New Hat (1995) by Tom Hart
I’ve always loved Tom Hart’s comics, but like many of his cohort, they’ve been frustratingly rare. He burst on the scene with Hutch Owen’s Working Hard, I think? (A Xeric grant winner.) I always thought of him as coming from a similar place as, say, Jon Lewis and Megan Kelso — original, ruminative comics — and I guess they were all Xeric winners? Yup. Hmm, doing a blog series about all the Xeric winners might be fun, but many of those books are pretty hard to track down.
And looking at that list, it’s striking how many of those people stopped doing comics pretty quickly, or has (like) only done one book the last 20 years? The Xeric award meant that they had to self publish their comics, and that turned out to be really discouraging for many people.
Dave Sim, so much to answer for.
Anyway! New Hat! Let’s read it.
Yeah, it’s classic Hart — lively artwork, and some guy ranting at others. But in a way that’s both obscure and immediate at the same time.
The book has three interconnected story, where each story sheds more light on the preceding ones — it rewards rereading.
It’s a really compelling read.
Yes! No time for poetry! Asses to be kicked!
It’s a brilliant little book.
I’m not sure whether this has ever been reprinted or collected?
The Comics Journal spent a page announcing its arrival.
Bart Beatty writes in The Comics Journal #185, page #41:
YOU WOULD THINK that coming to
terms with the few comics we’ve seen from
Tom Hart would be a simple matter. First
mumble a few words about isolated loners,
revolutionary poets and the nature of violence.
Then take a moment to mention the directness
of the art, the high production values of the
books and the unusual drive of the narrative.
Throw in a comment or two about his original
and distinctive voice and remember to mention
the great potential that the still young cartoonist
displays. Simple. Right?
In reality, however, it’ s not really that simple
at all. What Tom Hart has given us in the two
comics for which he is best known — 1994’s
Xeric-winning mini Hutch Owen’s Working
Hard and the more recently published New Hat
— indicates that he is a cartoonist who can’t be
dismissed with a few pithy phrases and apat on
the head. Expanding on the foundations laid
down in earlier mini-comics like The Angry
Criminal and Prince Fredrick’s Feet, Hart’s
more extensive efforts present a picture of a
cartoonist making great strides both artistically
and thematically. Hart’s most recent work pre-
sents us with a great deal to ponder and, more
importantly, each suggests more than it is will-
ing to reveal at first glance.[…]
In an era in which the worst comics are
mired in endless complication for
complication’s sake and many of the best
contemporary cartoonists continue to struggle
towards increasingly baroque articulations of
meaning, Tom Hart’s work stands out for its
willingness to take chances in reconciling
subtle reflection and dynamic thought. It’s
that simple.
Aha, this book was collected in She’s Not Into Poetry, published by Alternative Comics in 2016. Nice. And I do think I have that book here somewhere…
The Comics Journal #180, page #60:
NEW HAT
Tan Hat
Tom Hart’s art-
work doesn’t
crarn the page. It
doesn •t leap out
hypnotize you slowly with precise, rhythmic line
Structure. In fact, Tom Hart’s art is nearly infantile
— myopic, even — like James Thurber on a
zipatone binge. But beware the Trojan Horse!!!
nis dude couples childlike drawings with complex
fables presented with storytelling techniques that
bring to mind at Once Frank Capra (the self-pub-
lished Hutch Owens Working Harco and in the case
of his fine new opus New Hat, Akira Kurosawa.
New Hat is structured rather like Kurosawa’s
Rashomon. •nlree achronologic vignettes take us to
a country on the brink Of war hundreds Of years
ago.[…]
‘Ihat’s it in a nutshell, but the nut’s tir thing —
and in this case the nut is Tom Hart: activist. Car-
toonist. and (here it comes) poet A veritable Walt
Whitman in high top tennis shoes. We truly are
lucky that our friend Tom Hart is Out there
these comic books to us just when we really need
them. Get off your asses and buy New Hat!!! Buy
Hutch Owens Working Buy two of each. Give
them to your friends, or better yet, give them to
your enemies.
Oh, I guess this was the original cover design?
The Comics Journal #228, page #85:
STUMP: It has nothing to do with film, it has nothing to do with literature, it’s
ComtcS.
LUTES: Exactly. There’s no equivalent to this in film. That movie Time Code
broke the screen up into four different pieces, but the end result is utterly dif-
ferent; the quadrants can’t each be explored unless you watch the movie four
times. The architecture of the page, and it really is like an architecture, with
each of its little rooms, the way that you pass through those rooms is entire-
ly specific to the page and the number of tiers on it, and the fact that we read
from left to right, top to bottom.
Back to what you were saying about the perception that there didlft
seem to be anything really uni$’ing our generation of cartoonists: There was
a point at which Ed and Tom Hart —
primarily Ed, I think — were trying to
start a little “movement” he called New
Hat.
STUMP: He teas going to call it Neu Hat?
LUTES: It was partly tongue in cheek,
but they were also partly serious. And I
think that the desire was to say, “Look,
we are doing something different.” And
they recognizæd, to their credit —
before anybody really put their finger
on it — that there was something dif-
ferent happening in our circle of car-
toonist friends.
Yup.
This blog post is part of the Total Black Eye series.