FF1994: Way Out Strips

Way Out Strips volume 3 #1-4 by Carol Swain.

I’ve been a massive fan of Carol Swain ever since I happened onto one of her short, oblique, beautifully drawn stories in an issue of Chris Reynold’s Mauretania magazine.

After that, she self-published four issues of the first Way Out Strips series, but I’ve never been able to find any copies of those comics.

So we start here with volume 2, which was published by Tragedy Strikes Press, Michel Vrána’s first publishing empire.

The first issue has an introduction by Paul Gravett, and he explains that Swain is a painter that started doing comics a few years earlier. I like the “ligne grasse” term.

Swain’s pages almost always look like this: Three rows of panes, but not arranged completely on a grid. Each panel is usually drawn from a different angle than the preceding panel, giving it a most un-filmlike feeling: It’s pure comics.

I find her rough charcoal drawings irresistibly appealing. There’s a stillness to them that’s unique.

Even if most of the stories are somewhat obscure, Swain is also quietly funny.

OK, that’s the Tragedy Strikes issues, so we’re off to the Fantagraphics issues.

The first issue reprints a piece from the last Tragedy Strikes issue, which struck me as being rather odd. But it turns out that it’s the first part of a three-part series, so I guess it makes sense.

I think Swain has never drawn somebody with an open mouth. Having the mouths always be closed and their faces with relatively neutral expressions contributes to the stillness these panels have.

Every face is distinctive.

Fantagraphics announces that Way Out Strips is cancelled and that they’ll be releasing a longer collection next year. Which turned out to be true, for once! Having long-range plans when you’re a very underfunded comics publisher is tricky.

Carol Swain has continued to publish via Fantagraphics with a new graphic novel or a short story collection showing up about every five years. Unfortunately, not many of these have received a lot of attention (or, would I assume, massive sales), but perhaps that’s finally changing now. Her latest (and quite brilliant) graphic novel, Gast, got at least some attention.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

FF1990: Art/Leather/Knuckle/Zoot!

Art d’Ecco #1-4, Zoot! #1-6 by Andrew and Roger Langridge.
Leather Underwear, Knuckles the Malevolent Nun #1-2 by Cornelius Stone and Roger Langridge.

I had read the first issue of Art d’Ecco before, but that had apparently not inspired me to buy the rest of the issues at the time. How exciting! Is it going to suck?

Hm… Catanddean? Is that Cat Yronwode and Deal Mullaney (of Eclipse comics) the brothers are thanking for nothing? How odd.

Anyway, it doesn’t suck! It’s very silly and very funny. Perhaps it was the artwork that made me lose interest? I mean, the artwork’s very appealing, but it does look a lot like Gotlib.

And the humour is also frequently Gotlibish, but also goes off on tangents like this, which are very un-European.

Oo. The dreaded FLICKER effect.

Groan. Gotta love it.

These jokes would work perfectly in many a zany comedy movie.

Roger Langridge mainly does the art and Andrew Langridge mainly does the writing, but here Andrew draws a single page by himself. It’s very different from his brother’s artwork, and the story is rather startling.

Hm… “he doesn’t really hate us”? That’s a weird thing to write…

Oh! Oh! I just had a thought! (Yes, it happens!) Scott McCloud had a character caller Art Dekko in his Zot! series! And that was published by Eclipse! Had perhaps Eclipse threatened to sue Fantagraphics over publishing a series that’s homophonic with an obscure character from a not very successful series?

*spends five minutes googling*

I can’t find anything about that at all on the interweb, but the Langridges had previously published a series in their native New Zealand called Art Dekko! So they changed the name before bringing it to the US! Because of legal action from Eclipse? I’m just guessing here.

Oh! Oh! Oh! The next series that the Langridges published in the US was called “Zoot!” Like “Zot!” Even with the exclamation point!  It all ties together!

My, I’m like a genius or something.

OK, SOMETHING!

Here’s more evidence in a later issue! I think we’ve solved this sucker.

The humour in Art d’Ecco veers between very low-brow and very high-brow without taking the usual pit-stop in the middle, which is refreshing. So many American humour comics seem to despise high culture, taking it as a personal affront that things exist that they don’t like personally.

The joke references in Art d’Ecco are more reliably cultured:

Not a single reference to Leave it to Beaver (or whatever) in sight.

See?

Lots of poop jokes, though, and general irresistible stupidity like this. (They’re in jail, see, and Gump sends them a cake with hidden… Oh, you get it.)

One surprising thing about Art d’Ecco (besides just how good it is) is that it’s mostly one coherent story. Well, at least the second and third issues: It’s all about rescuing (well, sort of) Gump from a cult. I had expected more randomness, but it’s mostly rather straightforward…

But then, with issue four, it’s over, and Art d’Ecco changes from magazine format to standard US comic book format. And changes name to Zoot! (tee hee).

And it’s not just the physical format that changes: It becomes that traditional grab bag “single author” anthology I expected. (Although there’s two authors here.)

So lots of smaller pieces, and several continuing stories.

And while Art d’Ecco was 99% fun fun fun, we here get a mix between what might be autobio, wackiness and serious stories. The art changes to reflect the stories. (Or the other way around.)

So silliness…

… and then this jarring retelling of the life of Elizabeth Short, “The Black Dahlia”…

… interspersed with misogynistic quotations from various serial killers.

It’s a really strong piece, but, man, it’s a rather disconcerting juxtaposition.

Cute! And yet another art style.

Finally we get an explanation of various French phrases for missing appointments, oubliettes. Very educational.

And then Zoot! stops without any warning. The serials were not completed, unfortunately. Oh, well. That’s indie comics.

Leather Underwear is a collection of short pieces, and most of them are about religion. Above we see the comedy stylings of God and Jesus.

Knuckles the Malevolent Nun also shows up a couple of times.

As religious satire goes, Leather Underwear isn’t very angry, which is rather refreshing.

Knuckles the Malevolent Nun is announced as a monthly comic book, and starts off with some letters about Leather Underwear (which had featured the aforementioned nun). Reactions differed.

Official stamp of the Groth Authority.

Hm… is that Moxie and Toxie? I thought they were Dylan Horrocks characters? He’s not mentioned anywhere that I can see, but them being all New Zealanders together…

It seems like a worldwide rite of passage for indie comic book artists to draw at least one Krazy Kat homage page.

The artwork for Knuckles is as good as any, but I found the writing not particularly intriguing. Sure, writing a book where the devil stabs Jesus is fun and all, but I’m just not all that interested. Religion is boring.

After these books, Roger Langridge has gone on to do a number of solo series to great success, among them Fred the Clown and a couple of years on the Muppets comic book that revitalised that franchise. Andrew Langridge doesn’t seem to have made any further comics (except for a couple in Art d’Ecco reprint compilations). The same seems to be the case with Cornelius Stone and Knuckles.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

WFC Burkina Faso: La nuit de la vérité

Some scenes work really well, especially with the children and the women in the village. But a lot of the actors are, like, declaiming at the camera, and it’s a more than a bit awkward.

So I kinda like it, and I admire it, and there’s good stuff in here. But.

The climactic scene was completely mad and original and totally gripping, so there’s that.

The Night of Truth. Fanta Régina Nacro. 2004. Burkina Faso.

Bissap Mojito

  • 6 parts rum
  • 3 parts lime juice
  • 2 parts bissap syrup
  • Sugar to taste

Stir in a glass to dissolve sugar. Add ice.

I couldn’t find any Burkinabe cocktails, so I chose one from a list of recipes from Western Africa.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

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

FF1994: Different Beat Comics

Different Beat Comics #1 edited by Kim Thompson.

This book features a bunch of short (mostly two page) pieces that either are previously unpublished or are very obscure. It’s meant as both a way to read those obscure pieces and as a promotional tool: All artists featured had regular series going at Fantagraphics at the time.

I wonder whether it was successful at being either of those things. As a promotional tool it’s very odd: It’s more expensive than Fantagraphics’ regular comics. These days publishers issue free comics on Free Comic Book Day as a way to lure people in.

And as an anthology of rare stuff? Let’s see.

One page from Joe Sacco’s irregular single-page series on how Portland sucks, or something. I would read a collection of those, but I don’t think that’s ever happened?

A piece by Beto Hernandez on the aftermath of the Rodney King riots. Quite different from his normal pacing.

A nice five-page story by Jaime Hernandez that originally appeared in Vortex Comics in the early 80s.

And an ACME Novelty page by Chris Ware. I have the feeling that Ware has a lot of uncollected pages out there, since he serialised many of his stories in a weekly newspapers, and then reworked them extensively before being collected. I can’t remember this page in the collected edition, for instance, but I may be misremembering. (I’ll have to reread ACME Novelty Library one of these weekends.)

So, does it work as a collection of stuff by artists we already enjoy? Yes, I think so. As a promotional tool, however, I can imagine a lot of heads were scratched.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

WFC Germany: Aber das Wort Hund bellt ja nicht

A very unusual “tour” film, but it really gets to the heart of the matter. Long, long takes of the musicians playing or listening to the others playing, interspersed with tales of the routine of touring.

Who knew there were so many ways of making duck with red cabbage?

(Oh, featured in the film are Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker and Paul Lovens. Lovely.)

But the Word Dog Doesn’t Bark. Bernd Schoch. 2011. Germany.

Big Fish

  • 2 parts white rum
  • 2 parts blue curaçao
  • 3 parts lemon juice
  • 8 parts orange juice

Shake with ice and strain into a glass. Garnish with a lemon slice.

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