Random Thoughts

Here’s some comics I’ve been reading the last couple weeks.

This is a collection of an early (but apparently still-running) web series by Boulet (who I’m quite unfamiliar with).

Nooo! The broken glass of a fridge shelf doesn’t go with the glass bottles! Noooooo

Anyway, there’s an admirable variety to the art styles, and Boulet apparently did all these without pencilling (to make things fresh and less like his day job, which is drawing comics). There’s a number of travelogue bits…

… but mostly little scenes like this from his daily life, and he makes himself out as being really uptight and not actually very likeable, which is, of course, very likeable.

But then he challenges the entire Internet to a death match!

It’s all very entertaining, really, but the format here doesn’t do the material any favours. In France, this was released in three 100-pageish books, but it’s here collected as a 300 page book, and if you read this in one sitting (which I didn’t do), it would be very repetetive. Because he goes over many of the same things, again and again. But I think a 100 page book would have been a very nice way to spend an evening.

And Boulet even makes the same point himself, sort of, and that was for the French edition. The problem is much more pronounced in this Oni Press edition, but I guess that’s the only way to get it into the US market.

Several years ago, I bought a new Danish edition of the entire Tintin series in a “classic” dress — all the Tintin stories that were published before 1950 were later revised (some several times), and I had only read those versions. And… yes, this edition is better. (It collects not the original original version (which was mainly in black and white before WWII), but the second edition. Confused yet?)

But I finally got to Tintin et les Picaros, the last Tintin album (which was ever only published in one version anyway).

And this is by no means the best Tintin album, but it’s still fun.

I was thinking that this would probably be the final time I re-read Tintin, but now I’m thinking that I should read a French edition, too… but perhaps just the “core” albums, starting perhaps with the 13th, Les Sept Boules de cristal, and ending with the 21st, Les Bijoux de la Castafiore, 1943-1962.

Hm… yeah, I think I’ll do that.

No, I didn’t read The Sandman in the 90s.

But I’ve read the five collected editions (issues 1-75, and then this one that collects various bits that were published after the main series ended).

And I think Sandman is quite OK? I really liked the issues Mike Dringenberg drew, and after that I rather lost interest.

This volume, though, is a snooze fest. Perhaps the worst thing about it is that is wastes the time some rather talented artists could have spent doing basically anything else than this (Milo Manara above).

And having Miguelanxo Prado, of all people, spend his time illustrating this piffle? Miguelanxo Prado!!! He writes wonderful comics himself, and instead he’s illustrating a fucking Sandman spinoff issue!?

What a waste.

Looks great, though.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I was going to stop buying Tif et Tondu albums…

… but this one, originally from 1993, is pretty good!

I mean, the mystery isn’t much of a mystery, but it’s properly exciting. As these things go.

I guess I’ll be picking up the rest of this reprint series too, then. *sigh*

And speaking of series I’ve been totally wrong about — I always thought that Jérôme K. Jérôme Bloche wasn’t much cop, because I’d only read the first album, written by a different author. But after Dodier took over writing (with the fourth album), it because a quite different series, and very, very enjoyable.

These are the last four albums, and I think the newest is from 2022, so it’s still puttering along after 28 albums.

I really like Dodier’s artwork — it’s very humane. And that goes for the stories, too.

These are all mysteries, and the mysteries are all quite original. In that they’re not about what these of things usually are: No spies or mass murders, but very down to earth instead. Extremely enjoyable reading.

I’m learning French, though, and there’s quite a few expressions not even Google Translate can help me with… so it’s sometimes a bit confusing reading, but I don’t mind.

Oh! And the latest album had this insert advertising the Spirou weekly magazine. I had no idea that it still existed! I thought it had been cancelled like the Tintin and Pilote weeklies.

So I signed up for a subscription. Who says advertising doesn’t work!

Johan et Pirlouit is an early Peyo (of The Smurfs fame) series.

And it’s very, very 1956.

I remember that some of these had been translated into Norwegian when I was a child, and I didn’t even like the series then. And I still don’t! So I don’t know why I bought this!

I don’t even like the Smurfs! Never did!

I only have myself to blame; I know. But perhaps this’ll remind me to never buy any Peyo reprints.

OK, that’s it.

I’m not complaining — I’m rather impressed by how good Google Translate is at parsing hand-lettered comics (even Annie Goetzinger’s handwriting). But one thing is curiously doesn’t know how parse is hyphens:

So it’s “ses antécédents familiaux”, i.e., “his family background”, and not “his family teeth”. (“Dents” means “teeth”.)

I’m learning French, and I can basically understand almost all of that, but I sit with an Ipad Mini with live French->English translation up, so I can efficiently wave it in front of a speech bubble to check words I don’t understand, which in this case was “en revanche” (“on the other hand”).

I’ve got the Ipad strapped to my hand…

… so I can just whip it out.

It works surprisingly well — in cases like this where it doesn’t understand hyphens, so it’s wrong about the rest of the sentence, which I think means “I don’t know anything about his family background”.

Oh, and it also doesn’t understand hand-lettered “ç”, which is unfortunate, since “ça” is such a common word…

(Google Translate on a modern Iphone sucks — it doesn’t know how to switch to the macro camera, so you can only focus if it’s far from the page. Which makes it unusable.)

Anyway — Google people, you’re doing good work, but it could be better! Don’t ignore the super important market consisting of people reading comics in languages they don’t understand! I’m sure there’s dozens and dozens of us! Worldwide!

Today is a grey, rainy day, so it’s comics readin’ time. And for music today — Tuxedomoon and related, but with a smattering of Crepuscule albums.

Various: Subterranean Modern

14:06: The Cutting Floor by Charles Burns

This neat little book has sketches and pencils for work I haven’t seen.

But it looks awesome! It’s from the new book that’s being published later this year, perhaps? If so, I’m even more excited about that book than I was previously.

14:11: Amorcito 6

This is an English-language Spanish anthology, and it’s riso printed, I guess? And it’s overtly Japanese-inspired… in the artwork, and not really in the storytelling. And it’s great! I was especially taken with the above story by Hana Chatani…

… and this one by Danielle Taphanel, but it’s all pretty spiffy. You can buy it from here… or at least you used to — it seems to be down now?

Various: From Brussels With Love (1)

14:30: Rescue Party! edited by Gabe Fowler (Pantheon Books)

Ah, this is an anthology of one-page strips done during the Covider parts of Covid.

There’s a lot of wonderful art in here… some of the pieces are perhaps a bit over the top dramatic.

But there’s a lot of fun stuff here, too.

We swoop from pathos to humour a lot, and that works. I love both these pages.

All the pages are nine panel grid, which certainly leads to a sort of unified feel for the book, but it also leads to things being a bit samey over 140 pages? The grid gives all the pieces a certain density…

I’m not sure it’s an entirely successful anthology in that way, but there’s a lot of good pieces in here.

Various: From Brussels With Love (2)

15:44: Journey Into Indignation, Gripe Night & A New Canon by Paul B. Rainey

OK, I’m not the target audience here — I’ve seen the Star Wars movies, but back in the 80s, and I have zero idea what the left-hand page here is even referring to. I understand the joke on the right-hand page, but it’s a bit… unresolved? And basically the entire issue is like that, except the autobio bits at the end, which are pretty funny.

But perhaps somebody who’s really into Star Wars would find all this hilarious.

Even in the non-Star Wars books, most of the humour is extremely referential. I mean, the Ricky Gervais bit is funny without knowing who he is, the The Chase seems to parody some reality competition show? And I guess you had to be there.

Tuxedomoon: Half-Mute (1)

OK, true! That’s very true.

And now I have to run some errands — I have to buy some paint.

Various: The Fruit of the Original Sin

17:42: Vilmuemarkens paradox by Anna Laurine Kornum (Afart)

The artwork here is impressive.

Properly grotesque and dark. Sometimes the (digitally manipulated) photos used as a basis shine through a bit much, tough, like in the top left panel in the right hand page, and it’s a bit disturbing.

But it’s a really original book about insanity and reality and stuff — you won’t guess where it’s going. At least I didn’t!

Tuxedomoon: Desire

18:14: The Major by Moebius (Dark Horse)

I’m not sure this material is flattered by the format — it’s “album” sized, on very white, shiny paper. Smaller and on matte paper would have felt very different, I think?

This is a book Moebius drew over a decade in a notebook, after all, and there’s no storyline as such — instead a lot of philosophical discussions that don’t really go anywhere.

But the artwork is pretty nifty, as usual — it veers wildly between more loosely sketched pages and very tight, intricate pages.

18:37: Basic Witch by Andrea Ferkingstad

This is most amusing — it’s about a witch convention and being jealous and stuff.

The storytelling is great — it’s got a good flow.

18:43: Zodiac by Ai Weiwei/Elettra Stamboulis/Gianluca Costantini (Ten Speed Press)

I have sworn off artist biographies — it’s a huge industry in comics these days, and the books usually suck.

But the artwork looked intriguing in the store. So let’s see.

Eep. I don’t know why, but fairy tales and myths just bore me silly. Perhaps it’s because they’re all plot? I loathe people recapping plots to me; I guess I’m just not all that interested in “plot” per se.

I do like the artwork. Even if it’s super duper photo referenced, it doesn’t quite feel like a fumetti.

All these changes in perspective seem totally unmotivated, though — as if they’re just tracing random photos that looked nice. It makes the storytelling really choppy.

Eh, no, I’m not interested enough to keep reading. *ditch*

Blaine L. Reininger: Broken Fingers (vinyl)

19:10: Soda – Le pasteur sanglant by Gazzotti/Bocquet (Zoom)

This is a long-running series with a gimmicky premise: A cop lives with his mother, but his mother doesn’t want her son to be a cop, so he dresses up as a priest when he’s at home.

See? Gimmicky. But this is the fourteenth album, so it’s working… I’ve only read a smattering of them, though.

Blaine L. Reininger & Alain Goutier: Paris en Autumne

This art style doesn’t really appeal much to me… and the plot is a classic. That’s often fine if they can put a fun spin on it, but it’s done in such a basic way here — there’s really only one person who could be behind The Nefarious Happenings here. It’s like they’re not even trying.

Hm, perhaps I should make dinner now? Indeed.

Be back in a while.

Blaine L. Reininger: Night Air

20:28: Memoires d’outre-espace by Enki Bilal (E-Voke)

I think I may have a different edition of this somewhere — or something collecting some of the same short stories? But I couldn’t help myself; I had to order this anyway.

No! I haven’t read this before! The album was originally published in 1978 as part of the Collection pilote, so I guess these shorts originally ran in Pilote?

I had no idea that Bilal’s line this early looked so much like Moebius’s line — Bilal would go fully painted a while after this…

These pages look so good! The stories, on the other hand, are pretty cheesy — they all have twist endings that would have made even a Warren editor blush. So I can see why these wouldn’t exactly be the first Bilal stories to translate to Danish. Still, it’s a fun read.

Winston Tong: Theoretically Chinese

21:10: Betrayal of the Mind by Céline Wagner (Humanoids)

Beautiful artwork.

Noo! Is this another artist biography? Why does this keep happening…

… actually, hang on. This book is pretty good. It’s got some tension — it’s quite abrupt in some was, and it doesn’t over-explain anything. (I guess that’s left to the about thirty text pages at the end; I skipped those.) It really works well.

Tuxedomoon: Holy Wars

21:39: Fantomrakettene by Tore Aurstad/Andreas Iversen (Gyldendal)

This is quite by the numbers — mysterious thing lands in a lake deep in a forest, and people start getting infected. WHAT COULD IT BE

But still, it’s a fun read. Perhaps it’s the setting? It’s set in 1946 in a Norwegian forest, which gives you plenty of stuff to play with that aren’t usually present in these stories.

It sometimes reads a bit like a storyboard for a cheepie horror movie. But that somehow works well here.

21:57: The End

And now I think I’ve read enough comics for today. I’ve gotta do some painting…