Comics Daze

Man, it’s snowmageddoning tonight…

Best to bundle up in a blanket with some comics and chocolate. And music from 1994.

Arthur Russell: Another Thought

00:58: A Cosplayers Christmas by Dash Shaw (Fantagraphics)

I got this in the mystery mail this month. I’m not sure whether I’ve already got this? It’s very topical, though. I mean, Xmas.

This is from 2016.

And it’s great — kinda absurd, kinda wistful, kinda funny.

And I got a little bird in the Kinder egg!

01:10: Julehistorier by Mittéï (E-Voke)

Might as well continue with the Xmas theme…

This is a collection of short Xmas stories from the Tintin magazine in the 60s.

Cute lil crocodile.

In addition to the stories, there’s a bunch of illustrations.

It’s pretty nice! Very sentimental stories, as they should be, and charmingly drawn.

Joni Mitchell: Turbulent Indigo

01:41: Les romans noir et blanc 1987-2006 by Comès (Casterman)

For some reason or other, that Mittéï book made me want to read some Comès, so I think I’ll read the first album collected in this thick omnibus.

And the first album here is something that I’ve read before (first time as a teenager, in a Danish translation) — L’arbre-coeur, The Heart Tree.

The artwork is so gorgeous.

It’s a heartbreaking (but angry) story of fantasy and abuse.

It’s even better than I remember from my last re-read, which was probably a decade ago. I’m tempted to keep on reading the entire omnibus, but I can feel my mind shutting down from having to work too hard to parse French.

DJ Deeon: Funk City

02:51: Processing by Tara Booth (Drawn & Quarterly)

Hey, it’s getting windier out there… brr.

Fortunately this lion cub arrived to keep me warm.

This is a collection of shorter pieces that cohere into a larger thing.

Some of the pieces are really funny.

Lots of good tips!

The Breeders: Head To Toe

Such wonderful artwork. Is it gouache? The colours really pop.

It’s great! If I’d gotten it earlier, it would definitely have gone on my Best of 2024 list.

Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft: Nightsong

03:31: Mythologies and Apocrypha no Two by Tim Lane (Fantagraphics)

This is absolutely amazing. It’s flabbergastingly awesome.

And I’m someone who hates talking heads-type documentaries, but Tim Lane subverts the genre, and brings in autobio (I think) and sudden swerves and it’s just *jaw drops*.

And all just in 32 pages. It’s a perfect comic book.

Stina Nordenstam: And She Closed Her Eyes

03:55: Heroical by David Plunkert

I bought a bunch of older comics from Wow Cool, and this is one of them.

This is a very large book.

There’s a plethora of styles going on here, but all the stories are very brief. It’s entertaining.

04:01: Genesis by Nathan Edmonson, Alison Sampson, Jason Wordie (Image Comics)

Alison Sampson’s artwork is really impressive — the way it makes all these surreal shifts work well on the page.

The story, however, is (to use a technical term) piffle.

04:15: Mondo by Ted McKeever (Image Comics)

Ah, this is just the first issue of a series…

It’s quite McKeeverish, but also a lot more straightforward?

04:26: That Salty Air by Tim Sievert (Top Shelf)

Hm, have I read this before? That’s the problem I have when shopping older comics — I can never quite remember whether I’ve read something before until I hold the book in my hands.

It’s a very… Top Shelf book? I know, I know, but Top Shelf used to have a kinda distinct aesthetic…

… and this book is very much in that mode.

It’s fine, though.

Golden Palominos: Pure

04:47: Beef With Tomato by Dean Haspiel (Alternative Comics)

I really like Haspiel’s super sharp artwork.

This book collects a large number of quite short autobio stories — of the anecdote kind. They are all good, they’re all interesting and/or funny, but unfortunately it doesn’t really build up into something more? So reading these stories, one after another, starts becoming a chore, unfortunately.

I guess these are ideally read a couple at a time over a week or so. They’re good stories and memorable anecdotes.

The text pieces in the last third of the book didn’t really do much for me.

OK, time to read something else than the Wow Cool shipment…

Dead Can Dance: Toward The Within

05:47: Take This Book Apart by George Henad Olsen (Desert Island)

This is a bunch of flyers.

It’s cool.

05:57: Demons: Rise & Grind by Hyena Hell (Silver Sprocket)

Hm… is this a collection of previously-published material? This seems familiar…

But this doesn’t, so I guess it’s new.

Uhm, uhm… This is quite different from previous volumes. It’s mostly a satire (i.e., not actually funny) about working in a bureaucracy. It’s the weakest Demons thing I’ve read by far.

Bob Hund: Bob Hund

06:52: Bad Breath Comics #5 by Josh Juresko

This is the strangest thing I’ve read in quite a while (complimentary).

I love it! Few of these stories go anywhere you’d expect, but instead they’re like “wha?” Really good.

07:08: All-New Venom #1 by Ewing/Gómez/D’Armata (Marvel Comics)

I’ve been looking for a monthly super-hero comic to read for months, and I’ve mostly struck out, so far. I’ve got no interest in the Venom character, but Al Ewing has done some fun super-hero comics before, so here we are.