moved and given so much to consider. Thank you for your honestly and vulnerability, and for sharing so many of these perspectives. I think this book is going to help a lot of people who grapple with these concepts.”

– Lucy Knisley, author of Kid Gloves

“Ewing's warm, kaleidoscopic debut blends an oral historian's active empathy with a memoirist's relentless search for meaning. By telling their own story alongside those of many others, they achieve something remarkable: an autobiography that truly exists in community. Ewing positions themself as a temporary soloist in a much larger chorus of gender experience - one with an infinite variety of vocal ranges. Fine tells complex stories without reducing its narrators to puzzles or problems; it also tells stories of love and pain without reducing them to sentiment. I felt welcomed to this fiercely intelligent book, and I think readers of all genders will feel welcomed too."

– Isaac Fellman, author of Dead Collections

“I was absolutely blown away by FINE. The way Ewing interweaves their own gender journey with the heartfelt, at times funny, at times contradictory, interviews from their subjects, paints a picture and narrative that is just as expansive and microscopic, refined and messy, and complicated yet straightforward simultaneously as the question of gender itself. This book serves not only as an incredibly valuable resource to anyone who has ever examined their own relationship (or non-relationship) to gender, but a beautiful time-capsule of the way language and concepts around gender identity have shifted and changed even in such a comparatively short period. The way FINE moves back and forth through time using the interviews as anchor points evokes the fluidity of gender and identity in a way that is deeply comforting and resonant. Rhea, this book is fantastic and I can’t wait to share it with everyone I know.”

— Leigh Pfeffer, Host & Producer of History is Gay podcast