May 2005 Comics
My monthly comics shipment arrived Monday in a much larger quantity than usual. Here are comments on a few of them:
Berlin 11 (Drawn and Quarterly) and Strangehaven 17 (Abiogenesis): Two comics that I’ve been following for years. They come so rarely it is hard to always follow what is going on. As they are both also being published in collected volumes (one so far for Berlin and a third Strangehaven is due out later in the summer) the act of buying the single issues is far more like art patronage than anything else. You buy them so that hopefully the artist will someday finish the story and inevitably you’ll buy the collected book anyway. The speed with which these books come out is appalling, Berlin 10 is dated April 2003! (#1 is dated in 1996, that’s an average of a little better than 1 a year) I hope Jason Lutes has been working on something else in that time. Strangehaven’s last issue only goes back to last year, but still, one is disappointed by the slowness. Where I not participating in a subscription service that just sent me new issues as they came out I would surely lose track. Enough about slowness, though, both these comics are, in the end, worth waiting for. Berlin is a historical fiction taking place between the wars. Lutes’ drawings are realistic enough to show that he has done his research. He tells a compelling story also. Strangehaven is a kind of Twin Peaks-ish story of a man who ends up in a small British village. The story follows a number of townsfolk and their stories. Gary Spenser Millidge draws from photographic sources which give the work an unique look in comics and also contributes to the television show feeling to the comic. Sometimes I feel he is following a few too many plot threads though, as one gets lost and doesn’t always have the space to get involved with any of them too deeply.
Astonishing X-Men 10: The only Marvel or superhero comic I follow and then just because it is Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly). The pacing of this book is really slow, and I find that an annoyance. Too often a whole issue seems devoted to one extended fight scene, with only a few flashes of character. I’m sticking with it for now, but on the whole I’m not seeing enough of Whedon’s ability to make me really care, to make me see these fantastical characters in a way that is also real. There is the humor though, in the form of a number of great one-liners.
Or Else #2 (Drawn and Quarterly) by Kevin Huizenga: This is the first full comic I’ve read by Huizenga (somehow I missed Or Else #1). This issue (in a very nice little pocket format) contains a number of short stories featuring the character Glenn Ganges. In one he and his pregnant wife imagine the future with their child then discuss her sister’s possible marriage/elopement. In another Glenn, studying in the library, looks up to see the sun setting and is seemingly struck by a series of strange, abstract visions containing birds and scribbles. It’s an odd story featuring a repetitive stutter where Glenn repeats the same phrases over and over. The last story finds Glenn explaining the blood red moon to his neighbors. They tell him it is a sign of the apocalypse, and he goes into a detailed scientific explanation (complete with diagrams). Huizenga’s drawing style contains the cartoony with an simple iconic realism which I like quite a bit. The stories are quiet and simple with a quiet humor and a sense of wonder at the world. I look forward to reading more from Huizenga. His website has a number of online stories to read, check it out. This one has the same character as Or Else 2.
Ordinary Victories by Many Larcenet (NBM Books): This is a translation of a French comic. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I have to say it is an excellent comic. The story involves Marco a photographer. He sufferes from anxiety attacks, has an ailing father, a cat, a new girlfriend, a neighbor who offers sage advice yet has a past in the war that is unsavory at best. The comic shows events across a few years of Marco’s life as he struggles with his everyday life, loves, work, family. The artwork is a cartoony (the characters) and real (the background), but it occasional is punctuated by a page of realistic sketches in monochrome accompanied by a kind of internal narration/musing by Marco. I like the rhythm of these slower pages that break up the narration of the main story, offer passing commentary, and often bridge a longer passing of time in the story. There’s more drama and despair in this than Or Else (above) but there is also that sense of small wonders in the everyday. This is the kind of comic that non-comics readers could really enjoy.
Elsewhere #1 by Gary Sullivan (self-published) This comic was created by combining images and text that Gary saw as he was travelling in Japan. It is thus a collage of both word and image. It’s an interesting concept, and there are a lot of unusual and evocative images and phrases in the work which nicely convey the disjunction between traditional and contemporary Japan, but as a whole it lacks a sense of coherency. The parts do not make a greater whole. This is a well-drawn, nicely produced comic. I look forward to seeing more from him, and recommend his blog.
Nil: A Land Beyond Belief by James Turner (Slave Labor) This is strange and unusual graphic novel. The story is that of Nul a citizen of the nation of Nil, a land where unbelief and nihilism are the order of the day. It’s a dystopia place where a constant war is raging against the country of Optimists. This is broad social satire and it’s often hilarious. The artwork is very high contrast, geometric, and quite two-dimensional, a style that is quite in line with the country itself. While not masterpiece this is an enjoyable read, though I am not convinced of the utility of its satire, but perhaps I am not the right audience for satire against the church and state.
Above and Below: Two Stories of the American Frontier by James Sturm (Drawn and Quarterly) This book reprints two of Sturm’s earlier historical comics. “The Revival” tells the story of a couple who head to a religious sect camp in 1801, hoping to get their dead child healed by a preacher. “Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight” tells the story of a mining town in 1886 as the workers and bosses struggle over money. I was rather non-plussed by these stories.
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