FF1991: A Couple of Winos

A Couple of Winos by Matthias Schultheiss from a story by Charles Bukowski.

Fantagraphics’ early attempts at publishing European comics was often rather awkward, trying to fit material made for different formats into something they could entice an American audience to buy. But this time it kinda works.

Schultheiss’ artwork here looks like a mash-up of Moebius and Hermann, which is very appropriate for the material. It looks like it was drawn with black-and-white in mind, and this desert comic looks good on newsprint.

So there’s no disconnect between the format and the contents, and the story is a short one (originally a short story, I guess? or an excerpt from a novel? I was unable to google it, and there are no story notes in the comic itself) about a drifter getting a job from that truck driver up there.

I’ve read a couple of Schultheiss’ other books, and they are science fiction, if I remember correctly, and drawn in a somewhat different style than this. They’re in colour, for one. I just googled his oeuvre, and he’s apparently published a number of Bukowski adaptions, but none of them have been published in English. Too bad, this is very good.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

FF1991: Check-Up/Unseen

Check-Up #1, Sight Unseen by James Sturm.

We last saw James Sturm just a few days ago in this blog series with his Cereal Killings comic book.

Check-Up seem to be going for a classic Fantagraphics single author anthology vibe: It’s even published in magazine size, just like Neat Stuff and Lloyd Llewellyn.

So you have a number of unconnected bits plopped into the package without much cohesion. It looks like Sturm’s interest in cereal mascots was an early obsession…

Most of all, it’s just not that funny. I mean, I look at that panel, and the father (on the couch) has a pleasingly deranged face, but the humour seems so forced.

I dunno. I’m just not seeing it. That the artwork is so basic doesn’t help. That’s a pretty weak parody of a fight scene.

Sight Unseen was published in 1997, and is a collection of strips originally published in The Stranger. The Fantagraphics edition is slightly smaller than a standard American comic book.

I think what Sturm is going for is dream logic…

… what with the visit to his high school and all. But it’s not really convincing as a dream. It has too much logic and the plot, as it is, has a conclusion, if not entirely satisfactory.

The story has a very improvisational feel to it. Or perhaps a more half-assed feel to it. Or perhaps I’m just extra cranky today.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

WFC Slovakia: Obrazy starého sveta

Utterly entrancing.

I’m not sure how much of it is real, though. It seems to present itself as a documentary of sorts, and some of the people (or characters) we see seem rather, uhm, unlikely.

If it’s all real, the film-makers are kinda cruel with their subjects.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw the end titles. This was made in 1972! The director was so ahead if his time.

Pictures of the Old World. Dusan Hanák. 1972. Slovakia.

Hriatô

  • bacon
  • honey
  • calvadot

Crisp up the bacon in a pan. Add the honey and let it bubble a bit. Take off the heat and add calvados. Heat up again, but don’t let it boil. Serve hot in a glass.

I thought this was going to be horrible, but it’s about the best hot alcohol drink I’ve tasted. It’s not very nice after it’s cooled off, though.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Bosnia and Herzegovina: Go West

This DVD edition was pretty unsatisfactory. It’s windowboxed and interlaced, so it’s pretty low resolution, which makes everything… ugly.

This film is exactly like Some Like It Hot, but with atrocities and ethnic cleansing. It veers wildly between sincere horror and absurd comedy. And sometimes tender comedy.

I appreciate what they were trying to do (and there are some good scenes), but it in the end, it’s all rather over-cooked. Or perhaps the bad film to DVD transfer is just making me extra cranky.

Go West. Ahmed Imamovic. 2005. Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tito’s Garden

  • 12cl vodka
  • 4cl honey
  • 10 leaves rosemary
  • 6 leaves of basil
  • Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Shake vigorously with ice and double-strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and add a sprinkle of pepper.

It’s an interesting flavour, but I think I should have used less rosemary.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

FF1991: Loose Teeth

Loose Teeth #1-3 by Scott Musgrove and Brian Sendelbach.

Both Musgrove and Sendelbach had appeared in various anthologies before doing Loose Teeth together. This series has solo pieces from both of them, but they also collaborate on a number of stories.

The first issue opens with a competition of sorts: Readers are invited to send in scripts for one-page stories and Musgrove or and Sendelbach will illustrate them.

Loose Teeth is a humour anthology, of course. A quite violent one. These recurring characters, The Fruitheads, are maimed and killed over and over again.

The art styles vary quite a bit from piece to piece. You have these quite amusing stories allegedly written by a seven-year-old in this scrappy, scratchy style.

But you also have this more carefully worked-at early-Baggesque style for several stories. (Not that Peter Bagge would ever use such dadaesque humour.)

Apparently nobody entered the competition…

Now that’s humour.

And then it all comes to an end. Fantagraphics comics are usually cancelled without any notice, so that’s nice.

I am wholly unfamiliar with either artist, but googling a bit now, it looks like Musgrove took one of the characters from Loose Teeth, Fat Dog Mendoza, over to Dark Horse after the cancellation of this magazine. (He’s one of about half a dozen that’s taken the exact same route.) Musgrove seems to be doing art these days.

Brian Sendelbach has worked more extensively in comics after this.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.