Random Thoughts

Funny Ladies by Pamela Beere Briggs (130х184mm)

So I’m watching this DVD because it has Lynda Barry (on topic) and Nicole Hollander (somewhat on topic) for this blog series.

The other two here are less on topic.

Just to get my prejudices up front: I don’t like documentaries in general, and I loathe sound byte editing documentaries with a sound bed…

And this has cheery jazzish music in the background which is getting on my tits…

Messick’s originals are huge!

I like the bits where they show her drawing… It’s kind of fascinating how efficient she is.

What the…

Hollander xeroxes Sylvia! And then glues her onto the board!

And then draws in some alterations!

And cuts out other bits with an x-acto knife! And then fills in the missing bits! I had no idea! I mean, over the years I was wondering why Sylvia looked so similar from strip to strip, but then I’d compare, and all these details were different, so I’d go “oh, she must just be very precise about drawing her face and that typewriter”…

Draw in some longer hair…

Cut the earring…

Draw in something new!

I’m amazed.

I’m not amazed that she has a cat.

Some Hollander/Barry conversation.

I’m actually enjoying this documentary quite a bit. The editing isn’t annoying at all — they let the artists talk and finish their sentences: No cross-cutting to a random comment by a critic about whatever. It’s refreshingly relaxed. I mean, I’d enjoy watching the artists drawing even more than what we’re getting, but it’s really interesting and well-made…

Oh! That’s what one of those pens look like. “Mechanical”?

But Barry uses a brush for the figures.

Oh my god!!! She draws directly in ink without any pencilling!!!

I’m in awe.

And then some white-out.

I’d totally sit here watching an hour of Barry drawing a strip. It’s so fluid, and Barry is funny and interesting on the soundtrack.

*gasp* She has all these sketchbooks! That she’s done in this way to ensure that it’s impossible to reproduce! But not any more these days, I think?

Modern computers, man.

Well!

The first two bits were OK (Messick and Guisewite), and then it got interesting with Hollander, but it really took off with the Barry bits. I was totally riveted.

And then there’s a “20 years later” extra:

And the conclusion is that not much has changed.

Funny Ladies. Pamela Beere Briggs. 1991. ⚄

This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.

Ma, can I be a feminist and still like men? by Nicole Hollander (210x138mm)

I’m not going to continue covering the Hollander books in this blog series (since she works on a scale perpendicular to the topic), but I thought I’d do at least one more: The first collection was all politics all the time, and in this one she starts her segue into doing more character-based stuff.

Hollander and Lynda Barry were (are?) friends, and Barry and Matt Groening were friends (or something), and all three of their strips followed the same trajectory: First Hollander, then Barry a few years later, and then Groening shortly afterwards (if I’ve got the chronology right). (I know, I could do research, but that sounds like work, so I’m going by vague memory instead.)

That is, they all started out doing topic-based strips, and then they all moved (slowly) towards using recurring characters…

Sylvia explains the joke on the cover. Helpful as ever.

Heh heh. “Answers: You know who you are.” I think we all do.

*gasp*

Oh yeah! This one:

Wasn’t there a law on the books that said you had to have this strip taped to your fridge a couple of years during the 80s?

Decisions, decisions…

Anyway, it’s a funny book, but it’s much, much lighter than Hollander’s first book.

This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.

Subterranean Modern with a cover by Gary Panter.

Don’t worry — I’m not going to include all the album covers done by these artists in this blog series, but I’m gonna do a couple.

This one is interesting because it was released by Ralph Records in 1979 — Ralph had included Gary Panter’s Rozz Tox manifesto in the catalogue they published the year after.

The album is cool, too: It’s got four versions of I Left My Heart In San Francisco.

Here’s Tuxedomoon.

MX-80.

Chrome.

And of course The Residents themselves.

I also find this British import tax thing amusing (or whatever it is).

It’s Rozz Tox approved.

This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.

A Disturbing Evening by Mark Beyer (215x280mm)

Look what I found! I’ve been trying to get a copy of this book for decades, and it finally popped up on ebay the other week. Serendipidee-doo.

So I’ve never read this before, and my heart is actually racing — I’m all excited!

Oh, wow. These comics were drawn in 76-78, and I don’t think I’ve seen any Beyer stuff that’s that early. He clearly had his design sense already at that point, but his figures aren’t as assured as they’d become later.

This is just wild. It’s even more far out than his later work. I mean, look at Amy on the couch being arrested… that’s mind blowing.

Beyer’ favourite topics are in full effect.

“Muteman”. Beyer’s strips often have a nightmarish quality, but I think this is the only overt dream retelling I can remember?

The bulk of Beyer’s comics work is the Amy + Jordan strip series, and he’s experimenting with the form already in 1978.

What the… I think that’s Mark Beyer himself? It looks very similar to how he’s drawn himself in the one other strip I remember him drawing himself in… and “mother” isn’t named here, but the son is Jordan, so is this a proto-Amy + Jordan strip? In several of the later strips, Jordan is also very young, but they become the same age as the years go by…

Well! It’s a really interesting book. The artwork is gorgeous, of course, and the stories are fun/scary, and it’s really weird that nobody has reprinted this thing.

The ebay seller kindly included a Beyer postcard from 1987 (printed by Lambiek).

It doesn’t seem like The Comics Journal reviewed this book at the time — the only mention I can find is in this ad from #44. And there’s that SohoZat store again.

This blog post is part of the Punk Comix series.