3 Poems About Fog by John Porcellino. King-Cat, 2006. 5.5″ x 8.5″.
The Ones that Everybody Knows by John Porcellino. King-Cat, 2006. 4.25″ x 5.5″.
I’ve been meaning to learn more constellations. My apartment entrance is up a flight of stairs and across a roof/deck, so coming home in the evenings, I have the sky spread out above me where Orion and the Big Dipper are always to be found. Those are the only constellations I can successfully find. I say this, because I was pleasantly surprised to find those two constellations featured in John Porcellino’s latest mini-comic “The Ones that Everybody Knows.” Yep, the ones everybody knows are the same ones I know.
While, I’ve tried some experiments with the comic as a haiku, Porcellino has here created an almost perfect example of the form. This mini-comic has only three panels: the first and last are full page panels (in this case a quarter of an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper), while the second panel is a two page spread. Short, long, short. Not only does he keep a close semblance of the form, the content itself includes the classic nature reference and even the subtle emotional impact of many traditional haiku.
“3 Poems About Fog” follows a similar form, except on a larger scale. The 3 short comics here are, respectively: 1 page, 2 pages, 1 page. They too, like many of Porcellino’s works, are concise, poetic, and reference nature.
What can I add to what I’ve already said about Porcellino’s work. Probably not much here. If you have only seen his older work (like A Perfect Example), this will be subtly different, as he has evolved a bit in his form. You can get both of these from the author for $2.50 through PayPal.