Random Thoughts

I missed some comics I wanted to read in 2024! *gasp* My methodology for US comics is to go through the solicitations on my web site here, and then semiautomatically order the books… I’ve used Mile High Comics since I was 12, but they are horrible about actually reacting to subscription changes, especially when ordering one-off books, so then I switched to DCBS two years ago, and that worked fine until they started just not carrying books from certain publishers (like Silver Sprocket), so then I switched to TFAW this autumn. Hopefully that’ll fix the problem once and for all…

I hear you sensibly say “but why don’t you just wait until the comics are in the bookstores?” And I have to reply “my memory is a sieve, and not even a steel one. It’s 50/50 whether something that looks unknown to me in a bookstore is something I already have, but the solicitations helpfully are marked as “offered again” etc, so I know which ones are brand new, and I can buy them with certainty”.

Anyway, I perused the TCJ best of list and the Hipinion people’s and ordered a couple dozen books.

Some of which have arrived! And also a whole bunch of comics from Domino. Let’s get readin’.

(And today’s music is all either Arto Lindsay albums or albums he’s been involved with as a producer or something.)

Arto Lindsay: Mundo Civilizado

08:12: Blurry by Dash Shaw (New York Review Comics)

This is a book that I was really excited to read — Dash Shaw is great.

And I love the storytelling here — it’s hypnotic.

The Lounge Lizards: The Lounge Lizards

This book reminds me a lot of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy, but instead of having a serial “listen to a new person’s tale” structure, this is more (yes, I’m going to say it) Inception: We get stories within stories within stories, and then pop back out in the opposite order.

That’s all fun and kinda amazing, and while the ending doesn’t make much sense logically, it’s emotionally overwhelmingly joyous. Fantastic.

But what isn’t fantastic are many of the stories themselves, I’m sorry to say. Cusk is a master of having each story told being intensively interesting, but about half the stories here were just tedious. I’m sorry for using hate speech! Especially the art teacher thing, and that’s probably the central thing here (if you can call it that, what with the structure of the book).

So it’s frustrating: They way it’s constructed and some of the sections make you feel like it’s a masterpiece, put then the feeling passes.

The Golden Palominos: The Golden Palominos

09:45: Mineshaft #43 & 45 edited by Everett Rand

Noah van Sciver takes on the bête noire of comics artists — fine art! And that’s not a joke that’s ever been done before…

Aww. Aline Kominsky and Sophie Crumb. *sniff* (I’ve read this piece before, though.)

#45 is extremely strong.

Fantastic stuff.

And harrowing stuff.

I love Mineshaft, the last underground anthology. And #45 is amazing — best issue ever, I think.

Ambitious Lovers: Envy

10:26: Lapis Lazuli by Arbor

This is a little book that mixes pictures of graffiti…

… with sketches and drawings. It’s not narrative, but it somehow seems to build to something anyway. Nice.

10:34: The Beasts Inside by Nicole Rodrigues

Ooh, nice — it’s a vellumey plastickey page.

I like the artwork here.

The narrative is a bit on the vague side, but it’s got a nice flow.

Seigen Ono: Comme des Garçons

10:40: Crepusculine 1 by Conor Stechschulte

This is very intriguing…

… but so brief! It’s the start of a long story, I’m guessing? If it’s being serialised this way, there’ll be dozens and dozens of issues, perhaps.

Caetano Veloso: Estrangeiro

10:44: My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

OK, back to the “best of 2024”-listed books again. This one wasn’t on so many lists as the first volume, I guess, but it was on plenty.

I haven’t re-read the first book, and that was back in 2016? Or something? So I remember nothing. Except that I wasn’t overly enthused by it. I mean, I liked it, but…

This doesn’t start out very reader friendly — with a dream sequence.

Marisa Monte: Mais

But then it smooths out considerably.

Laurie Anderson: Bright Red – Tightrope

Ferris’ artwork is impressive — she especially puts a lot of effort into the faces, so just looking at these pages is enjoyable.

[I took a nap here.]

Vinicius Cantuária: Sol Na Cara

The story, though… Well, it’s an enjoyable read. It’s got all the structure of porridge. It just flows strangely from one thing to another, and the reader is being asked to puzzle out what the mystery is. But Ferris cheats a lot: She has the protagonist forgetting things at points, or blanking out, and that just reeks of TV series storytelling. And there’s so many over-the-top dramatic moments, what with the speakeasy accessible from a secret basement, and the deranged cop dad, and…

And this doesn’t really seem like it’s the final volume of the story? Is there going to be a third book? If not the book is like… a kinda “fuck you” to the reader, really. Or perhaps not; perhaps it’s more like “well, things are mysterious and you never get to know what happened when you were a child” kind of thing? Because the book is a lot about withholding information from children, and how that affects them, so I guess that could make sense.

I guess I’m saying that I liked reading it, but I’m annoyed? Yeah.

Arto Lindsay: O Corpo Sutil

16:07: Round World Thinking by Ana Woulfe

OK, back to the Domino shipment.

I really like Woulfe’s artwork.

Heh heh, I think we have a Cocteau Twins fan here.

Anyway, this is funny and oddly sweet book.

And speaking of sweet, I’ve fetched some Kinder Eggs.

16:15: No, Thanks! by S. Höppner (Cram Books)

Such stylish artwork!

The story is both really funny and very intriguing. Excellent stuff.

Arto Lindsay: Reentry

16:20: Still Making Your Diary Comics? by Fran López

This comes with a nice little print.

Hey! This isn’t a diary comic after all! The nerve!

It’s a cute little story — really cool.

Vinicius Cantuária: Tucumã

16:27: Peepshow #15 by Joe Matt (Fantagraphics)

I missed this when it was published, so I had to buy if from ebay now for $$$. Man, why didn’t Fantagraphics just print enough copies instead? All the stores were sold.

It’s like no time has passed since the previous issue (which is two decades ago, I guess).

For better or for worse. So this is a nostalgic read, but it makes you want to strangle Matt even more than usual, even knowing that this is the final issue ever.

Arto Lindsay: Noon Chill

16:56: Vera Bushwack by Sig Burwash (Drawn & Quarterly)

This is a compelling book.

It’s very grounded…

… and at the same time it’s got these wonderful flights of fancy. It’s a solid book.

My one complaint is that the characters have a tendency to look the same (build, height, stance, facial feature), so you have to distinguish them by hairdo only, and that gets old.

Arto Lindsay: Prize

17:39: True-Man The Maximortal #1 by Rick Veitch

This was also on somebody’s Best Of list, and it’s print-on-demand available from Amazon only (phooey).

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten that Veitch draws digitally now. And it’s printed kinda low rez? It gives it a very stark look, but quite attractive, really.

Heh heh.

Oh right — this is a prequel! Or rather the first part of the King Hell Heroica thing, but published last. I was getting kinda confused about the storyline until the very end…

And as usual, in addition to 50 pages of Maximortal stuff, there’s also 50 pages of reprints of old stuff. These books are very attractive packages, really. You feel like you’re getting a good chunk of interesting stuff.

And stuff.

18:23: Absolute Simultaneity by Lily Thu Fierro/Generoso Fierro

Wow, this is something else.

It’s mesmerising. It’s kinda narrative, but kinda abstract, too, and it’s somehow very emotional. Fantastic.

18:29: Szns #1 by Chaia Startz (Deadcrow)

This is a short, but good book.

It’s only the first chapter of what I’m guessing is going to be a long narrative? I’m aboard; I’m already invested in these characters.

18:34: The End

And now I think I’m going to make dinner, so I think I’ll just call it a day with the comics reading. I guess I didn’t read that many of the “missed” comics as I’d planned today, but instead went with small press stuff instead a lot, so I’ve got a lot more “missed” books to read. Er… perhaps tomorrow? Probably not, but this weekend, perhaps.

My old blog about Eclipse Comics used to be hosted by WordPress.com, but after the recent Jetpack Stats changes, I’ve moved it to self-hosting so that I can get nice stats again.

So this is just a heads up that if you used to go to totaleclipse.blog, it’s now hosted on total-eclipse.kwakk.info. All the old URLs are still valid, but redirect to the new domain for the time being (and probably for several years to come), but will go away eventually, I guess. Let me know if there are any problems.

I read some comics the past few weeks! I know, unusual…

The heftiest item is this collection of comics by Didier Comès. I’ve read about half of this in translation before, but the rest is new to me.

(Too bad about the awful cover the publishers have chosen here…)

And… it’s just totally gorgeous.

And very mysterious!

His stories are all about mysticism and stuff, and it really works in his comics. Without his wonderful artwork and masterful storytelling chops, it would have been just, well, twaddle, but it really works. And since it’s in French, I’m having to read these works really slowly, which I guess also helps?

Comès is hugely influenced by Hugo Pratt, of course, and we also get a two page appreciation after Pratt died. *sniff*

But like… this is so good. Finally me learning French is starting to pay off! I can read stuff like this! (With a bit of help from Google Translate.)

Speaking of masterful… Fantagraphic’s Carl Barks series has now reached the next-to-last volume (I think). They’re doing the earliest material backwards, so this is from 1943-ish.

And Barks is just gag after gag after gag here in these earliest stories.

So inventive and so amazing. I’ve read all this stuff a gazillion times before, of course, ever since I was a child, but it’s even better in this presentation (which is very close to how it was originally printed; only better).

The sad thing is that there’s (I think) just one more volume to go: Bark’s first couple years on Donald Duck. *pout*

I’ve only gotten a single new issue of Spirou in the mail since last time.

There was a double-sized issue, but it seems like they also took a week or more extra off?

In any case, there wasn’t anything of particular interest in this issue, just the normal serials continuing. And the Soda serial turns out to be one of the worst Soda sequences ever, I think.

I read the final two Raina Telgemeier adaptations of the Baby-Sitters Club.

And.. these are perhaps a bit denser and plot filled than the first two?

They’re pretty entertaining? But… I’m still a bit disappointed, because Telgemeier’s solo books are so good, and this is just… fine.

DC Comics seems to have a lot of momentum and enthusiasm these days, and among other things is that they’re releasing a lot of collections of older stuff…

… and aiming them at people who are er casual readers. “The perfect starting point”. I haven’t read Wonder Woman since I was a child, so that sounds er perfect for me!

So naturally, the first thing in this collection is an issue from some execrable “countdown” crossover or other…

… and then we get an issue of Brave and the Bold that features Wonder Woman.

Before we finally get issue #14 of the Wonder Woman series that was running in 2008.

*sigh*

If this is the perfect starting point, I shudder to think what a bad starting point would be.

The artwork here doesn’t do much for me either, but I actually read the entire thing. There’s some amusing bits — Gail Simone is a pretty good writer, based on these issues — but half of the time, the plot lines require you to have deep knowledge about what sounds like pretty esoteric (*throws up in the mouth a bit*) “lore”, and also that you should care about these characters that you (well, I) know nothing about.

So that was a big let-down, really. Not buying any more of that crap, but I’ve also bought some collections of oldee tymey DC comics, and we’ll see how that goes…

I visited one of the few remaining used comics shops a couple months ago, and to my surprise, I found that they had a nice stack of French albums, so I bought about half of them. Dirt cheap, too, because not many people here speak French.

I’ve never heard of this series before…

And for good reasons — it’s pretty bad! It’s pretty bad! But the artwork is kinda OK? Reminds me a bit of Yoko Tsuno, perhaps.

But it’s bad!

OK, that’s it.