Hey, the world is going to end in six days because Kamala can’t make herself say “this might be controversial, but I’m actually against genocides”, so it’s time to read some comics, I guess.
| Lencinho: Belo Lo-Fi |  |
06:29: Š! #53 (Kuš)
This issue is all Czech artists, I think…
It’s a denser issue than normally, but such a lot of excellent stuff in here…
| Xiu Xiu: Rise |  |
The standout is perhaps this piece by Barbora Müllernová, which is just kind of magical.
But it’s all good. Another excellent issue of Š!.
| Julie Tippetts & Martin Archer: Vestigium |  |
07:02: Gangway! by Emil Friis Ernst
Wow.
This is really kinetic… I wonder whether it’s inspired by Yuichi Yokoyama? It’s got that propulsive thing going.
It’s great, but should have been like 10x longer.
Oh, and there’s a print included… I apparently scored the last copy? 200/200.
07:08: Rompepistas by Rosa Codina/Kiko Amat (Ablaze)
I’ve really started looking a Ablaze’s listings the last year — they publish a lot of things that seem interesting, but then turn out to be kinda half-assed. Like… really atrocious translations or slapdash formats or whatever.
The translation here seems OK, though, but did we really need that “*Carnaval” footnote? And when we do need an explanation — for Rompetistas’s name — we just got a “*Breaker”. Breaker? Like the CB thing? Or a circuit breaker? Or what? How is that a name?
As usual, the physical book is violently indifferent — the aspect ratio isn’t quite right, so we get a too-tall border at the top, and they’ve used a really shiny, thin white paper which is all kinds of wrong for a book like this.
I’m guessing this is the reason this book exists. Not that there’s anything wrong with taking grants.
Oh, the contents of the book… It’s kinda OK? It’s a typical coming-of-age thing, but is thoroughly unconvincing. This is supposed to be a 17-year-old, and his narration is like something regurgitated from four decades of self help books or something.
But it’s OK. It’s got several scenes that work, so it doesn’t get too annoying.
| Oren Ambarchi: Quixotism |  |
08:10: Nunavik by Michel Hellman (Pow Pow Press)
I was briefly in Montreal a couple weeks ago, and I stopped by a couple comics shops, of course. At Librarie Planete Bd they had a nice little section with comics from Quebec, and this is one of those books.
And I bought some chocolates from Les Chocolats de Chloé, which is around the corner from that comics shop. I’m having a totes Quebecois moment here.
Heh heh.
This book is basically one of those travel thingies — the author goes to the way north of Quebec and does the story about his er adventures there.
It’s fun! Hellman doesn’t do anything revolutionary with the form or anything, but it’s really entertaining and seems well-observed. You really feel what the trip was like.
And it’s intensively interesting. There’s so many things I didn’t know — I had no idea that the Dorset people existed, for instance.
*nine thumbs up*
(The chocolate is good, too. Not very distinctive flavours in the ganache, though.)
| Joan as Police Woman: The Deep Field |  |
09:07: Passe-Temps by Pascal Girard (Pow Pow Press)
So I’m staying in Quebec for the next book…
This is, I guess, strips from Girard’s sketchbook?
It’s extremely slice-of-life, but these bits are pretty funny — like this woman exhorting him to not buy baby formula (a breast-feeding fanatic), and then him telling her that his wife is dead.
Sometimes I wonder whether he exaggerates his foibles, because after a while I’m sort of getting pretty annoyed with Pascal… I mean, his behaviour.
It’s pretty good, though. When was the last time we had a “real” book from him, though? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? But he works as a social worker now, so perhaps he just doesn’t have the time…
Oh, his last solo work was in 2013. Oh well.
| Charli XCX: Charli |  |
10:40: Disciples of the Soil by B. Mure (Avery Hill)
Oh, I’d almost forgotten how much I love the colours in this series.
It’s a pretty confusing read, though. I’m not sure whether that’s on purpose (I don’t mind being confused) or whether that’s because I’ve totally forgotten what happened in the previous books. It’s about building a tunnel, and there’s a strike, and… there’s something about magic?
And then when things are starting to happen, the book ends and we get “to be continued in the next book”.
I mean, it’s good stuff, and I enjoyed reading it, but it’s a bit frustrating.
11:00: Cutting Season by Bhanu Pratap (Fantagraphics)
This is a collection of short, oblique pieces — I don’t think they relate to each other?
The mixture of more abstract grotesques and precisely observed environments is kinda hypnotic.
And it’s also funny.
Great stuff.
| Pescado Rabioso: Artaud |  |
11:14: Rust Belt Review Volume 6 edited by Sean Knickerbocker
I got this from here.
This is an oversized anthology, and most of the stories are autobio or autobio adjacent. Many of them seem er oddly sinister? Like the one above; like if disaster is always lurking in the corner…
While the approaches vary, it has a kind of unified tone. And it’s not a typical anthology these days.
Most of the pieces are pretty straightforward, but this Alex Nall thing has an unnerving spiralling thing going on. Gripping.
Oooh Maggie Umber.
In short: A compelling anthology.
12:02: The Second Safest Mountain by Otava Heikkilä (Quindrie Press)
I quite like the artwork and the way the story flows.
However, every page has like a blinking honking huge text saying METAPHOR METAPHOR going, and it’d fucking annoying.
| Pile: Hot Air Balloon |  |
12:13: Peepee Poopoo #1 by Caroline Cash (Silver Sprocket)
Did Cash win all the awards for best everything this year? I think so?
It’s the fourth issue (I think), and it’s still going strong — I mean, that’s not a surprise.
It’s fab. More please.
| David Bowie: Rock’n’Roll Star (2) |  |
12:25: Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke by Sugiura Shigeru (New York Review Comics)
Very prescient the way he predicted future lyrics.
Anyway, this is extremely not my kind of thing? It’s one non sequitur after another, which is the typical 50s/60s Japanese comics gag way, and I just find it annoying in the extreme.
Perhaps it’s genius! I’ll never know, because I ditched it after 30 pages.
12:47: Kommix by Charles Burns (Fantagraphics)
This is Burns’ book of “fake covers”… and I find myself enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would? Especially the “Tintin”/X’d Out covers which seem to hint at a larger storyline… But of course, that’s the Burns magic: You look at one of his images and they evoke so much.
Many of the covers could be called straightforward gags, though.
But I mean… OK, this is a great book. Fine.
| Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: The Funeral Pudding |  |
12:55: Ultimate Spider-Man: Married With Children by Hickman/Chechetto/Messina/Wilson (Marvel Comics)
I noticed that this series has gotten a lot of attention on Twitter, so I thought I might as well give it a go.
Gah, Marvel can’t keep the same artist on for a six issue arc, even?
I have read exactly zero (0) of the original “Ultimate” comics, but I believe that the point of that universe was to allow new readers to read fun super-hero stories without all that backstory baggage?
Well, that’s not what this is. The main point of the six issues collected here seems to be to allow readers to go “there’s that character I know, only slightly changed! And there’s that other character I know, only slightly changed!” That is, it’s for Real Fans Only.
But OK, surely they can tell a fun super-hero story in this universe anyway?
Oh my god. It’s so jarring when they drop in a different artist… It just completely ruins whatever thing they had going. And especially this other artist who seems to insist on using copy/paste on his drawing pad at the slightest provocation.
Surely this has to nix out any hope of having the paperback becoming a perpetual seller? But perhaps that’s not something they were going for here at all, because…
… this book isn’t a story at all: It’s a fucking exposition dump and an “introduction” to the set-up. But they didn’t even get through that — I’m betting they’re going to continue infodumping at the readers for the entire run on the book.
They got as far as giving Spider-Man the name Spider-Man, and then the book ended.
The book is so fucking awful. Nothing happens except “oh, here’s a reference”, and one third of the artwork is horrible.
| Fontaines DC x Massive Attack x Young Fathers: In benefit of Doctors Without Borders |  |
13:49: The End
OK, that’s enough comics for today. The day started off really well, but what a downer at the end there.