Like Swimmers

Reviews Marc Sobel | August 27, 2026 “I have seen the future of comics and its name is Dash Shaw.”- David Mazzucchelli In 2010, in a blurb for BodyWorld, David Mazzucchelli described Dash Shaw as “the future of comics.” With the release of Like Swimmers, his latest graphic novel from New York Review Comics, that “future” is now. Even before Mazzucchelli’s enthusiastic endorsement, Shaw was already exploring the boundaries of the medium. After earning his BFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in 2005, Shaw published several ‘zines and mini-comics, as well as the out-of-print graphic novella, The Mother's Mouth (2006). His breakthrough graphic novel, Bottomless Belly Button (2008), was an ambitious family drama that sits comfortably on the bookshelf between Craig Thompson's Blankets and Don DeLillo's Underworld, while his follow-up, BodyWorld (2010), a Philip K. Dick-inspired science fiction epic, was stylistically closer to animation. Designed for the web and first serialized online, BodyWorld's vertical-scroll format and digital painting were a revelation. Published just two years apart, these very different, yet equally innovative books announced the arrival of a majo...