Random Thoughts

Man, it’s a wet day today. But… I can read comics! Yeah!

Joni Mitchell: Night Ride Home

12:58: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: The Idiots Abroad by Gilbert Shelton & Paul Mavrides (Fantagraphics)

Hm… the reproduction here is kinda odd? The linework looks kinda washed out (reproduced from a printed book, perhaps?) and the colouring only adds to the general messed-up look. That is, it’s all just a bit hard to read?

*groan*

Later parts look a lot sharper, and here the colouring makes more sense, too.

Anyway, I think I’ve read parts of this before? But possibly not all of it? I was originally published between 1984 and 1989, and while I applaud their ambitions — not just repeating the same old gags, but sending the Freak Brothers off on a Major Epic — they got a bit lost in the weeds. Large parts of the book are pretty gag-less, and is just pretty drawings of things from Barcelona etc.

I mean — I really enjoyed reading this, but, like…

Thee Oh Sees: Help

14:10: Bar Ques by Vincent Fortemps (Fremok)

Besides being a great place to shop comics, Domino Comics is also great for just reminding you that there’s exciting publishers around Europe, too. So I bought a bunch of stuff from Fremok.

This is a very handsome little book.

I’m not quite sure what it’s about, but it seems to have something to do with a boat and a storm at sea or something?

Nice.

Thee Oh Sees: Help

14:16: I’m The Eye by Paskalito/Boleyder (Le Dernier Cri (possibly))

This is a very handsome large book.

This is basically a series of illustrations based on er imaginary magazine covers or something? But we get two variations of each.

And then we get more?

It’s fun.

Merzbow & Lawrence English: Eternal Stalker

14:47: Jonas Fink by Vittorio Giardino (Fahrenheit)

Ah! I remember why this sounded so familiar… the first two albums (collected in the first volume here) were published in the 90s, while the second volume here wasn’t published until 20 years later. I feel there’s been quite a lot of series with a publication history like that lately? That is, a series that had been pretty much abandoned, but then the artist decided to finish it at last. Changing market circumstances?

I love Giardino’s artwork. It’s ideal, in a way. That is, in its genre (European comics realism), I don’t think you can find anybody doing better work — the people look like real people, with proper anatomy and convincing postures and correct clothing, and the backgrounds are all there: That house really looks like one of those houses, and that kitchen has all the little things that makes it look like a real kitchen.

That is, these drawing evoke a specific milieu impeccably.

And the line is just very pleasant to look at, too.

See? Very pleasant to read.

Hercules & Love Affair: Omnion: The Album

Towards the end of the “original” albums, I think I see a reason why Giardino might have semi-abandoned the series: It’s puttering along nicely, but without any urgency. It’s about living in Czechoslovakia in the 50s; hounded by the secret police and doing secret translations of Arthur Koestler etc. It seems like it should be super exciting! But it isn’t, because most of the pages are really about a love affair between two characters that don’t really have that much character, and it’s… just kinda cookie cutter? It felt like watching a few of the mid-season episodes of a drama TV show: A lot of padding.

But, OK, on to the new book:

Yikes! What happened to Giardino’s masterful command of the human body? Suddenly everybody’s gone bobble-headed, and that poor woman has been reduced to a couple of lines denoting features that seem to swim around at random in a sea of face…

The colours are nice, though.

Massimo: invalidObject Series (var)

*pause while I read this article about that abhorrent piece of crap* Pretty good article.

OK, back to the book…

After getting used to the new art style, it’s actually not that bad? I mean, except for the bobble heads, it’s still very fluid.

The storyline in this volume is a lot stronger than in the first one. Giardino covers the Soviets rolling into Prague in 1968, which is more relevant these days than you’d hope it would be. The characters become more interesting, and there’s passages that are quite moving.

So: Three thumbs up.

Exek: Check it Out!!

18:14: La Maitre chocolatier 2: La concurrence by Chetville / Corbeyran / Gourdon (Zoom)

This is another one of those French(ey) series they churn out on specific subjects: Food, wine, chocolate… This one is about chocolate.

And luuurve.

As usual, it’s pretty entertaining? There’s lots of intrigue, and now and then we get a lecture about chocolate.

It’s easy on the brain.

We even get some recipes.

19:01: You Don’t Own The Road by Stephane de Groef (Fremok)

OK, back to the Fremok shipment…

This is a very handsome little book… I think the dust jacket is made from textured wallpaper? Nice.

So first I thought this was just a book of drawings of oldee tymey American motel signs, but then I started reading the signs.

It’s quite amusing, and I love the colours.

Wouldn’t you want to hang out at the Lilithium Club?

Exek: Check it Out!!

19:10: Ostende by Dominique Goblet (Fremok)

This is a very handsome mid-sized book.

This is very pretty. It’s sort of loosely narrative, but it’s kinda vague what the narrative is.

Gorgeous.

Møster!: When You Cut Into The Present

19:23: I paladsets skygge by Gabriet Tiedt Lange (Fahrenheit)

I like the artwork.

And I like the story, too. It’s a very 70s plot — think Jodorowsky, Moebius, the second Planet of the Apes… It’s a mish-mash of influences, but works well.

Exec: Advertise Here

19:52: Barelli et le bouddha boudant by Bob de Moor (E-Voke)

Time for some classic second banana old children’s comics.

These Barelli stories are very compressed — just 30 pages and it’s over. Bob de Moor squeezes in at least a couple of gags per page, and lots and lots of action. I think E-Voke has made a wise decision to publish the eight Barelli stories one album at a time — I think most publishers would have published them all in one or two volumes, and that would have felt exhausting to contemplate. But one at a time, it’s a completely different proposition.

Oh oh oh! I’ve read this one before in my childhood. I remember that scene with the elephant vividly.

It’s still fun.

Exec: Advertise Here

20:21: Par les sillons by Vincent Fortemps (Fremok)

The is a very handetc.

I thought this was going to be like the other, much smaller Fortemps book, but this is a pretty clear narrative.

And gorgeous. It’s about war and stuff and is kinda moving.

50 Foot Wave: Power + Light

20:34: El exstraño juicio a Roy Ely by Balacarce / Giménez (E-Voke)

This is a collection of short stories (some are only a couple pages long) from the early 80s, I think? Possibly originally printed in Heavy Metal? I don’t know.

Almost all the stories have twist endings, and while none of the stories are hugely original or anything, there’s an undeniable charm to the stories. It’s unassuming sci fi/horror twisty stories, and they’re fun.

Sophie: Nothing More To Say

21:05: Rhonda 1: Help Me Rhonda by Van O (E-Voke)

Very standard French(ey) 2022 action/adventure artwork…

And it’s all kinda boring, innit? The first album only has the first third of the story, and it somehow doesn’t feel like anything happened, even though she escaped death a dozen times over these pages. Perhaps because nobody has any character here?

I don’t think I’ll be reading more of these.

µ-Ziq: Goodbye

21:34: Complete Fuff Comix Collection by Jeffrey Lewis

OK, I’m not going to read all of these tonight, because I’m growing kinda sleepy, for some reason or other.

But perhaps a couple?

Heh heh.

Aksak Maboul: Redrawn Figures 2

The #0 book has a couple of fortune cookies glued to the pages, which I appreciate.

These books are mostly autobio, and it’s in that 90s vibe — “I went on a trip and here’s what happened”. And it’s a genre I quite like, especially when the trips are as interesting as this.

The other stuff, like this infodump on the Guggenheim family… I mean, it’s interesting, but it’s not thrilling.

But I mean, I like the book and everything, only some things more than others…

The Meters: Gettin’ Funkier All The Time (4): Mardi Gras Mambo

23:20: Sleep

Hey! I’ve been reading Fuff for a couple hours! I totally only meant to read for 30 minutes or something. There is something kinda gripping about the series — I want to know how that trip ends! I’m up to issue #4, and it’s still going strong. And each chapter ends on a cliffhanger of sorts.

But it’s sleepytime, I think.

So busy busy, but finally I have a day to spend reading comics. (Except I may have to take a nap in the middle.)

And… since it’s a sleepy kind of day, I think I’ll go with music from the late 70s only.

Let’s get readin’.

Neil Young: Time Fades Away with Where the Buffalo Roam

06:59: Big Gorgeous Jazz Machine by Nick Francis Potter (Driftwood Press)

Not many people know that Goethe was a massive Matt Fraction fan.

This is very nice. It’s a bewildering approaches to comics, from the somewhat abstract…

… to the more concrete.

There’s like a new comics language being invented in each piece. It’s really lovely.

07:21: On Vinyl by Lorenz Peter (Conundrum Press)

This starts off as an apparently straight-forward autobio comic about running a second hand record shop.

There’s some exaggerations for comedic effect, but well within the genre. Then it develops into a bigger epic with a quest for a lost record collection, and flights into fancy, and it’s fun and charming.

However, it seems like towards the end, the author just lost interest in the work, and the storylines end with a thud. The problem isn’t that it’s a downer, but that it just feels so… unsatisfying?

But the first four fifths of the book are plenty entertaining.

Richard and Linda Thompson: Hokey Pokey

08:11: Cowlick #1 edited by Floyd Tangeman (Deadcrow)

Another solid anthology from Tangeman… it’s the usual mix of strange and wonderful nouveau underground comics.

It’s cool.

Don Cherry: Brown Rice

08:22: Martin Peters by Patrick Allaby (Conundrum Press)

This is downright bizarre. The book presents itself as being about this guy Peters’ teenage years — and Peters is just some guy Allaby has met at some diabetics’ meetings; not a friend, really. So the question is: Why is Allaby interested in telling us about Peters, and why should we be interested in reading about Peters?

We even get all the back and forth between Peters and Allaby — which reminds me quite a bit of Chester Brown’s Helder/Showing Helder story.

But it is a fascinating book. It has a certain lack of affect that makes it seem like it’s written by some alien entity. It’s good.

And I have no idea whether anything in the book is true, or whether it’s just a very meta work of fiction. I was certainly assuming the latter while reading it, but…

Julie Tippetts: Sunset Glow

09:15: Mister Morgen by Igor Hofbauer (Conundrum Press)

This is graphically interesting, but somewhat derivative? The black/grey/red colour scheme is classic, of course, but it also just feels like a retread of 80s comics design?

Unfortunately, I read the text on the front cover flap — somebody was nattering on about this guy being the Charles Burns of the Balkans. Dude. That’s setting the expectations really high, and this book doesn’t even begin to deliver. Burns’ artwork is inhumanely meticulous while these drawings are mostly just kinda sloppy. But perhaps they meant the stories? The stories read like riffs on Richard Sala stories. Not that that’s bad, but it all feels so familiar.

Very disappointing.

Steve Hackett: Voyage of the Acolyte

10:10: Nap Time

13:52: Mini Kuš #107-110 (Kuš)

Man that was a good nap… I dreamt I had to explain something about file indexing to Kristen Bell, for some reason. And then we guerrilla styled a house we didn’t own. It turns out that it’s hard to paint on wallpaper that’s not actually properly affixed to the wall.

This is also very dreamy.

As usual, the minis from Kuš are great… but this one is awesome. By Joana Mosi. She packs so much emotion into such a little undramatic story. It’s fantastic.

Very dreamy.

Very symbolic.

Neil Young: Tonight’s the Night

14:12: Aniara by Knut Larsson (Kartago Förlag)

I think Aniara is a classic Swedish science fiction novel? I don’t think I’ve read it myself, but if I have, it’s so long ago that I don’t remember anything of the plot. And this adaptation seems to require you knowing what’s happening, because it reads like a series of illustrated highpoints (?) from the novel.

The artwork doesn’t really do much for me, either. All those bobble headed peope…

14:29: Take The Long Way Home by Jon Claytor (Conundrum Press)

I think I’m reaching the end of the pile of Conundrum books I bought the other week…

This is an autobio sketchbook-like road movie I mean comic book. And it’s absolutely riveting. It seems so straightforward and head-on, but subtle at the same time?

Jeanne Lee: Conspiracy

I really enjoy the placid pacing and the different approaches to the artwork — sometimes more painterly, sometimes more scratchy.

Never listen to advice!

Anyway, a solid book and an enjoyable read.

Supertramp: Crisis? What Crisis?

16:07: World War 3 Illustrated #52: Frontlines of Repair (AK Press)

Nice. Brand new issue of WW3.

This issue is mostly about Covid, but there’s also a bunch of other stuff.

And the George Floyd protests…

Joni Mitchell: Hejira

All the familiar faces are here, but also lots and lots of new people, like Susan Simensky Bietila here.

Ooh! Ben Katchor!

Huh. Most of the contents here seem to deal with stuff from 2020, so it has an out-of-time quality (we’re so over Covid and Black Lives Matter now, right? right?), but here’s a thing about Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Anyway, another solid issue, and incredibly cheap as usual. Get it from AK Press while it’s fresh.

Alice Coltrane: Eternity

17:14: Invisible Parade by Takashi Horiguchi (Glacier Bay Books)

This is a collection of short, wistful pieces.

It’s definitely got the mood down, but it feels like quite a few of these stories don’t really go anywhere interesting? I mean, most of them are pleasantly absurd and take sf twists, it’s just not that gripping?

Might just be me.

I did enjoy flipping the book upside down several times during reading.

17:49: Conundrum Magazine #3 (Conundrum Press)

Hm… Oh, I thought this was a, like, comics anthology.

But it’s just a promo for Conundrum publications with excerpts from their books. OK, fine.

The Rolling Stones: Black and Blue

17:55: A Different Sky by Samuel D. Benson

This looks like it’s going to be totally out there, what with the manic artwork and all.

But instead it’s a really straightforward supernatural adventure story. Like an episode of Buffy, or something. In a good way. It’s fun!

Joyce: Vision Of Dawn

18:21: Hive: The Coronation by Miles MacDairmid

Again, this seems like it’s going to be totally weird and wild, but beyond the truly insane character designs, this is a very conventional story. I’d say the storytelling is assured? But… it’s more familiar than anything else. You could film this with normal actors, and it’d be a standard indie dramedy.

It’s mostly in the Young People Talking To Each Other genre, complete with assholes in bars and everything. And the thing is, it works? It’s a really enjoyable read — it’s fun, it’s exciting, and it does a shift into a totally different genre towards the end of the book — and since this is a “To Be Continued” kind of book, in the movie adaptation I’d say the first two thirds of this book comprise the first act of the movie. (Which is also pretty typical these days, come to think of it.)

MacDairmid includes a bookmark in the book — which is apparently the watercolours used as the basis for the colouring in the book! (Hm… those colours actually look better than what’s in the book — I assumed they were tweaked a lot in Photoshop before being printed.)

*thumbs up*

Blondie: Blondie

19:43: Gruopvækkende fortællinger fra rabarbermørket by Christian Henry (Fahrenheit)

The printing here is very odd — is it supposed to look like this? Everything is super washed out: No actual blacks; it just goes from light grey to white. And the character design, while amusing, makes it difficult to tell what’s actually happening a lot of the time.

That said, this is hilarious. I LOL-ed out loud several times. The references are pretty dated, but so am I, so it all evens out.

There’s an escalating insanity to these stories that’s masterful.

Various: This Is Reggae Music

20:32: Oboy Comics by Shaheen Beardsley (Freak Comics)

This, on the other hand, looks pretty traditional, but the storyline is pretty weird. At least at the start?

Then it sorta turns into a whiny guy book (of a super-hero variety), which isn’t my thing at all. It’s got all the “edgy” jokes you’d expect, and while some of the jokes work, it’s not very interesting.

Joan Armatrading: Joan Armatrading

21:13: Nofret: Tutankhamon by Sussi Bech (Eudor)

I’m fading fast, but one more comic before sleep. This is the thirteenth and final album in the Nofret series, which I’ve been reading since the 80s, so I hope Bech manages to end the series well…

Bech switched from drawing with pen and ink (and paper) to Cintiq a couple years ago, and I think the artwork lost a lot of charm at the same time. Often the faces just look… off… But it’s a pretty handsome book, still.

Devo: Satisfaction (I Can’t Get Me No)

As someone who barely remembers what went on in this series before, it starts off pretty confusing. But Bech squeezes in a lot of Egyptian history in these 70 pages, and we get the denouement to the Aton thing, where Nefertiti and her husband were deposed, the old gods were brought back and Tut was instated as the new figurehead. That doesn’t really leave a lot of space left for Nofret herself, and all she does here is basically running around and getting kidnapped several times.

It’s OK, I guess? And the ending is bitter sweet. It makes me want to go back and read the entire series; I remember the early albums, at least, had a certain jennesequa, and I haven’t read them for decades.

Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 1

21:50: Sleep

And now I think I should get some real sleep. I’m totally exhausted after all these comics.