Random Thoughts

Here’s some comics I’ve read over the past week.

Marc Torices isn’t a name that I’m familiar with…

… but immediately upon opening this I’m like WHOA.

It’s done in all these different art styles, and he references basically everybody that work in “literary” comics and has a strong style, so you get pastiches of Chris Ware, Olivier Schrauwen and too many to list.

But… reading this is exasperating. I usually don’t moan about plots, but lemme recap a bit: It’s about a really stupid guy, and he has a friend that gets kidnapped. Through being both a pitiful wimp and amazingly dim, he scotches the investigation into her disappearance, so you’re reading this going “gngngngngng!” in frustration.

I originally assumed that this was from an American creator (it being on Drawn & Quarterly and all), but as I was getting more and more fed up with the book, I put it down and googled it, and it turns out to be a translated work, originally published in Spain. And when I learned that, pieces fell into place — it has a particularly Spanish sensibility (think Joan Cornellà, for instance).

Not that that makes it more readable — despite all the amazing artwork, it’s an extremely straightforward narrative, and the narrative sucks.

I guess this was originally published in the early 2000s?

It has all the annoying things you expect in a Grant Morrison comic.

But it’s also kinda sorta sticks the ending? It’s super duper referential, and if you have no relationship with these characters before, it’ll be gobbledegook.

Jae Lee’s artwork is something.

Yes, I read six issues of Spirou magazine! I was behind and had to catch up.

Two of these are special issues…

… which means that almost all the strips are made with the special issue in mind. I wonder what the kids who are reading this think about it all? I mean, Agent 212 is apparently 50 years old, but does a nine year old care? It’s a character totally unfamiliar to me, so I didn’t much, but it’s still fun with a special issue.

The best issue of the batch is the été special: It’s twice the normal size, and it’s all about the Fabrice Festival: Les Fabrice (who are the “editors” of Spirou) have decided to put on a festival, so we get all the strips going to the festival. It works extremely well — it’s very funny.

I’m wondering what happens to strips like this afterwards, though? I mean, it wouldn’t make sense to include a two-pager like the above in a collection, would it? I guess I realise know why French children collect magazines like Spirou into hardback collections — I see them in used book stores in France.

And I’ve learned this issue essential words like “fesse”.

The best bit in the issue are the Fabrice pages — I laughed out loud repeatedly.

But there’s good stuff in all the issues. Nice artwork above.

Les cavaliers de l’apocadispe continues to be the funniest thing, like when they discover that the nefarious headmaster is planning to swap out their delicious school lunches with more healthy stuff made from fibres d’asperge, extraits naturels de chou, épinards, huile de navet, vitamines et protéines d’algue. THE HORROR

Well, this artwork doesn’t do much for me, and I’m not at all sure why. I mean, I love lots of artwork that is adjacent to this, but this just doesn’t do the trick.

You know, these days it feels like the default for comics that look like this is autobiography or biography? But it’s set in 1929, so autobiography is out, and it’s about a nine year old girl who is sent to stay with some rich people at the Riviera, and she meets all these famous people like Charlie Chaplin (above) and more significantly the Fitzgeralds. So then it’s biography?

But nope, it’s fiction. Which just makes you go “but… why? why is Charles Chaplin there? if it’s not an amusing anecdote, then how does that work?”

And the answer is that it doesn’t.

It’s wholly unconvincing, from details like how these girls talk in 1990s speak, to … well, the entire thing.

Such a strange book, so now I’m gonna google it.

Only two reviews on Goodreads.

That’s true:

Ida and Honoria frequently sound older than their years, and the lack of context for historical cultural references will pose a barrier to many teen readers. Characters present white.

Err… There really aren’t that many reviews out there? I guess Fantagraphics hasn’t done a good job of getting it in front of reviewers.

I was starting to feel guilty about dumping on this book here, but now I feel better:

With simple but expressive figures, which whimsically recall schoolgirl drawings, Shapiro builds a world of complicated characters whose attempts to be dazzling mask their grief. It’s a witty and wonderful story of friendship in all its forms.

I’ve loved Ho Che Anderson’s work ever since… what was the first one? I Want To Be Your Dog? That’s like 1991 or something.

This book collects Anderson’s work before that (when he was a teenager) and whoo boy, he was really cooking back then, too.

He goes on in the introduction to these pieces about how embarrassed he is about presenting it all, but there’s absolutely no need. He’s also refreshingly open about his influences (two major ones are Los Bros Hernandez and of course Howard Chaykin).

Sure, some of these drawings aren’t quite there (like the middle one on the left hand page)…

… but there’s so much great stuff here. And the reproduction on this is excellent, which is to be expected — it’s Black Eye publication, after all.

My only caveat here is that there aren’t that many complete comics here, so this is a book more to look at than to read. I’d have loved to actually read these pieces, but I guess pages have been lost over the years.

And my copy came with a lil painting and what I think much be a piece of artwork that he did back as a teenager (the cardboard piece to the left there).

You can buy a copy from Black Eye Books.

I’ve also always liked Mats Jonsson’s books — he used to do autobio books, but he’s now switched to, er, biography.

This one is about a sámi girl who was renowned throughout Europe in the mid 1800s — she was extremely tall (about 220cm, which Google tells me is over 7 foot).

And it’s really good! It’s very touching (I rate it five hankies), but it’s not maudlin. It’s also very edumacational, and you learn so much about stuff, and how evil Swedish people are, of course.

Wow, still going after 22 books…

And it’s still dramatic, but very low stakes — here the shocking drama is that there’s a new supermarket opening.

I think the food preparation sequences are more thorough now than they were at the start? I think you can actually follow these instructions and recreate the dishes now, and you couldn’t necessarily do that before.

These books are very soothing to read. And quite amusing, too.

And that’s it.

Ten years ago, I got fed up with various ad hoc approaches for looking at the previews for American comics books, so I wrote a web site called Goshenite. (Because that’s an emerald, like diamond. Get it? Get it?)

(I’d previously used an Emacs-based mode that was based on scraping the Mile High Comics data, but that didn’t work reliably for various reasons.)

So that’s all well and good, but then Diamond Comics had a lil ol bankruptcy, and I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to happen exactly. In any case, most of the bigger publishers have already fled to Lunar and Penguin Random House, so that means that I had to update Goshenite now.

Which I’ve done.

Scraping Lunar was quite easy, but those Penguins have a very Random House. I don’t know what their thought processes are exactly — they’re a book distribution company, so you’d have thought they’d be interested in getting the information about those books spread as widely as possible, right? So that people can buy them?

So there’s this helpful-looking menu where you can download an Excel file with all the books for the month. Perfect! Brilliant! So that’s just a link, right?

No, that’s some Javascript monstrosity that apparently uses encryption to create the POST you have to make (note “load_nonce” there) to get the Excel file, and then it takes ten seconds to apparently create the Excel file. And it’s got replay protection, so you can only download “it” once. Very dynamic, very modern.

Again, I don’t know the thought process behind this — perhaps they just have a CMS that does all this stuff automatically, and this was the easiest way for them to create a link to an XML file? Or perhaps they have some insane person working for them who’s heard the phrase “information security” and then we get what we see?

In any case, if a human can see something, a computer can download it, so a shot Selenium script later, I’ve got an automatic solution for updating Goshenite with the PRH data too, so…

Enjoy? Ou pas.

There may be some repeated publishers (that are available from several distributors), and the publishers may not have exactly the same names, but whatchagonnado.

Here’s the link to Goshenite again, just in case you missed it.

It’s an unexpectedly grey day, so I think I’ll read some comics. And only listen to albums from 1978.

Kate Bush: The Kick Inside

12:40: Face Meat by Bonten Taro (Living the Line Books)

Uh-oh. Japanese comics from the 60s. Seems to be very influenced by American horror comics?

I know! I know!

Like the other Japanese comics in Living the Line’s Smudge line, this is pretty bad. I think it’s beyond time for me to give up on this stuff.

(I ditched the book after 50 pages.)

Kate Bush: Lionheart

13:01: Six Treasures of the Spiral by Matt Madden (Uncivilized Books)

Wow, this book is really good. It’s a collection of short pieces (sometimes only a page long, but there’s some longer stories here, too) done over the last three decades.

It’s varied in form, but quite consistent in tone.

Madden play a lot with comics formats and expectations, and the results are sometimes mind-bogglingly interesting. Many of these pieces are wouldn’t have been out of place in an issue of Raw Magazine in the 80s.

It’s an amazing book is what I’m saying.

13:47: The Anxiety Club by Fanget/Meyer/Aubry (Selfmadehero)

Err… what the…

Oh, this is a self help book? Fuck that shit.

Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food

13:50: Young Men in Love edited by Joe Glass and Matt Miner (A Wave Blue World)

Oops! This is a kickstartererd anthology? Those usually aren’t very good…

Especially when it’s all quite short stories by mostly writer/artist teams.

This one was good, though — it’s like a proper little short story, and the artwork is lively.

And I liked the art on this one.

Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel 2

14:25: Passi, Messa ! by Joost Swarte (Futuropolis)

I love Swarte’s artwork.

And it’s very funny, too. My French isn’t strong enough to get all the gags, even with the help from Google Translate, but I get most of it. Heh heh.

15:04: Jeg vil ikke være her by Dorte Walstad (Aschehoug)

This is a story about two kids who go to visit their father for a weekend after a divorce.

It’s not a complicated story — I guess this is for children? — but it packs an emotional wallop. It’s really good.

It seems to be set in the 80s, I think? Which is an odd choice, isn’t it? Is it autobiographical?

Genesis: And Then There Were Three

15:21: Totality by Jeff Lok (Fieldmouse Press)

This has a proper mood going on.

It’s got an irresistable rhythm. It’s compelling.

15:49: Amadeo & Maladeo by R. O. Blechman (Fantagraphics)

Hm… have I read this before? It looks familiar. Oh, it’s from 2016! Hm. Then I probably have.

This is pretty good…

It’s not quite my kinda thing, but it works.

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine

16:01: Cartoon Clouds by Joseph Remnant (Fantagraphics)

Hm. This is from 2017? Oh, right, Fantagraphics had a sale, and I guess these books are from that sale.

It seems like half of the people who come out of art schools make this comic — it’s all about how all the teachers at school are assholes who don’t bow down in awe to people who can draw a realistic hand, like they should. But they usually keep it short!

This goes on and on and it feels like Remnant has a list of grievances to settle, and he spends a couple pages on each — like how much he hates atheists, people with money, people who dress interestingly I mean pretentiously, people who play video games — just anything. It’s really tiresome, especially when the dialogue is so lame and unrealistic as it is (the spread above is unfortunately typical).

(And yes, Joseph’s stand in is called “Seth”, and yes, all the characters have terminal resting bitch face.)

Oh, so ironic! He talks about eating well, and then he does a line of coke! Don’t you think!?

It’s a tiresome book, and I assumed that it had been done by a 22 year old, but “Joseph Remnant” had been publishing for almost a decade before this, so that just makes it even sadder.

Joe Jackson: Look Sharp!

17:19: Too Late for a DNA Test by Richard O. Smith & Daniel Østvold (Ford Forlag)

Østvold’s artwork is stark, but it gets the job done. He’s got really good comedic timing in his storytelling…

Yes: Tormato

… which is essential here, as this book is about a guy that takes care of his 98 year old father (who’s a bit of a twat, as Smith says).

This is a quite original work — it avoids all sentimentality, but it’s not one of those books where the author is settling scores, either. Instead it feels very honest and straightforward, and that’s (as everybody knows) the hardest pose to achieve.

It’s good — I laughed out loud several times.

OK, I should consider making some food or something. I forgot to eat lunch, and now it’s dinner time.

[time passes]

I fried up some pollock. Mm, fish.

Tom Robinson Band: Power In The Darkness

19:07: Souvenir by Sara L. Jewell (Fieldmouse Press)

This is graphically very strong.

And I like the mood it’s got going on.

19:25: Diabolik (Desert Island)

Oh, so this book reproduces the back covers of the long-running Diabolik series? That’s very… curatorial.

And it looks just like Warhol’s portraits?

Well… er… I dunno.

These are very nice drawings, but I don’t really see how they resemble Warhol in the least. The look like everyday Italian comics to me.

Which, of course, is pretty spiffy, but…

(This is from the Mystery Mail.)

Prince: For You

19:31: Alive Outside edited by Cullen Beckhorn and Marc Bell (Neoglyphic Media)

I got this from here, and it’s a very elaborate package.

It comes with all these booklets and bands stickers and stuff.

And also two large riso prints.

Class! I love an elaborately printed book.

This has all these people:

Impressive, eh?

The anthology is a mix of illustrations and more narrative pieces, but they share a mind of similar approach. That is, it’s quite chaotic.

And I have no idea who did what.

It would be nice if they put the names on the actual pieces themselves, because I’m not gonna flip back and forth and then try to count how many pieces I’m in and stuff.

But that’s Marc Bell for sure.

Heh heh. “People loved it.” “New Yorker readers!” “They are still people.” “Barely!”

Anyway, I particularly liked the above piece, and I have no idea who made it.

Yes, and there’s all these booklets — I think there’s five stapled into the book, and then at least three more that aren’t.

Excessive! Just the way we like it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this anthology.

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

20:25: Forresten 33 (Jippi forlag)

This is a long-running Norwegian anthology.

And it’s good (Martin Ernstsen above).

Hey! Berliac!

Wow, I love this piece by Anders Nilssen. Nobody does animals like he does.

Most of the pieces are straightforwardly narrative, but then you have Wenkai Xu. Nice.

I’ve somehow only got a handful of issues of this anthology, and I should fix that. I see them around at used bookstores, so they’re probably easy to pick up.

Grace Jones: Fame

20:51: Skolen for livet by Simon Petersen (Eudor)

This Danish book seems like an autobio at the start (the protagonist has the same name as the author and looks pretty much like him), but then as it proceeds its gets clearer and clearer that it’s fiction.

It’s pretty good? That is, in part it feels well-observed, and it’s both amusing and interesting.

I think the relationship stuff is a bit… uhm… how to put it. OK: It seems perhaps more real than the rest, but he describes his (I mean his protagonist’s) (soon to be ex-)girlfriend so relentlessly as a controlling stick-in-the-mud that it starts to feel abusive after a while. You start to feel sorry for her for being in this book (even if she’s fictional, which she might not be), which is not the intended effect, I think.

But it’s a pretty good book.

Various: No New York

21:52: Rataplan et le prince de Jitomir by Duval/Berck (E-Voke)

This is a series from the 60s, and there’s a reason it hasn’t been translated earlier.

It looks good, but it’s just kinda lame. I know, I know, it’s for children, but even so, it’s just not all that well written.

Good artwork, though.

22:09: Causeway #30-32 by C.F.

I got this from here, and it’s really cool. And the three issues this time around are more narrative than usual.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Thousand Knives Of Ryuichi Sakamoto

22:12: Galago #167 (Galago)

Well, gotta do a Swedish thing too, I guess?

This is a long-running Swedish anthology.

And… it’s pretty good? There’s a nice mix of longer and shorter pieces, and serious and jokey things. It’s well put together. The only disappointing thing is that two of the things are extracts from longer works that’ll be published later this year, and those are seldom very exciting to read in a context like this.

22:44: The End

OK, I think that’s enough comics for today.