The Sands (1996) #1-3,
The Sands (1998) by Tom Hart
I read the first three issues back in the 90s, but I have not read the collected edition before. I have fond memories of the issues, though, so I’m looking forward to finally reading the whole thing.
Ah, this is explicitly presented as a work in progress. So I guess it means that Hart did this improvisationally, perhaps?
I like this way of arranging the panels, and I wonder whether he’s using the same technique that Chester Brown uses: Drawing each panel on a separate piece of paper, so that he can edit and rearrange things (which is normally next to impossible when you’re drawing complete pages — sure, you can edit details or swap a panel out, but if you’re doing larger changes, you have to throw the entire page out, which people are naturally loath to do).
Anyway, I’m loving this all over again — it’s got a kind of natural whimsy going on. OK, perhaps the magic pixie dream wife is a bit of a stock character, but even that fits perfectly.
For some reason or other, that’s a very funny panel.
As is often the case with a Hart book, we’re in some kind of strange foreign land, with people behaving more or less oddly.
Oh — this was published on a quarterly schedule? It’s such a breezy read — it’s just 24 pages with few panels per page — that that feels like a pretty odd decision. As a monthly it would have made more sense, perhaps?
In the second issue, Hart notes that he’s decided to tweak the designs or some people, and change how they act a bit…
Hart also plugs his cohort, and it’s all good artists — most of whom stopped doing comics pretty quickly.
With the third issue, they announce that they’re cancelling the series, because of low sales. I mean, because “the format isn’t doing the work justice”. What’s strange is that they published the third issue at all, then, but perhaps they made the decision so late that they’d already got the thing in the works…
So then, the next year, we get the book, which collects the first 72 pages, and adds another 100 pages. Let’s compare some pages…
Here’s an original spread from the first issue…
… and here’s the same-ish spread from the book. And Hart seems to have redrawn completely most panels, or at least tweaked them quite a bit. There also quite a big change in tone — while the original version felt kinda whimsical, in the second version it’s clear that the guy is quite scared or the soldiers, and does a major jump when the guy addresses him.
Hart also takes the opportunity to clarify things. When I read the original version of this spread, I was going “huh?” at the “Is this going to light?” I didn’t understand what that was about.
In the second version, Hart has added “It’s got all this drool on it”, so now it’s clear what he means. The artwork hasn’t been altered, though.
In issue two, Hart mentioned that he wasn’t satisfied with that grin…
And indeed, in the new version, he’s wiped that smirk off his face, so instead of being a scene where that guy is thinking about how much he adores his wife, it’s more about regretting being here (possibly).
So — there’s a big tonal shift, and I think I’m just going to read the entire book starting from page one again.
One thing that’s not straightened out at all in the book is how old these people are supposed to be. The guy acts like a kid, and people call him kid, but he’s a grown-up married man.
And we’ve had glimpses in the book about a guy crashing a rocket ship, but this is basically all the explanation we get for that bit.
I really loved the first three issues, but along with the harsher tone, there’s also a palpable feel of “I gotta get this thing finished” going on here. Instead of telling the story and getting the reader to come to their own conclusions, we start getting characters infodumping at each other instead. That’s a lot less work, right?
However, it’s not all bad — we get a spiralling, increasing intensity from these recurring fantasy/memory scenes, and it’s both gripping and heart wrenching.
The book is a strong book, but I’m wondering what changed precisely between doing the first issue and the rest, because it seems like Hart was going somewhere totally different than where he ended up.
That’s a kinda fascinating thing with serialised comics — readers get to see “draft versions” of the story in addition to the finished work.
Wizard Magazine #60, page #116:
His new series, The Sands; promises to
be even. more ambitious than his earlier
work’ Hart has planned out almost all Of
the particulars from beginning to end of its
seven- or eight-issue run. Serializing a story
is something new for Hart, and he admits
hd’s a little nervous. ‘iltis pretty weird,
Originally, it was planned as an open-ended
ongoing series, but T can’g seem tp do
anything that way. Everything I do has to
have a beginning, middle and an end,”
The plot of The Sands i; simple enough.
It revolves around a man, Little Hawk Troy,
and a wornan, Margie Fennel, who move co
a Middle Eastern desert. Shéts there to
study bugs, while he spends his days
occupying himself -in various ways, In his
wanderings. he meets up with a young boy
who happens to be king of the area they
live in, as well as Sen, a mysterious, mysticåJ
man who makes his homie ona river.
Hart •is challenging himself with The
Sands by trying new things as he pieces
together all the different parts of along
j Z .an• experiment ‘in
narrative.
composition*’ he explains. ‘”It’s going to be
in three separate parts, all of which are
pretty different The first will be a pretty
basic story, but the next going to be a
tangent. It’ will “involve Little Hawk and a
musician. character iii a different setting
Then the final part will jump around rapidly
todiffer•ent scenes and times from the first
part. butMith various things we haven’t
seen before and new r•evelations about the
situations we’re seeing.”
Like New Hat, this series will present
the reader with few challeriges. You may
reread certain -sequences to pick
up details that eluded you the first tiine.
But it’s all part of Hart’s big plan. want
people ito do a little work and pay
attention; Maybe give in -little and realize
that everything isn’t going to bc laid out
for them, It’s not going to be like a trolley
ride;- it’s more like putting a puzzle
together. For people who are willing to
put in the time, I hope it will be really
entertaining fbr them. But I also hope that
don’t have too many pretensions about
what I’m doing.”
It sounds like not a lot of the original plan survived? Or were the bits I interpreted as fantasy supposed to be what really happened?
The Comics Journal Special #3, page #74:
The Sands featured long meditations on the
nature of love and devotion, and a bouncy, humorous secondary narrative
about the teacher-student relationship between the protagonist Hawk Troy
and a profane boy king. The Sands works most powerfully as a narrative
about isolation and lack of direction. Troy not only lacks the moral com-
pass of earlier Hart creations, he lacks for things to do to fill his time. Even
his exact vocation remains indeterminate. Although Troy loves Margie
enough to follow her to a foreign country in support of insect research, he
seems to find little day-to-day solace in their relationship. Tenuous con-
nections with locals contain undercurrents of contempt or disinterest. The
achingly spare countryside Hart draws also seems to work against Troy
making a meaningful connection. When Troy does manage to triumph
over his ennui, through organizing a child’s tea party or simply fantasizing
about something exciting, it becomes difficult to resist seeing these small
events as minor epiphanies in contrast to the emotional bruising that pre-
cedes and follows. A slightly fragmented narrative only increases the read-
er’s sympathy for Troy’s feelings of disorientation and loneliness. The
ed earlier, more clearly and with greater force.
James Kochalka writes in The Comics Journal #200, page #41:
His current work, The Sands, published
by Black Eye Productions, is the best comic
on the stands today. I read, and reread,
and re-read the published issues.
i have to admit to a certain amount of skepti-
cism about this project. e l’om I lart’s past two
books and his mini-eomics ‘have been so
wonderfully funny and bizarre that I’ll)
reluctant. to judge this svork yet, but the first
issue leaves me kind of cold. Beneath the
extremely attractive and slick cover (that’s one
thing Black Eye booke’ll do; they’ll look nice) is
the first installment of a story about a couple
who have just. moved out to the tniddle of God*
knows-where, where there seems to be
plenty of sand and bugs but little else,
Apparently l+awkie does whatever it takes
to keep his love Margie happy, and if that
means moving to the desert to help her
entomology career, then away they go. This
is hardly a strong start for the first issue ofa
series; it is uneventful and frustratingly
short, but then again, the back cover does
remind us that this is a “challenging” work.
A cop-out? Possibly. But “challenging”
suggests that there be a payoff even if
the ride there is a bumpy one, and given Mr.
Hart’s previous work, I’m willing to give
him the benefit of the doubt for now—
especially since this is the first serialized
work he’s done.
This blog post is part of the Total Black Eye series.