MadInkBeard | Derik A Badman

Somehow I missed this book when it came out. It’s a kind of textbook for students and general readers on reading comics and the history of bande dessinée in particular. The book as a whole is quite good, covering a wide area though, because of this, occasionally lacking in depth. I’ll admit I didn’t read the whole book. There were sections I skimmed. Miller covers history, followed by a variety of approaches to comics: formal analysis, cultural studies, nationalism, gender, autobiography, psychoanalysis. I read the parts I’m interested in and skimmed the others.

I’ve had the two volumes of Alex Toth: Edge of Genius on my “to review” shelf/pile for quite awhile. I finally decided that I’ll just write about one of the stories, the last one in volume 2 (theoretically the most recent of all the stories in these volumes[1]) and one of the most refined looking of these stories from the earlier part of Toth’s career.

This is a bit of a ramble, as I read/write my way through the story. I didn’t want to reproduce the whole story here, but I have included a lot of images to keep my commentary comprehensible.

Day Four of the Panel Madness Week blogaround arrives. The previous post is up at The Fortress of Fortitude where the Keeper writes about a panel from Challengers of the Unknown #2 by Dave Wood and Jack Kirby. Mazzucchelli, David. “Discovering America.” Rubber Blanket 2 (1992). p. 38. Certain works have had lasting impact on [...]

The System of Comics by Thierry Groensteen (1999). Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. U of Mississippi Press, 2007. If McCloud’s Understanding Comics has been considered the de facto comics theory book in the United States, it probably stems from the distinct lack of such theoretical/formal examinations of comics in English. While historical approaches [...]

Les Bijoux Ravis by Benoit Peeters. Bruxelles: Magic Strip, 1984. (Out of Print and quite rare) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the more I read Tintin, the more I appreciate it. In a similar way to Peanuts, what at first appears rather slight, takes on greater significance through repetition and careful [...]