Dear Julia (1996) #1-4 by Brian Biggs
When reading comics from the 90s, it’s striking how many talented creators did basically a handful of books and then left comics forever. Biggs is a case in point: He did Frederick & Eloise over at Fantagraphics, and then a few appearances in anthologies, and then he shifted over to children’s books.
Especially in the 90s, it was basically impossible to survive doing comics.
Anyway, let’s look at this series (four issues of 24 pages each) which I remember fondly from back then. That is, I remember absolutely zilch about it, but I do remember that I liked it.
Oh yeah, those odd figures and blank, somewhat unnerving expressions. I really like what he’s doing with the grey washes… it feels very organic.
The story is basically a guy who writes a letter his ex… and at first everything is extremely mysterious. All these strange objects and skewed angles. Was Rick Geary an influence, I wonder? Anyway, it really works.
I guess the plot is kinda high concept? I could totally see somebody making a short movie from this (derogatory), but it also has a strong identity as being a comic book; not an outline for a movie.
I love the non-flapp flappy arms in the upper right-hand corner.
At four panels a page, and the decompressed storytelling style, it’s an extremely quick read. But a satisfying one.
It was collected by Top Shelf in 2000, and:
The book has twice been adapted as a short film. The first was by a film student at RISD in 2001, and the second was by a filmmaker in Belgium in 2003.
Heh.
he’s done it again. Dear Julia part two is,
once more, cryptically beautiful and reads like
a drearn I don’t want to wake up frotn. Boyd’s
letter to Julia continues and again Brian Biggs
leaves us wanting, keeps us reading, teasing us
with Leopold Légyscapo’s appearances and
purpose. Dear Julia part two nmakes room for
more intrigue than I thought ‘.vas possible after
part one. Biggs shows and tells more of Boyd’s
story, but in doing so encourages us to imagine
the untold—and anticipate the unexpected in
parts three and four.
The Comics Journal #189, page #142:
DEAR JULIA, #1
Dear Julia is an engrossing.
darkly comic mystery
from the creator of the —
excellent Frederick &
Flojse. Boyd Solomon is
standing atop of a San Francisco apartment building,
intent upon proving to the world he can fly. As the back
cover States, ” Dear Julia is the Story of how {hel got
there.
Biggs engages the reader immediately with his
absolutely stunning pen and ink work, putting
remark*le detail into each panel — necessary detail
which actually furthers the plot
and warrants scrutiny. The way
Biggs delivers almost everything
through Boyd’s shaky state-of-
mind makes for a fascinating
narrative. Chunks Of the past
(centering around a trip to
Tucson, Arizona) and glimmers of
the present blend comfortably.
revear.ng fiast enough to spark tip
readers curiosity while not giving
too much away.
Biggs is becoming one Of
contemporary comics’ best and
most overlooked cartoonists.
Hopefulhy, DearJu[ia, will put him
On the map. Check it out —you van’t be disappointed.
ERIC REYNOLDS
The Comics Journal #205, page #118:
RAPHAEL: are you up to now, Brian?
BIGGS: The last Dear Julia, was pub-
lished in July (19971 and Black Eye
keeps threatening to publish it in a
collection, which I’m hoping will hap-
pen. I’ve been doinglitde mini-comics.
The one Interim there is actually Steve’s
fault. We were on our way back from
San Diego and I peas looking for some-
thing new to do. After Dear Julia, I was
kind Of lost and drifting and Steve said,
“Well, that beinglost and driftingsounds
like your next project right there. So I
went home and did Interim. I want to
keep that one going, but as far as next
projects, I’ve got one in my head, and
I’m filling up a sketchbook that looks
like it’s going to be a big one. It’s dealing
with a lot ofissues dealing with death. I
have a grandfather who died about two
weeks ago. Essentially, the getting sick
part was the bad part; the dying vvæ
actually a relief. I’m really fiscinated by
how people are dealing with death in
the family, and lost loved ones. I broke
up a year ago with a five-year relation-
ship. The senses of loss in these two
are profoundly different but still
fascinating to me. I’m kind ofexploring
that in a sense, Essentially, people have
complained a lot that I don’t have any
strong female characters, and basically, I
don’t have any female characters in my
stories. So the next one is going to have
five elderly women who are sisters, as
kind of the whole central theme to
revolve around them. I’m really inter-
ested now in writing dialogue for
women.
RAPHAEL: How are you preparingfor that?
BIGGS: I’m having a lot oflong conver-
sations with my mother, my sister, and
my grandmother. And especially now
that my grandmother is widowed, I’m
planning on going up for a few months
this spring to Arkansas, or at least for a
month, and just looking at 6mily pho-
tographs and talking to grandma a lot,
and kind of getting in touch with that
family that I lost touch with when I
moved to California. It’s going to be a
journey through nostalgia and senti-
mentality, but without trying to get too
trite. So it’s going to be a pretty big
book. I don’t know where it’s going
yet, or the name of it or anything, but
the themes are all falling into place.
I hope to start drawing it by late
Spring. I’d like to have a story down by
the end of Spring. Dear Julia, I began
drawing before I ever knew where it
was going. This one, I’m not going to
make that mistake; I’m going to have
the script down before I begin drawing
What!? Dear Julia doesn’t seem improvised at all, but it was, apparently.
The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #180:
DEAR JULIA
Black Eye: 4 issue miniseries 1996-1998*
Boyd Soloman stands on a window ledge about to throw
himself off in an attempt to fly. How he arrived there is
related in largely epistolary fashion, reviewing past events to
explain his present situation. The first impression of Dear
Julia is unsettling, with Brian Biggs’ art imparting loneliness
and isolation, and although the pace is occasionally only a
notch above static there’s enough atmosphere to
compensate. The works of David Lynch come to mind in
comparison, with significant detail concealed in small
moments, and as such Dear Julia is best read via the Top Shelf
collection—WJ
Overstreet’s FAN #16, page #107:
With one of the tightest, most absorbing introductions to a story I’ve seen
in some time, Brian Biggs has created something very memorable here. Our
narrator begins his story, in a letter to the never-seen Julia of the title, by
explaining, 01 have a suspicion…l think I’m going crazy, Julia.” Meanwhile,
Biggs’ visuals are giving us a tour of the main characteris apartment, which is
littered with paper airplanes, drawings of birds, and feathers. In every room,
feathers dot the scene like chalk dust on a blackboard. It isn’t until page
eleven that we get our first picture of the narrator, standing on a window
ledge, many stories up, with a large, obviously home-made pair of wings
strapped to his body.
From there Biggs begins to tell the story of his character through flash-
backs, including snapshots in which one person’s face is repeatedly scribbled
over with what appears to be crayon. Biggs’s art throughout all of this is
strangely haunting in a Dave McKean-like vein, while the snapshot pages are
comically disturbing in the way that a lot of actual snapshots turn out to be.
The black and white work here blends excellent shading with sharp pencils,
and Biggs’ style, while possibly reminiscent of McKean, is all his own and
already very striking.
This will only be going four issues, but the characters are already engaging
enough for me to wish it were longer (even ongoing), and Biggs’ pacing of
the story is quick and jerky but casual, the way a lot of small, independent
films of late use a hand-held camera to shoot a deliberate, cognitive sort of
movie. From Black Eye Productions, at $3.50, and in a non-traditional format
that feels good in your hands, this is one to bug your retailer about.
Nice. You don’t expect a review like that from an Overstreet publication, do you?
This blog post is part of the Total Black Eye series.