Random Thoughts

Here’s some comics I’ve read over the last week. I mean… Oh, right, I did one of these posts yesterday, but I unexpectedly spent the entire day reading comics, so I thought I’d just do one of these blog posts again today.

The heftiest book of the day is Derf Backderf’s The Dissidents.

Which I really liked — but I have to say that I was initially really, really confused. It’s presented as the story of a cartoonist who worked for various (mostly lefty) magazines and newspapers in the 1910s. So I googled his name, and found out that he was fictional.

So then we’re presented with this magazine called The Masses, so I googled that because I assumed that it was also fictional, but it’s not. And he also works for a newspaper called The New York World. Hah! That has to be fictional, right? But no.

So the setup is the totally traditional one that you have a fictional point-of-view character who goes through historical travails, and absolutely everything else (names and all) is non-fictional. And that’s totally fine — it’s a setup that can work really well.

But would it have been too much bother to just say what the setup was? It would have taken one simple sentence and would have saved the reader (at least this reader) a lot of googling while reading, which is something I hate doing.

The other confusing thing is the name: “The Dissidents”. That sounds so general that I assumed that this was going to be more of an “overview” book of many dissident movements, but I guess a name like “The Cartoonists Who Worked For A Socialist Magazine” (which is what it’s really about) would sound less appealing?

So I had a problem with the … stuff that’s not actually in the book, I guess. If you know these things in advance, the book is pretty engrossing, and extremely interesting: I learned so many new things about this era in the US.

The storytelling is good, the artwork is pretty attractive, and it just really works all over. It’s a solid book.

I bought this Andi Watson book by mistake — I really disliked his previous book (called “The Book Tour”, I think): I found it to be a generic descent-into-mysterious-mysteries kind of thing.

And this.. is apparently the same thing all over again — a guy arrives in a city, and immediately lots of mysterious things happen to him.

Everybody acting all mysterious.

Such mysterious.

I ditched this one after a few dozen pages.

I picked up this book by Ilan Manouach at a sale earlier this autumn.

And this is a properly conceptual book.

I’m guessing the artist took panels from many, many, many different comics and removed everything except the text, sound effects and the eyes?

I don’t think it’s a narrative? It’s nice to look at, anyway.

Mats Jonsson is probably Sweden’s best-known comics creator, and this is a follow-up to his most famous book (I think) from the 90s.

So that’s all good, except that after starting to read the book I went “hey… I’ve read this before”. And it turns out that perhaps a half of these pages have previously been published in his one-man anthology that I’ve read.

So that was a disappointment. But! It’s still a really strong book.

It’s very much a classic let-it-all-hang-out 90s autobio comic. And I really like that sort of thing.

The story is a bit bumpy, though — sometimes I was left going “err… and that woman is…?” But still a good read.

This is a French edition of an Italian comics series from the mid-60s — by Alberto Ongaro and HUGO FUCKING PRATT!!1! *gasp*

And judging by the art style, Pratt must have done this just before creating Corto Maltese — the artwork isn’t quite as awesome as it would get, but it’s certainly getting there.

L’ombre is a Phantom-like super-hero (sort of) who fights a criminal mastermind who has many different names. While the plots are serious — totally serious — Pratt is obviously not taking the assignment seriously. It really looks like he was having a ball drawing these stories.

The reason this edition exists isn’t because of the stories, but because of Pratt’s artwork, presumably. But! The stories aren’t bad, either — they’re inventive and do the trick. Perhaps a bit repetitive — L’ombre is put in mortal danger dozens of times, only to be saved by his trusty sidekick Prince Wu or his trusty panther companion. (Yes, L’ombre has a panther as a pet.)

This is probably the easiest French I’ve read in a comic book not meant for young children — the translator resorts to clichés and set phrases a lot, and absolutely, totally eschews slang. So I was able to read this book almost without assistance from Google Translate.

Heh… I wonder whether Pratt was already designing Corto Maltese while drawing this sequence — the villain’s henchmen are wearing a uniform that’s not totally dissimilar from what Corto Maltese would sometimes wear later.

Anyway, I read the L’ombre book over a week (even if I read all the other comics here today), so I guess the title of this blog post isn’t totally wrong anyway.

I read some comics over the past couple weeks, weakly.

I’ve decided to step down my Duolingo usage and instead spend that time reading comics in French — I really enjoy doing Duolingo, but I’m definitely feeling like I’m learning less now.

So I thought I’d tackle a classic album by Lauzier — Chroniques de l’Ile Grande.

And the reason I’m putting it that way is because Lauzier certainly piles the dialogue on — but incredibly enough, I found that I could pretty much read all of this. Slowly, though.

This was an album I had in translation as a teenager, and I don’t quite remember what I thought about it? I remember thinking that the Lauzier albums were a bit hit or miss, but I bought them all, so I must have liked them.

This is heavy, heavy satire about exploitation, racism, sexism and etc etc, and it’s also funny. And Lauzier manages to get a proper mood going in these stories. However:

Usually when people go “well, they couldn’t publish that today”, they’re totally wrong… but the story above (in particular) did make me wonder: A twelve year old girl “with the body of a woman” chases the main character (a gringo), who steadfastly spurns her… until she’s kinda-sorta kidnapped by a different guy, and… well, yes, it ends in the most “satirical” way possible.

Which made me wonder whether it’s been reprinted lately in France, and… no? Last edition was in 1978!? Unless bedetheque is wrong, which is certainly possible.

Anyway, I think if you were to publish this in the US today, I think it’d be the scandal of the year.

This is made by somebody called “Alias” who I’ve never heard of before. Which is logical, because Alias is an alias, and this is apparently the only thing that was published under that name?

I wonder whether the alias is a sly comment on “Moebius” — because the art style here is totally cribbed from Moebius.

It’s a collection of short pieces originally published in Metal Hurlant, and while they’re total clichés, they’re both entertaining and look great.

Giardino’s one of my favourite European comics artists, but Shit City is some of his earliest work.

And it’s kinda rough. The stories are totally typical Noir workouts…

… but it reads well and it’s entertaining nonetheless.

The latest issue of Spirou…

… is probably the least entertaining I’ve ever read. The above two pages are the only thing that I really enjoyed in this issue.

But I mean, there’s some stuff that’s not actively bad — but there’s three serials running now that I just absolutely loathe. Kids these days!

I was a total X-Men fan in my early teens, but I’d stopped reading X-Men by the time the material collected here was released.

I think this is probably from a couple years after I stopped reading the series? So I just found this fascinating, because I’ve read later X-Men material over the years, but never these years. So reading it was giving me a lot of “oh right, so that’s what happened?”

It took me a couple weeks to get through this collection — I did enjoy reading it, but a little Chris Claremont goes a long way, so it’s best to take some pauses in between issues.

And it rather works as a collection — the X-Men issues collected here kinda sorta work as a story arc, but then almost a third of the pages are devoted to various specials and annuals, so there’s a lot of “big events” (and some Secret Wars II tie-in issues)… But still, it’s a collection that works.

I’m not sure whether to read more of these, though. Perhaps?

Forming by Jesse Moynihan is something I think I’ve seen around before? But searching my blog, I can’t find any evidence that I’ve read any of this material before, so I may very well just be misremembering. Probably.

This is a doorstop of a book — 450 pages.

And it’s not one of those decompressed books either, so it takes a big chunk of time to read. But! It’s really funny — it’s about how Earth and the Universe were created, and what all those mythical creatures (Mithras, Cronos, Adam, Eve) really were. A lot of the humour is video game related, which isn’t my kind of thing, but it’s not too annoying here.

I really like the artwork, and especially the colours.

However — the pacing seems… unfortunate? I have not done any research before reading the book (because I never do), but my guess is that this is one of those things that have been serialised on Instagram over a long period of time. Perhaps ten years? It has that feel — usually a punch line or two per page, and the page being the unit instead of the spread.

And then! Suddenly! Around page 300 the art style changes substantially. Did Moynihan start drawing on a tablet? Some pages certainly look 100% tablet-ey, but others look like hybrid pages, or look perhaps “fake drawn-on-paper”. Hey, I don’t know — I’m not an artist.

I only know that suddenly the pages aren’t as appealing as before.

And the storytelling shifts dramatically, too. The first ~250 pages were told in a rush, without much of an explanation, and with a cast of dozens — it felt rather like being steamrolled, but in a good way. While what was going on was pretty complex, it was still pretty clear.

But now we get pages and pages of infodumping and explaining that feels pretty unnecessary.

And the humour also changes from being loose and absurd and turns pretty mean. And it feels like a lot of plot strands and characters from the first part were shoved aside in the last third.

OK, now I’m gonna do research! I’m gonna be so embarrassed if it turns out that Moynihan did the entire book over a couple months…

Hah!:

Few comics have taken a path quite like Forming. What began as a webcomic in 2009 has grown into a sprawling, hand-painted epic that stretches from the birth of the universe to the far reaches of time, weaving together Greek mythology, religious traditions, science fiction, philosophy, and absurd comedy into one singular vision. Now, after nearly 17 years, creator Jesse Moynihan has finally completed the work he once thought might never end.

Well, there have been quite a few books that were originally serialised on the intertubes, so…

This page seems to say that it’s all done by hand and not on a tablet — I guess he started using a paintbrush in the last third? Hm…

Looks like I was wrong! Too bad I wrote that thing up there — too late to change it now. If only I had something computerey so that I could edit my mistakes.

Oh well.

Oh my deer — it’s been a couple of months since I last had a day for comics reading. I guess I’ve just somehow been insanely busy or something? Dude. Gotta find more time for comics.

And I’ve got a new camera since the last time… let’s see how the results are.

For music today: Albums that I had as a teenager only. Just because.

Genesis: And Then There Were Three

14:13: The Mess by Noah van Sciver (Fantagraphics)

Well, it’s nice to see Van Sciver finally trying to do something other than his usual thing (and I like his usual thing).

Unfortunately, what he’s doing is a bog standard Apple TV series — you’ve seen this thing a bunch of times: A family visits the old, spooky neighbourhood, and there’s spooky stuff that spooks them.

So while a total cliché, this thing can work well — but Van Sciver does not have an ear for dialogue, and the story is both too unfocused and too basic at the same time. There’s the obligatory plot twist that you’d have to be a moron not to see coming, and

.

I suspect Van Sciver made this with Netflix TV series money in mind. But why would they buy this, anyway — there’s nothing here that’s new. Perhaps the mother’s total ineptness (just maddeningly so) is because Van Sciver tried to capture Stranger Things s1?

I guess it’s nicely drawn, though?

Elvis Costello: This Years Model

14:46: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 by Williamson/Sherman/Bonvillain (DC Comics)

I enjoyed reading the Legion comics when I was a child, but I’ve continued to pick up every new iteration… It’s such a simple concept that it’s hard to figure out why it’s never successful. Every iteration since the 90s has been pretty dead.

But this looks promising. Most of that’s down to the really attractive artwork, of course. And they’re doing The Origin Story once again, which I normally hate — but it seems to work well here. I’m on board.

15:02: Philcockophy by Josie Girand (Desert Island)

This book is a collection of sex gags.

It’s pretty funny. I like the artwork.

15:08: King-Cat #85 by John Porcellino

This issue is about dreams (mostly).

Heh heh, that’s a classic one for sure.

It’s a very good issue. Feels focused.

David Bowie: Stage (1)

15:18: Heart Shapes Tears by Abby Jame (Silver Sprocket)

I was really sceptical going in here — you know, “Instagram comics”. *shiver*

But this is really good! It’s got a very distinct point of view, and it’s funny. And it works as a book — cumulatively, these pages grow into something bigger, more despairing. It feels like a real glimpse into something fake. Good stuff.

There’s also some short actual comics stories in here, and I like them fine, too. But they seem a bit under-developed in comparison.

Hey, I made waffles.

15:43: Dog Days by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (Drawn & Quarterly)

I picked this up at a sale… I think I quite liked Gendry-Kim’s previous book(s), so I’m not sure how I missed this first time around.

Oh, D&Q… “contemporary autofiction”. I guess “autobio” is too declassé now.

The artwork is really very appealing.

And the entire book is about dogs and how they’re treated in South Korea. (Spoilers: Badly.)

So in between stories of what her dogs get up to, there’s all these scenes of mysterious dog butchers and… people make liquor out of dogs!? How does that even work? “Soju!?” That just sounds wrong. And evil. And impractical.

I wasn’t aware that you could make likker from meat at all…

Anyway, the book’s pretty solid — the storytelling is good, the artwork’s great, and you get a sense of being there. And it’s quite moving in its low-key way.

16:18: Fish in the Percolator

I guess this came in a Mystery Mail box…

It’s about coffee. It’s fun.

David Bowie: Stage (2)

16:20: Roy #2 by Gilbert & Natalia Hernandez (Fantagraphics)

I’m not sure whether this series is going anywhere or if it’s totally improvisational — it rather feels like the latter.

But it’s very enjoyable anyway.

16:28: Š! #60 (Kuš)

I got this from here.

The concept for this issue is Gen Z. That is, all the creators are Gen Z — I love that concept.

So, understandably, it’s mostly artists I haven’t heard of before, because I’m old.

But there’s a lot of really strong pieces in here — my one criticism here would be that the stories are too short, so nothing gets much space to develop.

But jokey ones (like the above) fare very well.

And touching ones, like the above — aww. But some of the pieces tend towards either being rather didactic or being totally incomprehensible… but perhaps that’s just me.

It’s a really enjoyable anthology to read, anyway.

16:46: The Wilderness Collection by Claire Scully (Avery Hill)

So this is a pretty conceptual book…

I really like the artwork.

We’re promised “a sequence of events”, but that remains pretty elusive — at least for me.

I do like the artwork — the line somehow reminds me of Rick Geary.

Talking Heads: Fear of Music

16:54: Barbed Wire by Ethan Llewellyn

This is a collection of previously published material.

It’s a funny book — lots of gags that work — but the artwork is extremely dependent on cribbing figures from panels by Jaime Hernandez. But he’s also drawing everybody in this… what’s it called? quarter profile view? And I don’t know whether he’s copy-pasting his figures in and then redrawing them, but you get that photocopier effect that’s disturbing.

But I mean — pretty good anyway.

Oh, and there’s also Daniel Clowes.

But I mean, Llewellyn is (presumably) young, and the funny bits are really funny.

17:18: Mother Please Don’t Give Birth To A Monster by Shirakawa Marina (Drawing the Line)

Yet another Japanese horror comic from the olden days (in this series of books), but this is just from the 80s.

It’s body horror, but it’s not really the usual kind.

It’s very inventive and pretty grisly, and… I have to say that I was rather bored by the book.

Supertramp: Breakfast in America

17:38: Stickybun by Tunde Adebimpe (Desert Island)

This is apparently a book that was originally published in 1998? At least it’s presented that way.

And it’s great! It’s a classic indie one-person anthology — funny, well put together, well drawn and great storytelling skills. So I’m guessing the artist did one book and then disappeared into a more profitable profession?

The Residents: Eskimo

17:53: Forevr by Brian Box Brown (Top Shelf)

Brown has streamlined his style further, I think? It works pretty well — even though it’s very simplified, he has distinct character designs for each one (which is something you often don’t see in books with this look).

But it rather falls apart in scenes like this — the white-haired person is the daughter of the person with the beard and the person with the long, orange hair. And there’s nothing to indicate that in the designs at all.

I mean, you know from the text, but it’s not ideal.

The story is a satire about AI and the use of AI personas for dead people. “Satire” is code for “not actually funny”, which this book respects totally.

The future the book presents is pretty depressing and all too likely. It’s not a bad book, but it gets bogged down and lacks zip.

(I took a little nap in the middle of the book. 🥴)

The Police: Regatta de Blanc

19:33: Future Proof #1-4 by Virginia Paine

This is a story of a heist, and then intergalactic mysteries and love and sex and stuff.

It’s charming and engrossing — it just has a really good flow, like a classic 90s indie science fiction comic.

Lots of mysteries and strange things — it’s very entertaining. And with appealing artwork.

20:10: Poetry Comics by Grant Snider (Chronicle Books)

Oh deer. I assumed from the title that this was going to be, er, for grown-ups, but nope — this is for children. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

And it’s not bad, really — it’s fine.

Ah, le terrain vague.

But even though this book is totes OK, I bailed after a couple dozen pages.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps

20:19: The Machine is Broken by Jared Sarnie (Fieldmouse Press)

Hey, this looks really interesting…

So many Photoshop layers…

Anyway, this book is about assisted suicide (and not), and is told in a very convoluted but thrilling way — we’re constantly on the edge of incomprehensibility, and that really draws you in as a reader. It’s really good! And so many art styles — Sarnie is mad talented.

20:36: The End

And I feel like I’m on a roll here with these comics — many good ones in a row now — but I really have to make dinner. To avoid swooning.

But that was a really solid batch of comics today.