Recent Reads

“Studio Visit” by James McShane

Subtle exploration of process interspliced with silent interludes of daily activity. Great pacing, simple comics language, one of my favorite artists working today.






“Piss Drippers” by Moosejaw aka Nose Maids aka Noise Nomads aka Jeff Hartford

Always been my favorite art/photo zine maker, doesn’t even know what photoshop is, reading feels just like listening to one of his live sets, highly underrecognized.






“Blue Grove” #-1 by Andrew Greenstone

I first saw this guy behind the counter at a restaurant I went to in Western MA while eating out with my parents, then he gave me this comic at MeCAF shortly thereafter. The pizza at the restaurant was terrible, one of the worst I’ve ever had, but this is a really great comic.

(click to enlarge)

Definite graffiti culture style, what I imagine finding inside Juxtapoz magazine, like Jet Grind Radio except it’s about girls and performance art, not rollerblading. Format cramps the dialogue a little bit, still totally readable, looking forward to seeing more.

“Black Blizzard” by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Being someone who owns every Tatsumi book Drawn & Quarterly has put out, this was an interesting departure from his more humanist work that we’ve seen so far. Drawn in twenty days, it’s comaparatively scratchier, more pulp-noir style, very suited to the story. Puts the content of “A Drifting Life” into perspective to actually see one of the works drawn during the earlier part of his career.




“Peter’s Muscle” by Michael DeForge

Seriously, if you haven’t gotten one of this dude’s comics yet, get on it, he is making the indie comics community shit their pants, and rightfully so. This one is probably my favorite of his, a compassionate story about Spider-Man exposing his true fears through the retelling of a dream to his analyst, followed by a quick 3-pager about a sacrificial offering. Nominated for an Ignatz Award under the category of “best hair”.




“Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip” by Stuart Hample

Kind of interesting to see these strips printed in their “raw” format with blue pencil and paste-ups, real classy-looking book design, however, interminably unfunny. The humor that I adore just does not transfer well into this medium. Amazed that it stayed in print for nearly a decade.




“Crooked Teeth #5” by Nate Doyle

The only real punk left in New York, and probably the most talented “realistic” cartoonist. Continues his eerie “Bowl of Flies” narrative, new relationship strip, “Miriam & Everett”, totally makes it.









“The Book of Genesis” by R. Crumb

Of course, every single panel in this is a gorgeous work of art unto itself and could be blown up, framed, whatever, but it’s still the Bible and it’s still boring to read. I only made it about halfway through.






“Cry-Baby” by Robyn Chapman

Cute, short mini about feeling sad, Robyn always nails it with her stories of adolesence and relationships gone awry, albeit with a painfully slow output for comics that I want to read so badly. C’mon, Robyn, when’s the next issue of Sourpuss gonna be done? Probably around the same time as the next issue of Pizza Wizard (“never”).






“Calf” by Chris Day

Fourth installment of a supposed related narrative that I can’t decipher for the life of me, but as far as the emotional state these images put me in, A+, totally beautiful. Chris is also one of the most brilliant graphic designers I know, check out the gallery of show posters he’s done on his website.








“Wally Gropius” by Tim Hensley

I haven’t read Wilson yet, but this is my pick for book of the year so far. Enough has been said about it already, go, read.