"New York City's Auto Show," 4/1/05

Op-Art regular Lauren Redniss represents the high-water mark in the op-ed's acceptance of narrative art: the comic as gestalt rather than sequence. Idiosyncratic while sticking tightly to her formula, Redniss creates poetic set pieces from the New York scenes she is sent to cover. For Friday's slice of life at the International Auto Show she takes a typically subjective view, making absurdist hay from the spectacle of hotrod dreams in a city where cars are mostly sources of irritation. None of her interviewees says anything especially pithy, her people are glancingly observed and her cars look like they were jacked from Rorschach blots, and yet the whole thing works. Redniss' handwritten text and loose drawing style belie her compositional skills, so that elements that bump awkwardly at first glance come to hang together once you finish reading and relax your eyes. It's kind of like the moment when you've been hanging out someplace way too long, your feet are tired, the crowds have worn you down and you're just about to go grab a taxi when you scan the room, take in one last impression, and that's the picture you retain of that day for the rest of your life.