Exclusive Excerpt: Kaleidoscope City Captures the Dreamlike Romance of New York City

New Yorker cartoonist, children’s book illustrator and musician Marcellus Hall has lived in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood since the ‘90s, and Kaleidoscope City, his debut graphic novel, captures the undeniable, often bittersweet romance of New York City like only someone with decades of city-living behind him could. Structured across changing seasons as an artist searches for inspiration following a difficult breakup, Kaleidoscope City eschews a traditional plot to serve instead as a sort of tone poem for NYC, evoking the small details that come together to form the five boroughs. Hall’s illustrations are sparse, relying on minimal brushstrokes and succint prose to suggest the world’s most famous city. Praised on the cover by indie-comics luminary Adrian Tomine as “a beautiful dream of life in New York,” Kaleidoscope City is available March 6 from Bittersweet Editions, and Paste has an exclusive excerpt below.