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Behind the Lines

Home Improvements

A 4-panel comic shows various scenes of domestic violence. In one, a woman says 'I put him out of my misery' and has stabbed her partner. In another, text reads, 'Home improvements' and shows a woman happily on the couch, now alone. In the third, text reads, 'Aggro-phobia' and shows a loud drunk man and a small woman. In the final panel, a bruised woman is leaving and says, 'I'm taking the I out of violence.'

Jenny Coopes
1991

Here Jenny uses realism to depict the abuse and the terror inflicted on women and children by violent husbands. She shows guns and beer, and the family quivering in fear. But she also, yet again, shows the woman seizing control and, with a title that is a clever wordplay, using that most modest of flowers — the violet — to strike back at her abusive husband.

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