By A.K.
June 13, 2003
Hello, and welcome to a Special Edition of Title Bout (with special guest-star, Chris Allen from BREAKDOWNS helping out later down!). We’re here to talk about a company called Fantagraphics.
WHO IS FANTAGRAPHICS?
Fantagraphics is "the world's leading publisher of cutting-edge work by today's most popular alternative comic artists, as well as collections of work by the greatest of the underground comix artists and classic comic strips." But they're also more than that:
Fantagraphics pretty much invented the idea of a leading publisher of cutting-edge work by today's most popular alternative comic artists.
Fantagraphics is also a comic book publisher I take for granted. I say to myself: "Someday I'll get around to those important, recognized classic books they're publishing... but first, what in the WORLD is going on with She-Hulk?"
I take Fantagraphics for granted. So do you. But according to a press release from last week, Fantagraphics is in trouble:
Our former and now bankrupt book trade distributor went out of business owing us over $70,000 -- which we will never see. (To add insult to injury, we learned that the owner is selling copies of our books that he should've returned on e-bay!) This unexpected shortfall necessitated taking out a couple loans which have now come due. In late 2001, our line was picked up by the W.W. NORTON COMPANY, who took over our bookstore distribution, and has done a magnificent job of providing us unprecedented access to the bookstore market. Inexperience with the book trade resulted in our erring on the side of overprinting our books too heavily throughout 2002, so that our anticipated profit is in fact sitting in our warehouse in the form of books. Loans must be paid in cash, not books. The only way to get out of this hole we've dug ourselves into is to sell those books. Which is where, we hope, you come in.
If you've respected what Fantagraphics stands for and what we've done for the medium, if you've enjoyed our books, and if you want to insure that this proud tradition continues into this new and ominous century, we're asking you to help us now in our especial hour of need by buying some books. Put simply, we need to raise about $80,000 above our usual sales over the next month, and the only way to do that is to convert books into cash.
If you'd like to help out, you want to go over to Fantagraphics's Web site, and purchase some books directly from them. Don't go to your local comic shop and buy their books -- then, the money doesn't go to a publisher in need, it goes to Earl the Comic Shop Guy to spend on hookers and crank. And buying from AMAZON is nice, but it’s not as good, it seems, so they’d prefer from their Web site (I think). Go to their Web site.
Disclaimer: Portions of this thing were written immediately after the incidents of a couple weeks ago. Portions were written -- let’s say, later. The situation described hereinbelow is not nearly as bad as it was at the outset. However, Fantagraphics isn’t nearly out of the woods yet, so please read on...
HEY, NORMAL PEOPLE:
If you’ve been hearing a lot about comic books lately, and you’re curious where to start, many of the books we’ll talk about below are excellent choices.
What Fantagraphics is, is the leading purveyor of what are generally called “art comics.” These are generally stories about real people doing more or less real things. Sophisticated emotions, complicated mistakes and problems, and artwork of infinite variety but rarely in the idealized state of most superhero comics artists. Stories about moving out of the house, trying to make a go of cohabitation, maybe trying to connect with the father who abandoned you. We all have issues like that, right?
HEY, MAINSTREAM COMIC FANS:
Many of you might like a very different kind of comic, and think that there's nothing possibly at Fantagraphics’s Web site that you might want.
Well, first: there are books available from Fantagraphics's Web site which mainstream fans might want to pick up. They are selling a wide array of various ESSENTIAL Marvel trades, Neil Gaiman books (all the SANDMAN trades), Alan Moore work, including Alan Moore books I wasn’t even aware were available. So even if, somehow, you don’t like what Fantagraphics publishes, they have the good sense and taste to sell some great work from other publishers, too.
But, if you really want to help out, you might want to focus on the Fantagraphics books instead, so there's no doubt where your money goes. But if you simply refuse -- I did see the ESSENTIAL DOCTOR STRANGE on their Web site. Dread Dormammu? Good times.
Look: you've heard of the books Fantagraphics publishes. You've heard people talk about them, and it hasn't really motivated you before -- you've had excuses. You dismissed it as something you wouldn't like without giving it a chance.
Here's a pretty good excuse to give it a chance. You don't have to stop liking one kind of comic to start liking another. And the world's a better, more fun place when you have more stuff to like. What do you have to lose?
FURTHERMORE, MAINSTREAM COMIC FANS:
What's more, maybe you're one of those people who always goes on and on with the "Look how movies are all based on comics now -- that GHOST WORLD movie was based on a comic, dude."
Well, GHOST WORLD, movie or comic, wouldn't exist without Fantagraphics. The in-roads comics are making right now into "mainstream culture" are almost entirely due to the people published by Fantagraphics.
So, if you've ever sat there blubbering to your poor, misbegotten girlfriend about how your complete collection of SILVER SABLE comic books is somehow acceptable by pretending that comics are some amazing artistic medium, then maybe you just fucking owe it to a company like Fantagraphics that's been working at making comics an amazing artistic medium for 27 years now.
I'M TALKING TO YOU NOW MAINSTREAM COMIC FANS -- DON'T PRETEND YOU CAN'T HEAR ME:
You like the self-abuse. I know you do; we all know you do. You practically put our eye out the other day. There's no shame. Because guess what?
Fantagraphics is selling porn comics, too.
They're in the art business, and art historically sells for shit, so they've always subsidized that with a little of the adult stuff.
Whatever you want -- WHATEVER you want -- I think we can find it at the Fantagraphics Web site. Actually, the porn you can find at sister company Eros Comix’s Web site.
YES, THE COMICS JOURNAL HATES US ALL- JUST GET OVER IT:
Do you hate THE COMICS JOURNAL? Good, because THE COMICS JOURNAL hates you back.
Fantagraphics publishes a magazine called THE COMICS JOURNAL that can be very abrasive, and very narrow and very abrasive and also very abrasive, and that has predicted the complete end to comics, if not a massive collapse of all society, for the last 26 years in a row.
(Chris Allen:Oddly enough, for their anti-superhero status, it’s still the best place to find definitive interviews with some of your favorite superhero comics creators. The latest issue has a great interview with John Romita, Sr., classic Spidey artist.)
Fantagraphics probably doesn't like you. They don't want to hang out with you. According to Fantagraphics, what I'm doing right now is horrible nerd-ery. Fantagraphics once put out a list of the 100 Greatest Comics Ever, and all 100 were books published by Fantagraphics. At the end of OLD YELLER, Fantagraphics shoots OLD YELLER.
Yes, They're bad, bad people. But they're simply great publishers. They're proven and they've been the cutting edge for nearly three decades.
Even if they hate you, even if they want to shoot your dog, you'll want to thank them for the last 26 years, and you'll want to take the chance that the people they've found over the years, the people that other companies were simply incapable of having found, let alone supported -- you'll want to take the chance that they could find more of those people in the future.
And I think that Tom Spurgeon essay’s gotten a raw deal, misinterpreted, but whatever…
YIKES:
God, I sound like a bad telethon. I'm about to wheel out some paraplegic retard; just buy a fucking comic book already, you tightwad sonufabitch. Okay...
SOME IDEAS WITH SPECIAL GUEST-STAR, A SLUMMING CHRIS ALLEN
So, I’d now like to welcome Mr. Chris “Breakdowns” Allen, and we’re going to talk about some of the highlights of the Fantagraphics catalog. Fantagraphics puts out so many different KINDS of comics that you’re not sure what speaks to you. Also their Web-site catalog to be honest is kinda ass. So… hi, Chris:
CA: Thanks for the extra work this week, A.K.! But seriously, it’s a pleasure to do it for this cause. Hey, since you mentioned Spurgeon, it has to be said that for all the bitching people do about TCJ and how they don’t properly appreciate Grant Morrison’s JLA like you do, or whatever, nobody ever knocks the actual writing. They hate the opinions expressed, but criticism of the writing talent is hard to find because TCJ’s writers are, by and large, the best in this pitiful business.
THE FANTAGRAPHICS CATALOG
THE COMICS CONTEMPORARY SECTION
CA: By the way, we’re just giving you some highlights here. There are some very worthy creators we’re leaving off, no doubt, but it has to be said that we haven’t read everything good in the medium, you know? For all the crap that comes out every week, there really are more good comics than most people can keep up with. And by most people, I mean those who get laid, have friends, read novels, do volunteer work, and talk to their friends and the homeless and seniors they volunteer for about their getting laid, in addition to reading comics.
DAN CLOWES
AK: Dan Clowes is called “the greatest underground cartoonist in America, after Robert Crumb.” Me, I don’t read Robert Crumb very often -- but I read Dan Clowes.
As an artist, I enjoy the range of styles Clowes can occupy. His collection of short one- or two-page humor comics, 20TH CENTURY EIGHTBALL, seems to change styles effortlessly with every comic, with each style still being clean, dynamic, and funny.
As a writer, he was responsible for his story about the coming-of-age of two young girls just graduated from high school, GHOST WORLD -- you might have seen the widely acclaimed Thora Birch-Steve Buscemi movie that adapted it. The first time I read GHOST WORLD, I hated it because I hated the characters so much. They were so real, so precisely drawn, that I felt I knew them enough to really hate them. I’ve changed my mind about the comic since -- though I’m still not THAT fond of Enid.
I have a couple bookshelves in my apartment, one of which is slowly being taken over by the graphic novels. Of those graphic novels, I only have one regular ole’ comic on my bookshelf. That’s EIGHTBALL 22. EIGHTBALL 22 is a 38-page comic -- every 2 pages a different comic in a different style, while, amazingly, still telling a single story about a small group of characters living in the same town. At one moment, it’s one of those precisely set alternative comics Clowes excels at; the next, it evokes a Harvey comic, or a funny animal comic, or a newspaper comic strip, all the while building a layered mystery, one that demands you to pay attention to it in order to understand its solution. (And it makes fun of comic critics, which I think is funny.)
I believe it’s Clowes’s masterwork. It’s on my bookshelf; it should be on yours, too.
CA: Yeah, 20TH CENTURY EIGHTBALL may be the best intro to Clowes, because it’s just so damn funny. “Art School Confidential” still makes me almost vomit from laughing -— soon to be a major motion pitcha, too. But equally good as far as I’m concerned is CARICATURE, collecting the best short stories from EIGHTBALL. The title story, in fact, is similar to GHOST WORLD in that it features a smart-ass girl with a crush on (or just playing games with) an older social misfit. Other stories highlight Clowes’ paranoia, self-and-other loathing, and his gift for the surreal and horrifying, which has since been refined and almost eliminated. Clowes is one of my favorites because not only is there depth to his observations on life and humanity, he’s always entertaining and usually hysterically funny, in a dry, morose way. He’s also a fantastic cartoonist with a great color sense, always improving his game. See my review of CARICATURE.
CHECK OUT: GHOST WORLD; DAVE BORING; EIGHTBALL #22.
CHRIS WARE
AK: Density.
Right now, if you throw a rock, hopefully that rock will hit a comic book fan. And as blood pours out of the rock wound, he will bitch to you the following bitchique: “Comics are written for the trade paperback release now, so the writers and artists make less happen each issue -- they pad -- they decompress because they mysteriously think that’s what a trade paperback should be.”
Well, bleeding comic fans, I give you Chris Ware and density. Every moment is thoroughly documented in Ware’s beautifully precise style that, while it may descend from Herge’s TINTIN, never seems plagiarized. Every moment is dissected.
All to document in numbing detail the most genuinely depressing, honestly emotional, painfully real comic ever made.
A family story that spans a century while exploding the mundane, both epic and personal, it is, I shit you not, a fucking masterpiece.
CA: Oddly enough, Ware’s masterpiece JIMMY CORRIGAN, THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH is routinely mentioned as proof of Fantagraphics’ worth, but the book was published by Pantheon. A softcover just came out, too. But the original story was indeed featured in ACME, and it’s as much fun reading the individual issues, with their elaborate joke letter columns, paper cut-outs, fake ads, and lots of other strips such as “Rusty Brown and Chalky White,” about two pathetic comics fans still just as jazzed about the old four-color shite into their 40s. Perhaps my favorite non-Corrigan issue is the “Big Book of Jokes,” which is not a book of jokes at all but several haunting, cruel strips about fathers abandoning sons, astronauts dying alone in space, and fickle, spandex-attired God, performing miracles and dispensing tragedy at whim. It is actually funny, but a tough kind of funny that hurts. And it is big, the biggest comic I’ve ever seen. Might not even fit on your shelf.
CHECK OUT: ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY; QUIMBY THE MOUSE (upcoming)
BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH:
AK: When I was in high school, and everyone had quit reading comics except me, they still talked about Barry Windsor-Smith. They talked about his Wolverine classic WEAPON X, which was sort of like that ORIGIN miniseries if people liked it instead. And WEAPON X was followed by my favorite Windsor-Smith book, ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG. Yeahhhh, old-school Valiant, y’all. Jim Shooter’s all up in the hizzy? Yeeahahh…
When they talk about some of the fucking prettiest art mainstream comics has ever seen, they’ll talk about Barry Windsor-Smith.
X-Men fans might want to consider ADASTRA IN AFRICA. It was supposed to be another “LifeDeath” X-Men comic, but instead it got reinvented into ADASTRA. Fans might want to look into the OPUS books, which will eventually be the definitive 4-book set of Barry Windsor-Smith’s career.
I remember when I was a kid, getting blown away by discovering Barry Windsor-Smith and who he was, wanting to find more -- I couldn’t. There wasn’t any way except for handing my gay retailer too much money for old, worn-out yellow comics. No one bothered to keep Barry Windsor-Smith in print. No one saw how that could be a good idea. Well, someone has now. And they need your help. I have a retarded paraplegic waiting in the wings, you bastards -- I will bring him out!!!
CA: One of the scariest things about Fantagraphics being in trouble is that they’re one of the few comics publishers to put out these gorgeous art books, these career retrospectives of the greats. OPUS is not just a gorgeous series of art books, but also a strange and revealing memoir detailing Windsor-Smith’s paranormal encounters. If that gets too weird for you, there’s still hundreds of pages of gorgeous art in BWS’s unique, truly beautiful style.
CHECK OUT: ADASTRA IN AFRICA; OPUS VOL. 1-2.
MARK KALESNIKO :
AK: Mark Kalesniko has been on my To-Read list for longer than I’m proud of. His MAIL ORDER BRIDE is supposed to be a knock-out. I believe Kalesniko is an ex-Disney person (though that’s not really reflected in his art, but for its obvious skill). BRIDE is a comic about a comic shop owner who sends off for an Asian mail-order bride -- the depth of characterization is supposed to be pretty… deep… Help me, Chris Allen -- you’re my only hope!!!
CA: Ha, I haven’t read this one, either, but heard all the same good stuff. This is a truth about comics -— as much as we bitch about the garbage shoveled out, there really is too much good stuff to keep up on.
CHECK OUT: MAIL ORDER BRIDE.
RICK BRAGG:
AK: Fantagraphics offers a couple books by Rick Bragg in their catalog, including ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN’. Bragg’s under investigation by the New York Times right now for being another one of those liars they got over there, so -- if you want him to be under investigation by YOU, then FANTAGRAPHICS is the way to go.
Man, this is one hell of a strange catalog…
JOHNNY RYAN
AK: Oh, sweet jesus, don’t make me talk about Johnny Ryan...
You know: there are some filthy fucking people in comics, man. The comedy of horrifying offensive vulgarity has a practitioner or two in comics. It’s not a comedy unique to comics -- the SOUTH PARK comparison gets made. As you might guess, I enjoy that kind of humor occasionally myself. Kieron Dwyer’s LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, for instance, has a lot of fans -- Dwyer draws like hell and LCD is pretty filthy, so you might have heard of that one. And an argument could be made that Ivan Brunetti is occasionally offensive -- I’m pretty sure you could make an argument for Ivan Brunetti…
But for me, the guy that really makes me turn away in disgust: that’d be one Mr. Johnny Ryan. It’s not that it’s not funny. It’s that I’d feel better about myself if I wasn’t laughing. FANTAGRAPHICS put out a “best-of” collection recently (that’s what PORTAJOHNNY was, it turns out).
I’m an atheist but I’m still kinda convinced Johnny Ryan’s going to hell. But you? You might find it funny. You sick, sick fucking bastard.
CA: I think Ryan is outstanding. I laugh heartily. I find Brunetti more offensive, actually, as I think Ryan stays away from pedophilia jokes, but pretty much everything else is there. I dunno, I think it’s the expected point of view that the true artist be filled either with beatific joy or righteous anger, but I think turning the mundanity and indignity of life into ridiculous comics that make one laugh despite one’s morality is just as valid an approach. Here’s a review of SHOULDN’T YOU BE WORKING?.
CHECK OUT: PORTAJOHNNY… not for the squeamish; SHOULDN’T YOU BE WORKING?
ROBERT CRUMB
AK: To be honest, I’ve always been a little ambivalent about Robert Crumb’s comics (their content, not the drawings themselves, which I like a LOT). But you really should have some idea who Robert Crumb is.
There was a movie. It was called CRUMB. The movie had two points. Point #1: Robert Crumb is one weird fucking dude. Point #2: Robert Crumb might be a great American artist (if you can get past some of his stuff about girls). And the movie was good, so it was pretty well-received. No joke: they played it for entertainment at psychiatric conventions.
A couple weeks back, maybe even a month or so, I was bored so I went to an art gallery thing in L.A. They were having these openings. One of the openings that strangely didn’t get advertised -- i.e., I found it by accident -- was a Crumb exhibit. I went out to, you know, better myself, to get some “culture,” and suddenly I’m in a room with Crumb’s drawings, you know, big-assed Crumb girls basically.
And the crowd there, the ART WORLD crowd which is as deeply funny and pretentious a crowd as you’ve ever imagined, who’d never in a million years buy a fucking comic book, are you kidding, they’ve got latte payments to make… these people were ooh’ing and aah’ing over the “textures” of the big asses or whatever the fuck.
And then we all moved to the next gallery which was, whatever, drawings of naked women with toasters glued over their faces (seriously).
So just take a moment and appreciate that you’re a fucking comic book fan. You don’t wait for some movie, for the gallery show, for something to become IMPORTANT and trapped under some picture frame in order to magically, POOF, become art. I buy that saying that comics are the last bastion of popular art appreciation. Comics has a lot of stupid sayings (“Modern Mythology,” my ass, motherfucker), but that last bastion one I buy. I mean, maybe you can name a few regular artists, if you’re hip maybe you know Barry Mcgee or whoever you know, but -- think of how MANY artists there are to know in comics. And look at this list of people, and look how many of them are around thanks to FANTAGRAPHICS.
CA: I’m a latecomer to Crumb, having only started reading some stuff maybe a year ago, barring a short story or two in an anthology. I love it. He really is an incredible cartoonist capable of amazing texture and dread in his art, and his attention to detail is so awe-inspiring you almost take on his fetishes as your own —- he makes you see the appeal of the big-boned girl! More than this, though, he draws from a bottomless well of hate filled by years as the ur-nerd and creates devastatingly powerful, funny, and scarily human comics. You may have every right to despise him —- especially if you’re a woman —- but you can’t deny his talent.
CHECK OUT: THE COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS (many, many volumes).
BOB FINGERMAN
CA: Autobio comics are rarely this funny, human, and horny! BEG THE QUESTION is one of the best graphic novels of the year, and you can read my review here.
CHECK OUT: BEG THE QUESTION.
CHARLES BURNS
CA: A.K. tells me he’s waiting for the trade paperback collecting Burns’ BLACK HOLE, the delectably creepy series about some ‘70s high schoolers going through some really weird changes, and I don’t just mean puberty. It’s kind of like David Lynch directing a high school zombie movie for Roger Corman? There’ve been ten issues so far and I have no idea where it ends, but you might as well just pick it up one by one -- only one issue a year for the past decade, pretty much. Or, you can just sample some equally good early Burns in BIG BABY or the book about the detective, El Borbah, in the Mexican wrestler get-up, long before Mexican wrestling-inspired comics were around (there’ve been three or four in the past year or two?). He’s demented and he’s a genius. If you want a sample of his work, he just did a rather haunting Altoids one-page print ad, of all things. In pretty much every Marvel comic last month.
CHECK OUT: BLACK HOLE, BIG BABY, SKIN DEEP
JIM WOODRING
CA: I’ve tried Woodring once or twice without sticking, but it took a lengthy interview in one of THE COMICS JOURNAL’s coffeetable specials to turn me onto his stuff. Fecund with rich, symbolic imagery and some of the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen in comics. I think THE FRANK BOOK is coming soon, which will be a lush hardcover collection of all that stuff.
CHECK OUT: JIM, FRANK
PETER BAGGE
AK: I talk about Peter Bagge all the time, don’t I? When this news came along that Fantagraphics was in trouble, this is what I got -- I picked up the books I was missing of HATE. Some of that stuff I’d read while it was coming out, but I’d had holes in my collection… and I wanted the trades. HATE’s worth owning in trades.
For me, the funniest guy in movies is Albert Brooks. And each of Albert Brooks’s movies is about being the problems of being a certain age -- the bad relationship of MODERN ROMANCE, the drift of LOST IN AMERICA, the questions about death he answers in DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, the -- well, the MUSE is not a great example, but I liked when he was talking to Scorcese so whatever. And what Brooks does that’s fascinating to me, ultimately, is -- he’s always the WORST guy in his movies. He’s the most despicable guy. He’s screaming at people, and treating everyone around him horribly. And that’s the guy you’re rooting for, anyway. Other people have gotten the hang of it now -- Garry Shandling, Larry David… HBO, basically -- but Brooks is still the master of it as far as I’m concerned. In movies.
In comics, we have Peter Bagge and we have HATE. It’s funny, but it’s more than that -- it feels accurate to the age Bagge is talking about. Other people have done comics about bad roommates, and bad relationships, and bad bands. The difference is Bagge did the one that was good.
And it’s a time capsule of early ‘90s, late ‘80s Seattle, which -- Bagge hates the music that I like from that era (except the Posies I think?), but I happen to like some of the music from that era an awful lot, so for me, the soundtrack’s not too shabby either.
CA: Not much to add here, as you said it well, but THE BRADLEYS is back in print as a trade paperback, collecting the early, pre-HATE stories of Buddy Bradley and his family, back when he lived at home. I pulled the original printing of the trade (don’t think it’s changed) and started reading, and damn, that’s still some funny stuff. Earlier works like STUDS KIRBY or JUNIOR AND OTHER LOSERS are less confident but still pretty good.
CHECK OUT: The HATE collections starting with HEY BUDDY!
JOE SACCO
AK: I can’t do SAFE AREA GORAZDE justice.
CA: That’s the spirit! But I know what you mean. For some reason I can’t find my PALESTINE review, but here’s one of NOTES FROM A DEFEATIST that will give you an idea of his work. Sacco would be one of the preeminent “graphic journalists” even if he wasn’t pretty much the only one doing it. Passionate, snotty, self-deprecating and with a rich, painstaking cartooning style.
CHECK OUT: SAFE AREA GORAZDE, PALESTINE, NOTES FROM A DEFEATIST
DAVE COOPER
CA: Cooper’s work is this incredibly uncomfortable, erotic peek into the guy’s head, with astounding, surreal images and wickedly dark humor, but offset by the recurring theme of people trying to connect with one another and find love. These characters are usually pathetic and damaged, but aren’t we all? Cooper renders them as often grotesque, yet one can always feel a sympathy and affection for them. I’m a big fan, and you can find reviews here, here and here.
CHECK OUT: SUCKLE; CRUMPLE; DAN AND LARRY IN ‘DON’T DO THAT’; RIPPLE (upcoming).
RICHARD SALA
AK: I don’t know who the audience is that keeps Richard Sala in print, and able to put out books, but I think you’re fucking cool.
Sala, man -- SLASHER COMICS. Like, I know this is a comic a lot of you won’t give a chance because you’ll glance at the art and then put the book down because it’s a little bit different. But you’re missing out because it’s just some violent, stylish shit, man. What you don’t notice when you’re flipping through is how many characters are getting killed. Who else works in that genre? As good as comics can be for horror, which the Japanese seem to prove routinely, over here we mostly just get bad Vertigo books about how sensitive and poetry-loving the devil is. The devil likes the Smiths apparently, great.
Sala, on the other hand is bad, bad things happening to some really well-designed characters. Oh, there’s something funny about it, throughout, but at the same time… you don’t want to get too attached to the characters.
You might remember Sala from a short MTV cartoon he used to do called INVISIBLE HANDS. I never could figure out what was going on in those cartoons, but… THE CHUCKLING WHATSIT is a good time. Except you know… all the characters I liked kept getting killed.
Like, even if Sala’s mixing it up with the art comic types, he clearly understands the fun side of comics, too.
CA: Well, you sold me! Or to put it more accurately, I felt like reading the free copy I was sent, did, and can say Sala is quite an interesting talent. I mean, I’m starting at Chapter 10 of this story, and it’s fascinating, with a disturbing feel even though it has the simplicity to the art of, say, Paul Grist.
CHECK OUT: You can buy Richard Sala’s semi-regular comic EVIL EYE, or if you want a full dose, try his collection THE CHUCKLING WHATSIT.
THOMAS OTT
CA: What these books are are like a German Expressionist take on TALES FROM THE CRYPT. These are silent horror stories with an ironic twist, though the silence and the grim scratchboard artwork give them a gravity that may bury the humor, depending on your sense of it. I don’t know what pushes Ott to do what he does, but I like it. Review of HELLVILLE right here.
CHECK OUT: WELCOME TO HELLVILLE, DEAD END
THE HERNANDEZ BROTHERS
CA: I’d like to say I grew up on LOVE & ROCKETS, that I’ve followed Maggie and Hopey through their many travails, seen Jaime go through his wrestling phase, Gilbert with the porn, the science fiction, the willful obscurity. But really, I’m just catching up. I’ve read and reviewed LUBA IN AMERICA, which is recent, and read all the issues of the second volume of L&R and LUBA’S COMICS & STORIES, but that leaves decades of important material to discover. But just from that, I can affirm this is vital, rich, meaningful work, full of the mysteries of human behavior, human resilience, human sexuality and notions of love. There are no two brothers working in comics, or who ever worked in comics, as talented as Jaime and Beto (and Mario’s no slouch, either). They’re both diverse, excellent writers AND artists. Alan Moore likes it. What more need be said? All I know is you can take a leap of faith and read some of the descriptions of this vast body of work and take a chance on something. For the brave, the long-awaited hardcover of PALOMAR might be the way to go. This is Gilbert’s masterwork, tracing the history of a town and its people over decades (fictional and literal). Or, buy an issue or two of the quarterly series and see for yourself, cheaply. There’s an incredible variety of content in there.
CHECK OUT: MUSIC FOR MECHANICS, PALOMAR, DICKS & DEEDEES; LOVE & ROCKETS VOL. II
LEWIS TRONDHEIM
CA: It’s funny that A.K. is instructing me to talk about Trondheim rather than him, as he is actually the guy to turn me on to the talented Frenchman. I started with the NBM books, though, which are ODDBALLZ, which collects two different graphic novels series -— MCCONEY and ASTRONAUTS OF THE FUTURE -- in pamphlet format, and DUNGEON, a hilarious and thought-provoking sword-and-sorcery epic starring a duck. I’ve just started reading the Fantagraphics stuff. THE NIMROD is a grab-bag of basically whatever Kim Thompson (Fanta co-owner and editor of this series) wanted to put in there. So there’s some McConey (sort of a crusading rabbit, kind of the straight man in strange situations), some great autobio stuff, and some very funny gag strips, many science fiction-related. See, Trondheim is part of this cartoon collective called L’Associee (I think) who seek to make very accessible, entertaining comics. To that end, the art styles are simple and cute and there is a lot of humor, but the humor is not provincial, mostly dependent on visuals. Trondheim’s work works in any language because most of us can laugh at the same things. I think he’s an amazing talent, and very prolific. Anything that makes it over here must be snatched up.
CHECK OUT: THE HOODOODAD, HARUM SCARUM, THE NIMROD, LA MOUCHE
JASON:
CA: Listen, Jason will break your heart. I’m sure I said the same in a review. HEY, WAIT.. is justly praised as a mature, poignant graphic novel about friendship and loss, and SSHHHH is, to my mind, even better, an excellent observation of a life lived, a life full of the same peaks and valleys, joys and agonies, we all share.
Here’s a review of SSHHHH as well.
CHECK OUT: SHHHH!; HEY, WAIT..; THE IRON WAGON (upcoming)
BILL SIENKIEWICZ:
AK: This is an oldie but a goodie, but I’d like to talk about the Bill Sienkiewicz Sketchbook, still available from Fantagraphics. I mean, I’d like to talk about it, but man, I’m not sure what to say about that thing. Man, that sketchbook. I don’t own a copy, I don’t want a copy myself for personal reasons i.e., I just got really consumed with that sketchbook for a while when I was, what, 17, and I don’t want it around me, you know? For just… my sanity’s sake.
The last thing I saw from Sienkiewicz was that two-part thing he did with Brian Michael Bendis in that Spiderman Team-Up book, for the PUNISHER. What you might recall from those issues: Bill Sienkiewicz draws like a motherfucker. One of the most intimidating artists to ever draw a comic, and a relentless innovator. He’s a perfectionist, which is both good and bad -- good because we benefit so much from that striving. And bad because I really liked his book STRAY TOASTERS, and I really don’t know what keeps him from doing more of his own comics.
But that sketchbook, man… that goddamn sketchbook…
CA: I love Sienkiewicz’ work, but don’t want to steal your whatever here, be it thunder or locusts or whatnot.
CHECK OUT: The Bill Sienkiewicz Sketchbook… IF YOU DARE!
STAN SAKAI:
AK: Does anyone DISLIKE Stan Sakai? You never hear about those people. I’ve never heard anyone say “FUCK THE BUNNY RABBIT.” Never. Sakai works through Dark Horse now, but back in the day, USAGI YOJIMBO, the greatest rabbit samurai comic ever, came out from Fantagraphics. Does a rabbit samurai book sound like it fits some sort of Fantagraphics cliché? It’s hardly an art comic -- it’s a comic a small child could enjoy just as much.
But Fantagraphics probably recognizes what all of us do: Sakai’s clarity as a storyteller. The simplicity (and I mean simplicity in a good way). The amount of research. The fact he can make a rabbit samurai book so elegant, in its own way.
CA: I’ve only read some of the Dark Horse volumes, but I believe he’s been great from the start. A wonderful book, probably more of an all-ages book than a lot of the swill being sold as such, as it works on a number of levels, from light, fun samurai animals to some very strong moral themes. Review of one of the DH ones here, to give you a taste.
CHECK OUT: The Fantagraphics USAGI YOJIMBO offerings.
THE COMICS - CLASSIC
GIL KANE
AK: If you’re a mainstream comics fan, you’re very often looking at Gil Kane art, and you don’t know it. You’re looking at artists who are ripping off artists who are ripping off Gil Kane (well, and Alex Toth and Jim Steranko and Jack Kirby and Neal Adams and Michael Golden… does that about cover it? Did I forget somebody?). Particularly around the hands -- Gil Kane is widely recognized as having drawn the best hands in comic books. If you like mainstream comics, if you like Green Lantern or the Atom or whatever… (I liked the Roger Stern Atom from the late ‘80s, when I was a kid, so quit your Atom snickering, bitch -- he used to explode out of telephones… shut up…) then you like Gil Kane.
So does Fantagraphics. They put out a book called BLACKMARK, collecting a sword-and-sorcery series Kane did in the hopes of having his own series and of expressing himself fully. At the time, the market wasn’t set up for letting someone like Gil Kane express himself fully. Shit, guess what? It isn’t set up for that NOW. So: if you want to help some people who’ve tried to change that…
CA: I’ve reviewed BLACKMARK and quite enjoyed it (I think it’s one of the columns not archived, sorry). Kane is undoubtedly one of the greats, as well as having been one of the most thoughtful, intelligent men in comics, which doesn’t mean that much to you other than it led him to add quite a bit to the visual lexicon of superhero comics. Look at AK’s column -— the Frank Miller shot of DD getting knocked back into the viewer’s lap? That’s Miller showing a heavy Gil Kane influence, to which he has admitted, and why not?
CHECK OUT: BLACKMARK.
GEORGE HERRIMAN:
CA: Herriman created arguably the greatest comic strip of all time, KRAZY & IGNATZ, which are endless variations on a love triangle between a dopey cat, a fascist cop dog, and a brick-tossing mouse. It’s always funny, and Herriman worked in some innovative and surreal touches in the storytelling. There’s a reason why an eighty-year-old comic strip is still attracting new fans like me, when almost everything else from back then is a quaint artifact. Read a review.
CHECK OUT: KRAZY & IGNATZ 1925-26; 1927-28
WALT KELLY
AK: Pogo. If Herriman created the greatest comic strip of all time, Walt Kelly sure as hell gave him a run for his money. Pogo is basically a funny animal comic strip that takes place in a swamp. Herriman’s art is intriguing, and Charles Schulz of PEANUTS fame is great in his economy, but Walt Kelly’s just balls-out pretty to me. I read these as a kid -- I somehow managed to find a worn-out treasury at the local library. You couldn’t get it in stores back then. I got it for the art, but Kelly’s writing has all the humanity you’d expect to be in the same company as Herriman and Charles Schulz, as well as an animated playfulness with the English language. I read these as a kid; I don’t remember them perfectly. I’d like to read them again someday.
BONE fans especially want to check these out, as Kelly’s influence on Jeff Smith is obvious.
CHECK OUT: Pogo
THE COMICS UNDERGROUND SECTION
VAUGHN BODE
AK: The first time I heard about Vaughn Bode was from some Comics Scene article about his kid following in Bode’s footsteps. The second time I heard about Vaughn Bode, it was that Beasties Boys lyric from the ILL COMMUNICATION album, I think (“Like Vaughn Bode/I’m the Cheech Wizard”). The third time I heard about Vaughn Bode… I DIED!!! Oooooh…
Vaughn Bode was an underground artist in the 1960s. His work was featured in the National Lampoon, back when National Lampoon meant something besides crappy, crappy movie. I’ve not read much of his stuff, but I like how he draws. He’s one of many people whose work I’ve always wanted to read -- COBALT 60 or whatever. You’ll notice as we go through this catalog how many people like that there are. Without FANTAGRAPHICS, I’ll never be able to read those books unless I go through some retailer who’ll overcharge me for some dust-eaten copy. Without FANTAGRAPHICS, these people are essentially lost to time, half-remembered by some aging hippie.
CA: Somewhere I have a few of these Cheech Wizard strips reprinted in something, and yes, he’s one I’d like to look into again at some point. I remember it being funny and a little dirty. The design of Cheech is classic, just a yellow wizard hat with red legs in tights coming out from under it.
CHECK OUT: The Beastie Boys seem to recommend the Cheech Wizard. When the Beastie Boys eat out east, they eat at White Castle. Out West? Fatburger. These are people you should listen to.
CA: And sometimes, they’re eating crazy cheese like you would think they’re from Paris.
INSIDE COMICS HISTORY?CRITICISM
GREG SADOWSKI AND HIS BOOKS ON B. KRIGSTEIN
CA: All I can tell you is that there are few who disagree that VOL. 1 is the best book about comics of all time. It’s a beautiful, hardcover art book that looks not just at Krigstein’s seminal EC and Marvel work (reprinting five stories plus lots of covers, pages, panels), but also many paintings, and it is of course an acclaimed biography in addition to the art. This and the upcoming VOL. 2, which I believe only reprints comics (on gorgeous, thick paper stock, re-colored by the lovely Marie Severin), are the two things I myself ordered to help out Fantagraphics, and the first one already arrived. It’s beautiful. Expect a review soon. And support this company, so we get the final volume!
CHECK OUT: B. KRIGSTEIN VOL. 1; B. KRIGSTEIN VOL. 2 – COMICS
JACK KIRBY: COMICS JOURNAL INTERVIEWS
By Milo George, ed.; This monumental, 132-page, 12" x 12" softcover coffee-table book collects a variety of Kirby-related writings from THE COMICS JOURNAL, with rare art, exclusive interviews, plus fascinating essays, an overview of Kirby's long fight to get his original art back from Marvel Comics, and a 12-page color gallery of Kirby's art.
CA: And the comments on the Krigstein book above shouldn’t take anything away from this wonderful (and more affordable) book. Who says Fantagraphics hates superhero comics? Especially when the next volume in this series is on Frank Miller! Read my review of the Kirby book.
CHECK OUT: Duh!
CONCLUSION
AK: I’d just like to thank Chris real fast for joining me in this. As you can see, I really tossed him the lion’s share of all the writing, just shoveled it at him, knowing I had the best review guy around backing me up, so thanks, Chris. Anyway, as we said in the Introduction somewhere up there, you might have heard that Fantagraphics had some help already, but from what I’ve heard, they’re not completely out of the woods yet. Ahm… the more I type, the more I sound like Jerry Lewis… and even if they are doing better, I know I’m coming away from this feeling motivated to waste my time less, to want to finally take the time to read the books I’ve always said I would someday, that I put off for no reason… I hope you feel the same way.
CA: In conclusion, Jesus, did I do a lot of work on this for that ungrateful -— scratch that, he’s actually quite grateful -— prick, A.K.! But if it leads a few of you to drop $20 or $30 or $50 or more for some of the greatest books in this much-maligned medium, then it will all be worth it. In fact, if anyone still has any questions about what to get, feel free to e-mail me and I’ll help out if I can. I believe if you go to the site, they’re having some sort of fire sale, so you might be able to get some stuff cheap, maybe. However you get it, get it.
AK: Absolutely. If you have any questions, absolutely e-mail Chris Allen… he likes you. Likes you likes you. He told me once.
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