Random Thoughts

Comics Daze

The weather’s turned cold and stuff, so I think it’s time to spend a day reading comics. And accompanied by music from 1982 only.

Kate Bush: The Dreaming

12:03: Betas by Nick Maandag (Drawn & Quarterly)

This book feels kinda displaced in time — it’s about PC Madness Gone Wrong etc, and is probably meant to be read as a parody of right-wing fears of sorts?

And there are some funny bits in here.

But reading this is just page after page of these conversations that aren’t very entertaining, so the book becomes a joyless slog for the most part.

I’m wondering what the reactions to this book are (if any), because you could also easily read it as an earnest alt right depiction of How Things Are These Days — they’d be reading this going “ha ha ha so true own the libs ha ha ha”…

I can find virtually no reviews of this book, which is very strange for a book from Drawn & Quarterly. Those people are usually really good at getting their books in front of reviewers. Here’s somebody who totally interpreted it “the other way”:

You get the point pretty early on – it’s political correctness gone mad!!1 – but Maandag continues to hammer home this very obvious message over and over throughout the book. Tim can’t get ahead because of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) hirings, despite his seniority at the restaurant (and his passivity because, hoho, he’s a beta), while their boss has to crawl around on all fours all day because of White Atonement Day (chortle, wot a beta).

Very odd that there aren’t any reviews from the usual outlets… perhaps this book is too toxic (or bewildering) to touch? Did D&Q try to keep the release secret? 🙀

Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 4

12:56: Yearly 2026 by Andrew White

Wow, Andrew White has been productive this year. His “Yearly” series for 2026 consist of four books and a process pamphlet. I think I’ll just read a couple today…

I’ll start with A Catalogue of Reasons.

It’s not clear at all at the start what the book is going to be about.

But as the book progresses, it becomes clear that it’s about Picasso and Apollinaire…

… but also about Alice B. Toklas after Stein’s death.

It’s enthralling! And very moving. I love the way it flows. And the artwork is perfect.

The Cure: Pornography (1)

13:21: Pear Shape by Nick Thorburn (Fantagraphics)

From the sublime to the disgusting, I guess?

But it turns out that the most disgusting thing in this book is the cover, really.

It’s mostly short and depressing gag strips — the kind we like. It’s a solid book.

13:38: Mystère dans le grenier by Dorothée de Monfried (E-Voke)

Oops! This is a children’s book. I didn’t know that E-Voke had gone into the children’s book business.

It’s about a bunch of cute dogs that are scared by noises coming from the loft. If I were three, I would have loved this book. I’m not, but I still think it’s very charming.

13:42: Etikett #3

This is an old Swedish magazine that I happened upon in a used book store the other day — I’ve never heard of it before, but it looks intriguing, so I picked it up.

It’s pretty funny.

Very transgressive.

Huh, there’s a bit cut out of the copyright credits? Weird.

The comics are mostly American (from National Lampoon or something?).

Here’s why I bought the magazine — Tintin in Lebanon. It’s well done.

Simple Minds: New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)

14:12: Smoke Signal #46 edited by Floyd Tangeman (Desert Island)

It’s an anthology issue…

And most people get two pages each, I guess.

It’s pretty great.

Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

14:32: Nestor Burma: L’hommes et sang bleu by Malet/Moynot (Faraos Cigarer)

MOYNOT does a pretty good job at emulating Tardi… but some of the colouring here is a bit odd. I mean, it’s supposed to emulate the sun in Marseille coming through shades and stuff, but it’s still kinda disturbing.

I did start to wonder whether Moynot is drawing on a tablet now, because some of the linework looks kinda tabletey… but apparently non? The article says that he does some of the layout en numérique, then draws on paper, and then scans it in to do the colouring and shading on a tablet. I still wonder whether he does (some) of the inking on the tablet?

Depeche Mode: A Broken Frame

Anyway, this is a classic Leo Malet story — very hard boiled, what with Burma stumbling around semi-drunk a lot of the time, and getting beat up, and the dames etc etc. It’s fun.

And now I’m gonna go buy some candy and run some errands.

Candy achieved!

Blaine L. Reininger & Alain Goutier: Paris en Autumne

18:04: Mad about DC (DC Comics)

This is a collection of gags made by people who normally do super-hero comics for DC, and as you’d expect, some of it’s pretty unfunny. But a surprising number of things are very amusing.

New Musik: Warp

Mostly the ones that make fun of ads, for some reason or other.

See? It’s pretty funny here and there.

18:47: Wishbone #1 by Nate Garcia

I really like Garcia’s artwork.

This book reminds me of 90s indies comics (complimentary). It feels like it may be the first in (perhaps) a longer series? I’m aboard.

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft: Für Immer

19:03: And One Night More by Andrew White

This book is hypnotic.

It’s about the making of A Thousand and One Nights…

… and it gets at the story through repetitions and spiralling back all the time. It’s fantastic! So engrossing. And such lovely artwork.

Tuxedomoon: Ninotchka

19:28: Causeway #33-38 by CF

I’ve been saving up the Causeway issues from the past er year? because I wanted to read them as a bigger chunk, and I guess the time has come. Hm, is the newest one from 2025? Huh.

Anyway, some of these are more illustration (lovely)…

… and some are stories (intriguing).

King Crimson: Beat

19:38: Brownfield Action Family #1 by Ted May (Revival House Press)

This is another book that feels like a 90s indie comic (in a good way)…

It’s a surprisingly straightforward (for the most part) young-people-drama kind of thing, but it’s told in an engaging fashion.

This was apparently made over a long period of time, but I hope May continues this story toot sweet.

19:57: Gawk Zine by Nazir Hedgepeth

You see so few comics inspired by R. Crumb these days…

This is a lot of fun.

20:03: The End

And now I think I should make some dinner, so that’s enough comics for today, unfortunately. It was pretty much all pretty good? Except that one book.

I guess the lumberyard had a sale

Surveillance

When I was in Paris, like, fifteen years ago, I happened past a glassware shop and I saw these dinner plates in the window:

That is, out-of-focus night-time surveillance photos. On dinner plates. And I had a sudden vision:

A… what’s this style called in English? “Peasant romantic” or something? It sounds less insulting in Norwegian, somehow. Anyway, I was thinking about the juxtaposition of an oldee-tymey romantic dinner plate display shelf of some kind (not as romantic as the above, because there are limits) and these spooky and unnerving dinner plates.

So I bought the plates, schlepped them back home (without breaking any! it’s miracle!) and then… put them in a cupboard for fifteen years.

Until now.

I spent a lot of time researching (i.e., at least half an hour), and I just couldn’t find any antique ones that wouldn’t look like a too overt joke in my kitchen, or that were big enough, and I finally resorted to Etsy.

Tada!

But, er, during the fifteen years that had passed, I had forgotten that there were only six of these plates. I could have sworn that there were eight! Had I broken some over the years and repressed the memory!? I need false memory regression therapy stat!

But no, some Googling shows that there were indeed only six of them. And the artist’s name is Magdalena Gerber, and these were made in an edition of 1K. I feel so speshal now.

Hey, is that the place I bought them? That looks vaguely familiar…

The table, it is well known, is a setting for fruitful exchange and conviviality. With this work of images on plates I lay out a landscape that adorns the table and invites the guests to share their stories and to transform the meal into a feast of shared exchanges. Through captured video I explore the space, sometimes strange, between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Here, barely visible characters are crossing the street quickly under the rain, and there passing on a bicycle, and so forth.

It’s even more arty than I thought!

(I do think that perhaps these look less spooky now than when they were made, perhaps. Everybody’s willingly under surveillance now anyway…)

But… only six… so… now the shelf is too big, really. Perhaps I can pad with some other plates?

Yes? No? Hm.

Oh, and I think I need a different lamp for the table now… One that’s not as tall.

As mounting this shelf involved drilling into some very hard red brick walls (under the paint), I got to use my Bosch battery powered drill again. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but this is the thing I’ve been missing all these years. It’s not just that the cordlessness means that I save half an hour looking for a power outlet and extension cables, but somehow the drilling itself is also easier — perhaps because of the lack of drag from the cable subtly making me mis-point the drill? With this thing, it just BROOOWWWWKCKKCKCKCK and I’m done.

Blowsy

It’s too hot to do home renovations

For years, the above has annoyed me: It’s the padlock to the attic storage. Every time I go up there to stash something away, I have to put that something down in order to unlock that stupid padlock. Opening it requires holding it with one hand and using the key with the other hand.

And, I mean… the lock is just there to discourage kids from rummaging around — if somebody wants to do some looting, they can just pull off the netting easily with their hands. Or gently kick the door in. But it’s in a locked area anyway, so the lock is just a polite hint.

Tada! Now I can open it single handedly… er… wait a minute; with the lock being on the door side, I have to hold the door (which is wobbly) to use the key! D’oh!

OK, remount on the other side…

Yes! The system works! I carry something in my left hand while opening it with my right! This is going to save me (cumulatively) seconds! seconds I tell you! over the next decade.

Showing this to some friends, they pointed out that I’ve mounted it wrong again — the screws are supposed to be hidden by the hingy thingy.