Hey! I read some comics the last month. Let’s see what we have here…
Ah yeah, Following Cerebus #12. I was buying Following Cerebus back when it was published, but there was a three year delay between #11 and #12, so I think this fell off of everybody’s radar.
Because it’s rare, it goes for stupid money on ebay, but I picked up a cheap copy from ebay.co.uk. I mean, I did a blog post about it during the Renegades & Aardvarks blog series, but I didn’t have this issue, so, like, what the hey?
Unfortunately, it’s not a very interesting issue, even as Following Cerebus goes. Dave Sim, as is his wont, had completely dominated the previous issues (for better and worse), but this is basically just a bunch of interviews with people connected to Dave Sim, like the above — it’s an interview with the guy who set up Cerebus TV. (OK, there were some technical tid-bits that were kinda interesting.)
I wonder whether the book of critical essays discussed here ever happened?
Yes! Wow.
Sim writes a short, depressing note saying that he’s not going to contribute to subsequent issues, because he’s already got three venues (glamourpuss, Cerebus Archive and Cerebus TV) that aren’t generating any feedback, either.
Classy.
I read this a year ago in the Colorama riso print version, and I loved it back then. Now Fantagraphics has put out a hefty collection.
And… it seems like this is reproduced from the riso prints? I mean, that makes perfect sense and looks wonderful, but I guess I was slightly surprised that it hasn’t, like, changed more… But then again, I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison.
I saw some people on Twitter rolling their eyes at the description of this book — it’s pitched as a day in the life of a slacker that doesn’t do anything much of interest — and that’s such a alternative comics cliché. I mean, we’ve had a whole generation doing autobio authors that make books that fit that description.
But this is so much more. (Nice Tintin reference.) Oliver Schrauwen is Belgian, like Herge, so it totally makes sense, too.
It’s such a tense and intense books. It’s an exhausting read because seemingly every panel has like at least two plot threads to keep track of. It’s all these intersecting stories, and they’re all very dramatic. It’s fantastic, and Fantagraphics has done a wonderful job of getting the book into reviewers hands, because it’s on the “best of” list of everybody.
This article makes the case (I think) that Sunday tracks Ulysses, and… if it does, I didn’t get it at all, even on this reread. It’s been a handful of years since I read Ulysses (bragging), but from what I remember, nothing much of importance there lines up with Sunday? But I didn’t really read that article; I just skimmed. Sorry!
The latest Comics Journal issue is a nice, varied read.
I found the article about Bill Jemas’ reign of terror at Marvel to be amusing, but frustrating. Just on a sentence by sentence basis. There were so many vague statements where I’m not at all sure what the people interviewed actually meant, and the writer doesn’t seem to notice. It’s like a very long form vaguetweet.
Brian Nicholson takes on the entire oeuvre of Noah van Sciver. No, that’s not quite correct: It’s more about how everything van Sciver does it totally worthless and that even the concept of van Sciver is, too. Or something. It’s quite something — possibly the most venomous comics-related thing I’ve read in decades. It’s like the Comics Journal is really back! I’ve missed it!
And while I found myself nodding at many of the specific things Nicholson writes, I still think van Sciver’s comics are pretty spiffy. So there.
(Except The Hypo and the Mormon book thing. Those are indeed horrible! Horrible!)
And there’s a cool Jess Johnson portfolio. It’s a solid issue.
About a decade ago, one of the Norwegian publishers started reprinting 50/60 French(ey) comics for boys — for the nostalgia market.
So these are 120 page books that reprint old favourites for People Of A Certain Age, and it’s nice.
Unfortunately, I guess everybody of the target audience has pretty much died off now, because after 50 issues, it’s The End. But hey, 6K pages of stodgy old comics isn’t bad. I guess I’ll have to read this stuff in French now to get my fix.
Yeah yeah yeah. The thing about shopping comics on-line is that when you don’t have to carry the stuff home yourself, you find yourself going “sure, why not” and hit the buy button.
And I quite like Raina Telgemeier’s comics. So while these adapt novels for children, I thought it might be fund? And somehow I’d gotten the impression this was a series of mystery books, where the baby-sitters would investigate, like, mysteries.
I’m just nattering on to explain that I didn’t really enjoy these. And, I mean, they’re made for ten-year-olds, and that’s fine.
And I mean, I didn’t hate them or anything. They’re pretty good? I totally understand how these books have sold millions and millions of copies, and it’s not because children are stupid.
One thing that fascinated me about this book is that I started noticing how some of the characters sometimes started striking poses as if they were drawn by Peter Bagge…
And sure enough, that’s totally a Peter Bagge face.
So it started to become more of a thing where I would identify Bagge rip-off panels than reading the book… I mean, panels where she was inspired by Bagge, of course. Sorry for mistyping there, and unfortunately my delete key doesn’t work.
I bought a box with four of these books, and I guess I’m gonna read them all.
I read Clifton as a child, but I didn’t much like it. But then I read a previous collection of these that were by Mancherot instead of De Groot & Turk, and those albums were pretty good. So I just, like, continued buying these collection, and now we’re reached those albums I read as a child, and…
… I’m not hating it! I dunno. It’s pretty stupid and awkward, but…
… it’s fun? Yeah, these albums collected here are nice reads.
Ouah, I’ve read five issues of Spirou this month? Well, it’s one per week, so that adds up quickly. Whenever I get one in the mail I’m half “yay” and half “homework’s arrived” (because I’m learning French).
I’d say about half of each issue is pretty naff, but half is pretty good.
Of particular interest here is the double-sized Xmas issue, which is chock full of Xmas stories that are both funny and touchants, which is how Xmas issues should be.
But also just the normal randomness.
The Lucky Luke strip being serialised is particularly amusing. It’s about the huge German emigration to the US, which allegedly led to German being considered the official language of the US. Let me embiggen:
“That sounds like a good motto, right?” “Uhm… we’ll consider it…”
Awww.
Anyway, that’s it.