I’ve discovered the work of Niv Sekar thanks to her fantastic comic Your Mother’s Fox published by Shortbox. She’s got a wonderful way to do shading using pencils. It’s used perfectly in Mermaid, a short comic about a young woman who move to a new apartment building with a fountain and a statue of a mermaid. It’s about isolation, and the desire to connect with someone. It catches the pulse of something that’s very tangible, that feeling of the unknown after having moved, when you still don’t know your neighborhood or neighbors. It’s got a nice little supernatural twist too.

You can read Mermaid on Niv Sekar’s website and follow Niv Sekar on Twitter.