So Pretty / Very Rotten

In a series of essays and comics that are at once academic and intimate, cartoonists Jane Mai and An Nguyen delve into Lolita subculture and their relationship with it. Empowering and beautiful, but also inescapably linked to consumerism, the Rococo-inspired fashion is indulgent and sublime, pretty and rotten.

An Nguyen is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Ottawa, ON best known for her romantic comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places.

Jane Mai is a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Brooklyn, NY.

Novala Takemoto is a Japanese author, fashion designer and prominent promoter of the Lolita lifestyle.

Mai and Nguyen's work is an invaluable resource for whoever wants to get acquainted with a culture that, underneath its frilly garments, is a paradoxical form of empowerment and self-assertion. -- Angelica Frey, Hyperallergic "Beyond fans, [[]So Pretty / Very Rotten] offers a general reader an introduction to a consumer subculture that resonates in the nostalgia of fairy tale worlds and external performance of a genderless self." -- Gregory Smith, Pop Matters An Nguyen is an Ottawa-based cartoonist and illustrator best known for her romantic comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places. She has drawn comics for Spera: Ascension of the Starless, Electric Ant zine, and various Love Love Hill anthologies. In addition to So Pretty / Very Rotten, she and Jane Mai also released a zine titled Don't Talk to Me or I'll Set Myself on Fire. Jane Mai is a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and self-published zines. Koyama Press published her first book, Sunday in the Park with Boys, which was followed by the zine Sorry I Can't Come in on Monday I'm Really Really Sick, and See You Next Tuesday. Novala Takemoto is a Japanese author, fashion designer and prominent promoter of the Lolita lifestyle. Soleinuit (Kokushokankai), his first collection of essays, was published in 1998. He debuted as a novelist in 2000 with Missin' (Shogakukan). He achieved wide recognition when his 2002 novel Shimotsuma Monogatari (Shogakukan) was adapted into the movie, Kamikaze Girls, in 2004. His most recent work is Rakkusei (Cyzo, Inc.).