Random Thoughts

OK, I haven’t had a day of comics dazing in too long a time, and the comics are starting to pile up, so let’s get to it.

And I think I’ll play a lot of random albums from 1991 as accompaniment — 1991 isn’t a good year for music, really, but let’s try it anyway…

Lisa Germano: On the way down from the Moon Palace

12:57: Heaven by Katie Skelly (Fantagraphics)

This is a fun book — it’s about a group of friends finding a mysterious… strip joint…

… and then stuff happens. Can you guess what the twist is?!! … You can? You totally already guessed what the mystery is? Yeah, me too.

But it’s an engaging book nevertheless — even though the pacing is off. And what’s with the friends waiting for hours and hours outside the strip joint? That’s just weird.

13:12: Stay by Jesse Rimler (Fieldmouse Press)

I really like the artwork here — very appealing.

But at the first here I thought I totally knew where this was going, and I was getting annoyed… but then it turns out to be something totally different! Wonderful!

This is a great book — fresh, funny and also really scary, in a way. Unnerving.

Chris & Cosey: Pagan Tango

13:22: What Is The Deal With Gabrielle Bell by Gabrielle Bell

I’ve read these comics before (on Bell’s patreon), but it’s nice to read them all in one go.

This book is very focused — it’s all about Bell’s experienced with some kinda newfangled magnetic resonance therapy thing. It’s good stuff.

Consolidated: Brutal Equation

14:02: Tales from Qyleoth by Yaxam

I think I bought this from Domino Books — I got a big shipment from there the other week.

This is fun — it channels first generation underground comics so perfectly.

If you’d picked this up in a head shop in 1969, it would have felt totally at home there.

I like it.

14:22: The Cannibals by Tinguu (Fieldmouse Press)

I must have had a shipment from Fieldmouse Press…

Oh deer… this is one of those metaphorical comics, isn’t it?

But worse than the tablet-ness of it all is that it veers into the dreaded Desktop Publishing Territory.

I had to drop the book halfway through.

14:30: Grampa by Travis Rommerheim (Silver Sprocket)

Hey! Stickers! With silver print!

This is an entertaining little book.

It’s very slight, though — I wouldn’t have minded reading a much longer book of this stuff.

And the punchline is great.

Front 242: Tyranny >For You<

14:33: Stagnation Seed by Bennizone (Fieldmouse Press)

Fieldmouse have traditionally not done a lot with different formatting and stuff, but that book up there was a hardback on very shiny paper, and this one is spiral bound? I love amusing formats, but…

… what’s the point here, though? It seems so unmotivated — there’s no connection between the format and the contents.

And this is, once again, something Very Symbolic Indeed, which isn’t my thing at all.

But I like the artwork, even if it’s tabletey.

Pale Saints: Throwing Back the Apple

14:41: Bimbo Agitprop by Raquelle Jac (Fantagraphics)

Hehehe, that’s great.

Pale Saints: Flesh Balloon

I really like the artwork — Aline Kominsky is name-checked several times in this book, which is appropriate. The storytelling isn’t much like hers, though — I wonder whether My Favourite Thing Is Monsters was an inspiration?

Pet Shop Boys: Was It Worth It?

But… what this book reminds me most of is Precious Rubbish. It’s a book about how horrible her parents are, and they’re really horrible.

Everything is gone over again and again, and analysed to death, leaving no space for the reader. It’s chock full of stuff that sounds like it has been worked out over years of therapy. And it’s also careful to guard itself by adding any objections the reader could have into the work itself — everything is explained repeatedly. Did I say repeatedly? Repeatedly.

So — a clear candidate for all the “best of 2026” lists that’ll start dropping in a couple months time.

(I feel like this is a current trend — perhaps because everything is so often taken out of context, artists over-explain things to make sure that readers understand what they’re actually saying; no need for interpretation. But at the same time, the book is frustratingly vague on basic biographical information — like, how many sisters does she have, anyway? We’re told about a wonderful weekend she spent with her younger sister… and then she isn’t (I think) ever mentioned again. There’s also an older sister mentioned, but isn’t shown except in a “flash forward” sequence, I think? So — overdetermined but with “plot holes”: Not a good combo.)

I did like the final section, about going to a Flaming Lips happening while on acid.

ESG: ESG

16:40: Bobbie Cade by Juliette Collet

This is another newspaper size comic from Collet.

This time around, it’s one single story, which makes a change, I think? It’s pretty goofy, which I like.

Joni Mitchell: Night Ride Home

16:54: L’inconnu de la Tamise by Boudouin Deville (E-Voke)

Huh, how odd. I mean, this is meant to emulate the Edgar P. Jacobs school of comics, but it’s obviously been drawn on a tablet. So it’s brand new? But the shapes are just a smidgen odd — has it all been drawn with vectors and bezier curves? I mean, the look is attractive, but it’s just… uncanny.

If it turns out that this is some forgotten classic from the 60s then I’m gonna look pretty foolish. I mean, I can’t just edit the text above after doing some research, can I? OK, research time! Oh, but before that — I also suspect that this isn’t a French artist. Perhaps Swiss? OK.

AAARGHL! It’s from 1984! I was totally wrong! And… he’s Belgian.

Darn! I wish this editor had editing capabilities!

But man… this artwork just looks inhumane, doesn’t it? It’s like… a Charles Burns that doesn’t quite know how to draw convincing figures decided to do a Jacobs book. (But featuring women.)

So odd.

Anyway, I didn’t really catch much of the story, because I was just fascinated by the odd artwork. The story didn’t really seem to be very good?

17:12: Le Cirque Bodoni by Peyo et Walthéry (Dupuis)

Oh, I gotta do my French lessons today. I read the first half of this album yesterday.

I especially liked the joke about the sad debt collector who wishes he hadn’t listened to his father, and instead followed his dream to become a “tueur aux abattoirs”. Heh heh.

Anyway, Benoît Brisefer is a classic children’s series. I remember reading a couple of these as a child (in translation), but I don’t think I ever read this one?

It’s very lively and full of gags and jokes. And since it’s geared towards five year olds, it’s perfect for me. I mean, my French level.

C’est vachement drôle.

17:40: Conversations with Don DeLillo by Drew Lerman (Cram Books)

I really liked Lerman’s Snake Creek book…

… but this one is awfully slight.

(Ooops, out of focus; sorry.) I guess this was serialised on Instagram? It has that low ambition feel.

Tuxedomoon: The Ghost Sonata

18:00: Squanderlust by Krusty Wheatfield

Now with this one, being spiral bound makes total sense.

It’s a collection of (I’m guessing) notebook pages drawn of the past few years? It’s entertaining.

18:19: This Place Sucks So Much by Tana Oshima

This little book sounds like it’s going to be kinda didactic…

But it isn’t! It’s loose and impressionistic and great!

I love it! You totally get the feeling of being in that place in just a few pages — everything is imbued with so much character and emotion. A wonderful little book, and I got it from here.

Consolidated: Friendly Fascism

18:28: Bloom by Andrew White

Heh heh.

This is a super-referential comic — I guess Pickle is what echoes the hardest here — and it’s a totally fascinating book to read. You get shivers running down your spine every few pages.

This is some kind of masterpiece, really. The artwork is great, the pacing is perfect, and it feels like some kind of magical book. Incredible book.

And, heh heh — I was also trying to buy all issues of Oh magazine back in the 90s, but then I forgot. I should dig out those issues…

Anyway! This is fabulous book, and you can buy it here.

19:02: Laser Quest by Harry Nordlinger (Floating World Comics)

This is a nice little horror comic book.

It manages to keep the mood going pretty well.

19:09: Crepusculine #2 by Conor Stechschulte

I think I read the previous issue, like, a year ago? Or a couple years ago?

Thanks for the recap!

This issue is even more unnerving than the last one. And! Silver ink!

Very brief issue, but class.

19:13: Drain Drain by Quinn C Amacher

I liked this one — attractive artwork and a storyline that does not go where you expect it to.

The story is left pretty unresolved, but it’s still a good read. Perhaps I should do some shopping here…

19:23: The End

OK, I think that’s enough comics for today: I have to make dinner.

But that was a pretty solid batch of comics, man.

Here’s some comics I’ve read over the past couple weeks.

I bought another one of these DC collections of 70s comics for nostalgic reasons — I vaguely remember reading some of these when I was, like, ten.

What I remember most is Jim Aparo’s artwork (who does all the art on all the issues) — it’s not hard to describe it, it’s basically “Neal Adams but with a bit less drama”. It’s super attractive.

These sort of team-up books are difficult to write, I bet — and this is a bi-monthly series with absolutely no continuity. And Bob Haney writes all the characters without any character, so what we get is plot, plot, plot. One issue after another with a brand new hokey plot — like the above where the commissioner Gordon is fired… and then Batman is also fired!? And he just quits?

OK, this may be the hokiest of the stories, but… it’s a lot.

And every issue is divided into three chapters for some reason or other, which makes things seem even more cramped, plot wise. It feels like a throwback to 50s/60s super-hero comics in that way.

(By the way, this reminds me of a joke from a friend when we were talking about the phenomena of “Batman shampoos”, as one does:

“Why on Earth haven’t anybody launched a “Conditioner Gordon” product?!” You’re welcome.)

Anyway, I worked my way through this book for three weeks, reading an issue now and then, and when I got halfway there, I decided that I’d read enough of these, so I ditched the book.)

It’s been some very normal weeks for Spirou.

One thing I had to skip here — the Smurfs. I just smurfin’ couldn’t smurf the smurfin’ meaning of any of the smurfs. I mean words.

But there’s good stuff, too.

This is one of those award bait comics by veteran Norwegian comics artist Flu Hartberg. (Who seems like a good guy — he’s heading up an anti-LLM task force or something. Which is nice.)

But the book is just a collection of the tritest things you can come up with for a “serious” “graphic novel” — it’s a coming of age story, where we follow the protagonist from his small town to the Big City. I mean, look at the artwork — limited palette to make it serious, and the extremely clear artwork and storytelling to appeal to a non-comics-reading audience.

The dialogue is just risibly bad.

Oh, and what does the protagonist do in the Big City? Yes, he goes to art school where the teachers are just into Pointless Awful Conceptual Art and hate comics/illustration.

The book feels extremely unnecessary.

Jesse Lonergan does something very different.

I mean, look at this! Striking, eh?

Unfortunately, despite it looking really cool, I couldn’t get into it. It just feels oddly put together — it starts off almost totally wordless, but then it seems like he loses confidence in the reader, and starts putting in more dialogue that Explains It All, and that’s pretty jarring.

And the entire thing is mostly fight scenes and Spiritual Important Things, and meh.

But the artwork and design sure is great.

Another old French(ey) album…

Jessica Blandy isn’t very present in this one — it’s mostly about these evil, evil, degenerate, evil, insane and evil characters that live in a swamp (and one of them drinks blood) that kidnap Blandy to marry her and stuff.

I did really enjoy the sheer hatred of Americans that shines through.

Unfortunately, I learned something, and that’s never good! I hate learning stuff! But that preacher up there is quoting Proverbes 2.16: “Mais à la fin elle est amère comme l’absinthe, Aiguë comme un glaive à deux tranchants.” And I went… “Bitter like absinthe? Sure, that’s bitter, but did they really have absinthe in the olden days? Isn’t it “bitter as gall” or something? But it turns out that the Hebrew word apparently means “wormwood”, which is the ingredient in absinthe, so the French translation is much closer than the English one…

Don’t you hate learning things, too? So now we’re even.

(I think it works that way.)

Another oldie from Dick Briel, who is Dutch (but this is translated into French).

The art style is, I guess, “Edgar P. Jacobs but from Ikea”. I like it.

And the adventures are nice and stupid, which I like. So… nice.

I don’t know who Christopher Fink is…

… but apparently he’s been doing comics for a while and stuff?

I didn’t connect at all with this one. The artwork is extremely tablet-ey, which isn’t my thing.

And it felt like I was perhaps supposed to have read his previous books to get this?

So… perhaps this is a work of genius? I don’t know; I ditched it after about fifty pages.

And that’s all from… Last Week’s Comics Tonight!