Amy + Jordan by Mark Beyer (285x135mm)
Beyer seldom talks directly to the reader, so this was a change.
Anyway, this book reprints Amy + Jordan strips from 89 to 91. It’s pretty essential Amy + Jordan.
It seems like publishers see Beyer’s work and they think “hey! let’s make an art object!” The focus is seldom on… reading… the artwork’s printed to small to be easy to read, and it’s only printed on the right-hand side. (And there’s a little thing printed in blue on each of these pages.)
It looks great… and I love books as objects, but… I’d also really love to read these strips in a larger format.
Hey! That’s a strip where nobody died! Happy ending!
It’s logical.
Beyer shows up in a couple of these strips to apologise for them not being up to his usual standards… and… OK, some of these are treading water, perhaps, but it’s pretty a pretty awesome collection. I mean, I’d look at anything Beyer draws because his artwork is just magnificent, but these are good strips.
And this is, strangely enough, a German collection… but in English. Perhaps emphasising the “book as artwork” even more: The publisher doesn’t care if those darn Germans can read it or not.
It’s published in a series called “TOLLEN BÜCHER”, which means… “insane books?” Let me check that with Google Translate. No! Google says “great books”? Or “groovy books”.
And I got my copy at the great Gosh Comics twenty-one years ago, apparently.
This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.