Random Thoughts

What Does This Mean!

I mean, the “parking forbidden” part is clear… but what does that rectangle below mean? “Not if you’re parallel parking”? I HAVE NO IDEA

I usually do comics blog posts by reading comics intensely for a day, and type a bit about each comic as I’ve read them. But I also randomly read a bunch of comics on other days, too, and now I’m just gonna type a bit about the ones I’ve read over the last week… if I remember anything about them, that is.

I read this Subitzky book over a couple of weeks…

It’s very amusing, but best read in short bursts, I think.

My favourite piece here is actually this text piece — it’s wonderfully faux naive.

New York Review Comics books tend towards being designed rather sloppily, but this one is wonderful. I mean, I would have preferred, perhaps, a hardcover or something, but within the limitations of this format, designer and editor Mark Newgarden has done a wonderful job — it just has a kinda perfect flow. That is, we get an amusing interview interspersed with the comics, and it works perfectly — it gives the book a rhythm. I mean, Newgarden is a genius, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.

And this is a Finnish anthology.

It’s good stuff.

Lots of different stuff. I do wish they’d swap the English/Finnish — the comics themselves are in Finnish, but with the English translation at the bottom of the pages. It makes for somewhat awkward reading.

I’m still trying to buy all the issues of World War 3 Illustrated.

This one is about kids, mostly. Many (most?) of the pieces are done by teenagers, too.

But many of the standbys are here, too.

I loved this one, by Max Eastwood (age 12).

I don’t buy that many super-hero comics, but somebody on the Twitters were discussing how awesome this was…

… and… it’s not. Sorry.

By making super-hero comics all serious and stuff, they just get more risible. But the artwork by Frank Quietly is pleasantly loopy, though.

There was a sale on Ric Hochet collections, and I foolishly bought them all. It’s taken me three years to get through the stack, but I think I’m getting towards the end now… just like five more collections to go, so I should be done by 2035.

This one collects stuff from the early 90s, and the plots are so convoluted that it’s obvious that they’ve run out of any ideas even resembling making sense.

But I still find the pleasantly up-tight artwork enjoyable.

This is kinda like an alternative WWII thing?

It’s OK.

This one collects Crepax’ The Story of O. adaptations…

… and I can’t really show you any of the other pages here, because it’s wall-to-wall sado-masochistic porn.

Crepax’s artwork is amazing. So inhuman.

I bought the final couple volumes of this that I had missed…

… and this is a good one: Edited by Jillian Tamaki.

It has more art comics than I would have expected.

And stuff I’ve never heard of before.

I had read about two thirds of the pieces before, but there was stuff like this, which made me place an order on bookshop.org.

And that’s it. Random enough for ya?

Comics Daze

Gotta read some comics, eh? Might be a short Comics Daze today, though, because… I don’t have that many unread comics, for once. I think.

And today’s music is all from 1989, just because.

De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising

13:11: Filthyratbag by Celeste Mountjoy (Penguin Random House)

This starts off being kinda auto-bio-ey…

and about growing up and stuff…

… but then ends up being more generally ruminative. It does feel like it’s two unconnected books that have been jammed together in some ways.

13:38: Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Hm… there’s been a mini industry of memoir comics the past few years, perhaps starting off with Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s very successful books? And as often seems to be the case when book publishers identify a trend, they try to keep things consistent, so all of these memoir books are from eastern Asia — Korea, Taiwan, Thailand or as here, China.

And they’re usually about mothers and grandmothers, so this is 100% on trend!

But, like, this is pretty dire, I’m afraid. Everything seems to be so pre-digested that there’s nothing here to sink your teeth into: Hulls seems to be petrified at the thought of the reader not understanding what she’s saying that the ladles on the verbiage, and keeps on explaining and explaining the metaphors that she’s using.

And the way the characters are talking…

Of all the sentences in the world that nobody has ever actually said, this is the one that’s never been said the most.

I hoped that she’d let the book start for real once she got the overly long introduction out of the way, but then “Part 1” just seems like more of the same. I ditched the book at page 30.

But it seems like it’s a well-reviewed book, so don’t mind me:

Over 380 pages, Hulls unpicks the strands of these three lives, weaving a fascinating story of multicultural identity and family history. Feeding Ghosts is a beautifully told story that deserves a place on bookshelves alongside Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Nora Krug‘s Belonging. Hulls has delivered a major work with this memoir and an absolute treasure of a comic book.

13:56: Of Dust and Blood by Val Mayerik/Jim Berry (NBM)

I’m not really much interested in reading about Little Big Horn, but I rather like Val Mayerik’s artwork, so I bought this book anyway.

This looks very strange! I mean, the format — the lettering is oddly tiny, and each page is divided strictly divided in two half pages… Oh! Was this originally intended to be printed as a horizontal book? That’d explain both phenomena.

These half page layouts don’t really flow well when presented two to a page.

And the dialogue… geez.

I’m not having the best of luck with the comics today, eh? I had to ditch this one third in.

Two Nice Girls: 2 Nice Girls

14:08: Š! #50 (Kuš)

Wow, 50 issues…

Finally some good comics.

Yowza.

As usual, it’s a strong mix of different approaches — the theme this time is 50/50, which allows the artists to do a lot of fun stuff.

Heh heh.

Anyway, good stuff.

14:25: The Eagle Knight by Marta Estela/Julio Camarena

This is a very small book.

And… it’s a very straightforward story of a supernatural heroic protector of the people. It’s OK.

14:38: The Sammy Hernandez Saga by Ashton Carless

Four books in different dimensions in a plastic bag. Nice!

I’m not sure I’ve seen a comic book folded like this? I mean, it folds down to a book very nicely…

Anyway, I’m not sure I’m reading these books in the correct order, but it’s compelling anyway. I love the artwork.

It’s mostly about baseball, of which I know nothing, but it’s pretty exciting anyway.

It’s fantastic.

AR Kane: I

14:54: Kuš Minis (Kuš)

These are the final four minis I bought from here.

Jesse Jacobs solves the world’s problems.

Lala Alberts gets surveilled.

Tommi Musturi is bored.

Ingrida Picukane goes French.

So — four really cool little comics.

And now I think I should take a nap.

A. C. Marias: One of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)

17:28: Complete and Utter Malarkey by November Garcia (Fieldmouse Press)

I’m awake! I’m awake!

This is a collection of shorter pieces, and I’m guessing I’ve read a sizeable number of them already? But that’s fine.

It’s mostly autiobio comics…

Ride: Chelsea Girl

… from around 2016 until now. And Garcia goes mostly for anecdotes, which can be a risky strategy in a big book like this (it can become repetetive), but they’re interesting/amusing/horrifying anecdotes, so it’s all good.

KMFDM: UAIOE

Many of the anecdotes are about hanging around at comics cons and stuff.

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

If I have one criticism it’s that it can be a bit hard to make sense of the chronology of it all? Suddenly she’s married and then she’s divorced and it’s mostly mentioned in passing — that is, Garcia focuses on the anecdotes, but is actually pretty reticent about telling the reader what’s actually going on? But I’m just quibbling — this book is ace.

Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet