Random Thoughts

Artbabe volume 2 #1-4, La Perdida #1-5 by Jessica Abel.

Artbabe started out as a self-published mini-comic, and then Abel got a Xeric grant and published the final issue of Volume 1 as a standard-size US comic book (with real distribution).

I haven’t got the first four issues (although I may have the collection here somewhere), but the fifth issue, at least, is very nice indeed. It’s about people in their early twenties who are working various jobs while thinking about being artists and writers. I loved the internal monologue on this story in particular, and how she zones out a lot while The Man is talking to her.

There’s a lot to like about the artwork, too, although her faces sometimes grow odd proportions. But they seem like real people, although they all have mysteriously good hairdos.

Onto the Fantagraphics issues, which change the format a bit. Instead of short stories, every issue is one longer story. (With the occasional fun backup.) They’re still about the same subject matter, though: Slackers.

I mean, KIDS THESE DAYS. I mean THOSE DAYS.

In the first issue, we have the story of a date that goes wrong (sort of), and we get to hear about it from both sides. It’s a fun and rather wistful tale.

Abel’s artwork continued to grow ever more attractive. There’s something about her figure poses and her linework that’s so on fleek.

Abel’s internal monologues are really convincing. (If you’re wondering why that looks like a ballet dancer picking up the laundry, it’s because that’s a ballet dancer.)

She mentions in the second issue that she’s moving from Chicago to Ciudad de México, and the third issue is all about leaving. But it’s a story about a poseur (possibly) writer moving to New York…

… and Abel explains what it’s all about and even gives a critique of herself.

Abel’s specialty is writing long scenes of one-sided phone conversations, which I think is something she nails.

However, her dialogues sometimes sound like something from an indie film and not real life.

After four issues, she announced that Artbabe was cancelled, but that it would return with a volume 3 in a couple of years. That didn’t happen, but instead we got La Perdida.

It’s a five issue 48 page slightly-smaller-than-standard size serialisation of one long story about a young woman who moves from Chicago to Ciudad de México. (Hm, that reminds me of something, but what?)

Abel’s artwork has changed quite a bit from the Artbabe styel. It’s looser, with broader strokes and fewer tiny lines.

Hm. Does that URL still work? No. And due to a printer’s error, the first page is repeated on page 25, so I may have missed two vital clues!

Anyway, the story is about the young woman confronting her (perceived and real) privileges as an American in Mexico. And then getting involved with some hapless but scary criminals.

There’s a lot of this sort of stuff, and my main reaction to these scenes is to want to shake her and tell her to start ignoring these flaming assholes and go party instead. Which makes for a somewhat frustrating reading experience, and may not be what Abel was after.

Love the art, though.

It was released as a hardback by Pantheon Books shortly after completion.

Abel has mostly been involved with education the last few years.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

Kid Anarchy #1-3 by George Cole and Mike McCarthy.

Picking up a comic book with from a writer/artist pair always makes me sceptical. Statistically speaking, single author comics are better.

But perhaps this one is the one that will convince me once and for all that that’s a stupid prejudice! Yes!

Oh, deer. Gander at that deathless prose.

Yikes. There’s reams and reams of captions like that.

It’s not just the captions, though. The dialogue isn’t always this leaden, but stuff like the above isn’t an aberration, either.

The artwork’s kinda nice, though. It’s clear, lively and expressive.

And sometimes the dialogue works.

Nina’s hair keeps getting more and more complicated. But that’s very nicely drawn hair, so whatevs. Love those flowers in the background.

Amongst the praise (apparently Kid Anarchy is better than Love & Rockets) on the letters page, we also have this frank expression of disgust.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention what this comic is about: It’s about teenagers living in a southern small town who are on the cusp of growing up and moving out of the town, so it’s a bit wistful and melancholic. It feels like parts of it may be autobiographical. But what was it Kim Thompson said in that Zero Zero editorial? Just because it happened doesn’t make it interesting? Something like that.

The first two issues claim to be quarterly, while the third and final issue says that it’s released annually now. There’s no mention of the book being cancelled, but it does reach a kind of conclusion by the end of the issue.

And it’s by far the best issue of the three. Most of the overwrought text is gone, and the dialogues are mostly wince-free. It feels more emotionally honest than the first two issues, too. I’d almost go out on a limb here and say that it’s quite good, but I don’t want to sound too fanboyish here!

Heaven forfend!

The creators have tried making the series into a film, but that’s apparently not happened yet. Mike McCarthy is now a film-maker. Two minutes of Googling has not revealed what George Cole is doing these days.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

Don Rosa’s Comics and Stories #1-2 by Don Rosa.

This may have been something like the third comic series that Fantagraphics published (after Love & Rockets and Hugo). It was apparently planned as an ongoing series, but was axed after two issues.

This magazine sized comic book reprints The Pertwillaby Papers, which had previously been serialised Rocket’s Blast Comicollector, which was apparently a 70s fanzine. (I’ve never seen an issue.) Its non-professional roots are glaringly obvious: It’s bright, brash and youthful.

And, unfortunately has jokes like that. Yeah, Inuit people don’t know what art is.

There’s also a lot of recapping between episodes, mostly done by one character asyouknowbobbing another character, and it’s tedious.

I think excising scenes like this would have made the book more readable, and I think that it’s something comic strip reprints also could benefit from. Which is perhaps controversial: It destroys the integrity of the artwork! Oh noes! But I fondly remember reformatted Gottfredson Mickey Mouse serials that had been re-edited to remove “Mickey was running from Peg-Leg Pete when…” recap boxes, and it resulted in a really great reading experience for my 8-year-old self. Reading the current, “respectful” reprints now is a rather plodding experience in comparison.

Anyway! Back to Don Rosa…

It sounds almost heroic…

Rosa’s artwork improves continuously throughout the two issues published (which represents two or three years, I think?). In drawings like the one above, I think you can see echoes of his mature Barks-ish style. Just imagine that as a duck instead of a human being.

And that’s a quite impressive undergroundish panel.

But there are way too many pages like this: Reams and reams of text that just isn’t that interesting.

Don Rosa would go on to become the most celebrated Donald Duck artist after Carl Barks.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.