Random Thoughts

It’s gonna be a rainy day today, so how about reading some comics, while listening to a bunch of David Bowie albums I don’t usually listen to? I mean, remixes and remasters and 90s stuff? Let’s give it a go.

Oh, and yesterday I got a light bulb for my reading chair lamp that lets me adjust the colour temperature. Let’s see… here it’s the normal 2700K, which means that if I adjust what I’m reading to white, the background goes all blue (because of the natural light from the windows).

And then I take out the app and pump the Ks up to 6500, so that everything is blue…

… and then adjust the camera to that colour temperature, and presto!!! The system works! I’m a genius!

So why not just use that colour temperature always? Well, the other lamps are all 2700K, so it’s disturbing when shifting my eyes from 6500K reading to the rest of the room — at night, at least, when it looks like everything is all yellow… but not if all the lamps are 2700K, because then it all looks white.

Brains, eh? The eyes cheat so much.

Anyway! Comics!

David Bowie: Space Oddity (2019 Mix by Tony Visconti)

07:27: You Will Own Nothing And You Will Be Happy #4/Boys in Prison by Simon Hanselmann

I got these from here.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, this is Hanselmann’s zombie series that he self-published. Yes I know! But it’s good.

This is a really harsh issue, though. It’s intense and depressing.

Value add!

The Boys in Prison mini: “There’s no fucking way we can sell this, this is horrible” was a reaction Hanselmann got on this one, according to the backmatter. And it is indeed a lot (none of it shown above). But also funny (as shown above)!

David Bowie: Pinups

08:06: The Idris File by Dix (Fantagraphics)

Hanselmann talked a bit about one-upmanship and being accused of being an edgelord in his backmatter, but man. It’s more appropriate for this one, really.

It’s a totally disgusting book on all levels — repulsive artwork, horrible characters and a vile plot.

I think it’s supposed to be funny?

David Bowie: Station To Station (3)

08:36: The Silence of Unicorns by Stref (ComicScene)

Wow, this is a very thorough Hergé pastiche. It’s a bit wonky, though? I guess it’s drawn on a tablet, so the line is even clearer than ligne claire. And the proportions of things are sometimes ever so slightly wonky? And the colours are less saturated than in Tintin — but only slightly (compared to the 50s editions). Perhaps it looked right on the screen, but then it got more washed out when printing (as colours usually do)?

David Bowie: Changesonebowie

David Bowie: Be My Wife

But I mean, I’m nitpicking — it’s fun to look at these pages.

It’s quite wordy, but and it’s not as funny as Tintin, but it’s pretty entertaining anyway. It’s a fun project.

(Quite confusing mystery.)

And now I have to take a nap, because I only slept a couple hours tonight. Because of reasons.

David Bowie: Welcome to the Blackout (Live London ’78) (1)

I’m awake! I’m awake!

14:39: Black Cohosh by Eagle Valiant Brosi (Drawn & Quarterly)

This is presented as an autobiography (i.e., the protagonist has the same name as the author)… The artwork is in the American 50s satiric cartoon tradition, I guess? (New Yorkerish, that is.)

It’s quite confusing — it’s hard to tell all the characters apart. Not just because of the art style, but because there’s a lot of them, and the family situation is unclear. I first thought they were at a foster home or something, and it didn’t become clear until quite a while that they were at a hippie faux commune, or what you’d call it.

David Bowie: Welcome to the Blackout (Live London ’78) (2)

It’s a difficult book to say much about because it feels so… private? It’s more private than personal, if that makes any sense.

David Bowie: Breaking Glass (Live E.P.)

15:36: The Bees by Akvilé Magicdusté (Fantagraphics)

Uh-oh.

Well, I like the art style, and it’s interesting — it’s about a pop band in 60s and 70s Lithuania. So that’s new.

But it’s told in such a choppy way… there’s 30 chapters over 150 pages, so nothing really develops. It’s like she did a couple of interviews, and then spent a handful of pages on each anecdote.

It really doesn’t work at all, and the more I’m reading, the more impatient I’m getting with it all. Which is a shame! Like I said, the topic is interesting, and I think there’s a good story in here somewhere.

The book picks up substantially after the band really gets going, though.

David Bowie: DJ

16:05: Amazonas by Leo Ribeiro (Trykksak)

This is a sort of travel diary kind of book — the author lives in Brazil, but after Bolsonaro won, he decides to move to Norway. But the month before he moves, he’s invited to take a trip up the Amazon on a boat, and do classes for people living in the jungle in animation and cartooning.

David Bowie: Boys Keep Swinging

It’s interesting and told well — we learn a lot, but it doesn’t feel like we’re being infodumped at, either. There’s some amusing anecdotes, some dramatic ones — it’s very amiable.

David Bowie: Alabama Song

16:32: Death of Copra #4, Copra #50 by Michel Fiffe (Image Comics)

David Bowie: ChangesTwoBowie

Yes, this is the end of Copra (after about a decade, I guess)?

And it’s really cool. As usual when reading single issues of Copra, I’m totally confused, but I don’t mind. I’m looking forward to reading the entire epic now — I think I basically have 80% of the issues, but I’m not sure whether to wait for the remaining three “big” collections that are supposed to collect the entire thing. Because I’m lazy.

David Bowie: A New Career in a New Town (9): Lodger (2017 Remix)

16:50: Salt Green Death by Katarina Thorsen (Conundrum Press)

Thorsen calls this “creative non-fiction”, and it’s a truly unique work. It has, perhaps, echoes of Sue Coe?

Anyway, we follow Joe O’Dwyer and his family through documents left behind. The literature list is pages and pages — this project must have taken multiple years. Thorsen tries to figure out what happened to this guy, and what happened to his family, and it’s engrossing and moving.

Most of the book is taken up with Joe’s stay at various mental institutions (he was schizophrenic).

This sounds like it could be a dry exercise, but this is anything but an infodump. The artwork is so powerful, and the storytelling is so on point that you can’t help being sucked into this maelstrom of a story. It’s so well done, and it’s so original.

This one goes on my “comic book of the year” list.

David Bowie: A New Career in a New Town (6): Stage (2017 Edition) (1)

17:53: You and Me On Repeat by Mary Shyne (Henry Holt)

Huh, this is very Japanese-looking, ain’t it? Down to replicating the badly printed single red colour typical of Japanese comics in the 50s.

David Bowie: A New Career in a New Town (7): Stage (2017 Edition) (2)

But that’s just a fake-out — there’s all the colours, but a limited amount at any one time.

Anyway, this is a Groundhog Day book, and if you’re wondering whether anybody can do something new within that framework — sure. Just look at On The Calculation Of Volume by Solvej Balle. This isn’t that original — it’s a straightforward, traditional Groundhog Day, but we get some laughs along the way, and the kids reading this will learn An Important Moral Lesson.

David Bowie: Blackstar

18:44: Heavy Metal #1 edited by Frank Forte

Yes! It’s a new #1. I’ve been a Heavy Metal reader for yonks, on and off — mostly off. That is, I did a few years as a teenager, and then several years about a decade ago.

This is a pretty hefty issue — 220 pages. But have they changed much from the old recipe?

I like anthologies that have hefty page counts — that way you can run more than 20 pages of Enki Bilal…

… and the same with Segrelles. Unfortunately, these are both old things that I’ve read many times before.

But I’m surprised by how little I’ve read before — it was basically just those two. I’m guessing the vast majority of things here are pretty old, like this Ortiz/Segura fun little story.

There’s a number of smaller text pieces, and there’s also a lot of pages (like the one to the right there) that’s about Heavy Metal history. I think that works well — it creates an atmosphere.

The magazine very consistent in tone and look, but you have people like Janevsky that does something else graphically, at least.

What!? Quinn/Vigil? Well, that’s different, and I don’t remember Tim Vigil’s artwork looking like that. (But I haven’t really followed his career.)

Uhm… Valentina by Sergio Gerasi? So they’re continuing Crepax’s er I guess you could call it a “series”. Unfortunately, Gerasi is no Crepax.

But I’m impressed by the issue. It feels classic, but slightly refreshed. I think I’m going to continue buying this iteration and see how it goes.

One other surprising thing here was how many continuing stories there are. I know, that’s always been a traditional Heavy Metal thing, but since this is a quarterly (I think?), I imagined they’d dial that back, but nope.

19:32: The End

Anyway, I think that’s enough comics for a day. Besides, I have to make dinner.

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

I’ve read a couple of Rick Tremble’s books before, but they’ve been smaller in format.

This is magazine size, and the pages just overwhelm the reader. When you have this much text (and you mostly have fixed-sized panels like this), it helps with readability to just use a smaller page format — a couple panels per page would make it less daunting.

But it’s pretty engrossing nonetheless — this book mostly deals with Trembles’ travails with various landlords over the years, and it’s interesting and frequently very amusing.

I’ve read most of Copra before, but in pretty much random order, depending on which issues I’ve happened upon in comics shops and the like.

This book collects the first dozen issues in a larger format (and on very shiny paper), and it’s a lot of fun finally reading this stuff in the proper order. It makes sense now! I mean, I enjoy being confused, but it’s a relief to finally understand things, too.

I really like Fiffe’s artwork, and his storytelling chops are just amazing, too. Reading this book was so much fun.

The only problem with this collection is that there’s no subsequent collections! I want to read them all like this now!

This book is by Marion Fayolle, which is a name that’s unfamiliar with me.

It’s called Les amours suspendues, and I’ve read nothing like it before. Instead of taking things from movies, it’s a more ballet-based comic. (I guess Neil the Horse could be considered to be a dance-based comic, too, and while it’s brilliant, it’s not this extreme.)

So this tells the story about a man who keeps flirting with various women, and it’s about the images we create of other people, and self delusions, and … It’s a lot!

It’s great. It’s so original and compelling, but this strange storytelling approach really works. Is it perhaps influenced by Éric Rohmer? Probably not, but it fascinating and compulsively readable.

It won Prix spécial du jury du Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême 2018, which is totally understandable. It’s been translated to German, Italian and Chinese, but not English.

Here’s a scathing review:

I like World War 3 Illustrated, this sounded like it was in that vein…

… but this just didn’t grab me.

The art style seems annoying somehow (is it all done on a tablet?), and I just couldn’t make my way through it, so I ditched it after 40 pages or so.

This is Karla Paloma’s first book…

… and even after having read most of the book, I was somehow thinking this was a Swedish comic, because it just looks very Galago-ish, if that makes sense. I was going “but hang on, this is in Danish, isn’t it?” and indeed it is. Duh.

It’s very punk. The stories are a kind of mix of what I assume are autobio-ish bits (the setting, mostly), because it feels very true. But the stories are completely wild and strange and fun — think Julie Doucet.

It’s fun.

This, on the other hand…

It’s about growing up gay in Brazil, and it reads like a comics memoir — for worse and for worse. That is, it’s a jeremiad about how everybody’s mistreating the poor little boy, who’s done nothing wrong. And of course he hasn’t, but that approach is kinda *rolls eye*. C’mon. Give the kid some personality, at least.

(And I also find the artwork and storytelling style offputting.)

But it’s not autobio or even bio — it’s just a collection of horrible things. Did they really give boys in Brazil in the 70s pills to make them throw up, along with gay porn, so that that would work as aversion therapy? If so: Very creative! Very Clockwork Orange!

And of course electroconvulsive therapy, and later he becomes very religious, and etc etc etc.

It doesn’t really even work as propaganda — the book is just too annoying.

Or as this person puts it:

This is intelligent, meaningful and importantly, in the right hands it could change lives.

Or:

The art is fantastic, and you immediately notice the colour scheme at play. It’s clever and brilliantly done.

Or:

There are some excellent character moments in this comic; some are good, some are not – this is life and the harsh realities of the life that is depicted in the story.

Anyway!

That was… My Week In Comics.