Just saw this preview for a Swedish Comics anthology.
The actual comics look fairly 'Top Shelf' (Indie) but the intro seems weirdly 'art comics'.
Some elements:
Bricks ("Bricks are in castles, ghettos, and video games." -Ben Jones)
Italics
90's references:
Lens flare (+++ Diagonal Lines +++)
'Zany' exploding wall
I wonder how aware of this stuff they are. They must know that Sweden is 'hip' and somehow reflect/capitalize off this. But why is Top Shelf attempting to move into this territory? Why make these tentative steps into 'art comics'? More importantly...
Whatever happened to the Indie Comics 'community'?
Everyone I've known who has read Adrian Tomine / Jeffrey Brown / Craig Thompson have been 'loners' as far as their interests in comics go.
Are there any 'indie' blogs?
Are there any 'indie' anthologies?
Why don't Adrian Tomine, Jeffrey Brown, and Craig Thompson create a "supergroup" or whatever of short stories?
When Indie creators participated in KE7 it almost seemed like a 'reunion tour', like they were showing their faces 'in public' again.
If you become successful will you only agree to participate in 'celebrity' anthologies? If you make money / accumulate resources will you 'give back' to your community? Does community only exist online?
Blankets by Craig Thompson:
13 comments:
Some indie comics in Sweden sell over 10,000 copies.
It's kind of strange in that way, I've always loved Jeffrey Brown but never think about him anymore since his switch to Touchstone. I'm sure the books are just as good, and he's probably making more money than he ever has making comics, but it's also somehow moved him out of my regular comics radar. Or did the radar move? Aw phooey...
The successful indie cartoonists now have their "careers" to consider.
“A new [type of comic book] does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it” -Max Planck
"...I think it is a mistake to let oneself go completely and lose oneself in the gesture." -Picasso
@sam how did he fall off your radar ... did top shelf promote him more than his current publisher?
(jeffrey brown has a blog btw
@jason i feel like having a career is all the more reason to reach out to one's fanbase in a format which can be accessible by potential fans
ie not personal letters but articles / blogs / comments / anthology work
indie cartoonists seem to have a personality type that is socially awkward, but it seems odd at a certain point in one's life to not 'move past' that
does 'weezer' still sing about being awkward in high school?
From Jeffrey Brown's blog:
"This weekend I'll be at Indy Euphoria in Sacramento. I'll have my first new minicomic in four or five years, called Process"
At Angouleme I met the folks who run the SPX there. They said that knock-off, Swedish versions of Jeffrey Brown comics and real Jeffrey Brown comics sell like 20,000 copies.
Also, apparently, there are a lot of girls in the scene. They buy a lot of comics. And make a lot of comics.
Top Shelf has had a presence at the shows there for a few years. So...makes sense.
I mean I met the folks who run the "SPX" in Sweden.
In Sweden they sell Jefferey Brown comics at Ikea next to the Toblerone bars. Every Volvo features a copy of "Clumsy" in it's glove box. These are just two examples
This might be totally stupid, it's just that if a publisher doesn't attend the usual conventions and all, I tend to lose focus on them, just don't seem to be in the press circles that I follow.
Of course, because of this, right now I'm thinking about Jeffrey Brown plenty!
what is very confusing is why jeffrey brown is posting as "blaise larmee" in order to subversively get the word out about his new mini-comic.
vile manipulations, tricky cloaks and anonymous gifts are afoot. co-mix are (is) complicated. ooftah.
Harkham/Crane/etc's What Things Do site is a good example of a anthology-style grouping. same with the now-defunct Holy Consumption of Chicago site.
I agree with the weirdness of a stagnant awkward identity, though some of those folks are breaking from it; Thompson is moving into fiction, and Brown is doing more humor. he was quoted at the Ignatzes, responding to a joke about wanting a girlfriend, "actually, I'm married with a kid now. my writing is catching up."
artists derive too much leeway from Crumb's influence to use the hunched-over awkward character... lacking the drawing skills and observation that he brings to it.
(i'm plenty guilty of that, too.)
The fact that The Swedish Invasion was partly paid by Swedish government might have helped TS with their decision.
They're ok books though. Especially The Troll King from Kolbeinn Karllson.
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