Checklist

Loved Sam's capsule reviews. Here's more of that (although I'm not as good with formatting the images like Sam):



Evil Dress by Emelie Östergren. This is one of those books that's so good that it just never gets reviewed or talked about. Kinda like Anke Feuchtenberger (beating a dead horse with that I know). Emelie's work is pretty rich: the strong drawing aside, what's noteworthy about her work is the undercurrent of seething confusion and rage that is expressed totally offhandedly (almost unconsciously). Characters lash out at each other with arbitrary cruelty. All staged in this bizarre theatrical style: often times, what I'm most attracted to in comics is the way characters pose and stand...Emelie's scenario's are intense but her characters don't oversell the intensity. They feel like they're caught in a thick sea of goo, slowly lurching through their world.

There is a lot of art in this vein that can feel alien...strange characters lurching around, rendered aggressively. Emelie's work could be described that way, but it has this vulnerability that elevates it beyond 'strange.' You want it in your home, because it's like a history of an alien civilization that you intimately relate to and feel sympathy for.

http://www.emelieostergren.se/index.php?/portfolio/evil-evil-evil/



Another Glorious Day at the Nothing Factory by Eroyn Franklin. I left this book on the kitchen table, and a friend picked it up and didn't stop until finishing it. The skill, tact (and, underneath it all, beauty) that Franklin displays make this book more a punch of true art that almost anything on the shelves. This book IS about what its about...no good moments filtered through genre...just pure art from page 1 to the end, period. Franklin's prose could almost be over the top if the strength of her entire project wasn't so assured. Her work is like talking to a very open, insightful friend who sometimes oversells their life story but it doesn't matter because that story has more heart and honesty then the millions you've already heard that week.

I think it would be hard not to identify with the emotions Franklin is talking about in this book (the story begins with someone falling out of love with their spouse)...but it's not identification that makes it all such a thrill to read. For me, it's the relentless nature of the book: page after page of careful cut out images (which, aesthetically I don't strongly connect with...the project as a whole lets me open up to them) that don't look at you or welcome you, next to prose that whispers directly into your ear. This is a book that doesn't get filed onto your bookshelf and forgotten, but actually exists in your day to day life.

http://eroynfranklin.com/



Avengers #1 by Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr. Brian Chippendale talked about this book and seemed to compare Romita Jr.'s art on it unfavorably to his work on Daredevil. Couldn't disagree more (although maybe I didn't understand what he wrote?)...those Jr Jr Daredevils are great and have a nostalgia factor for people who read them as they came out...BUT, Romita Jr. is doing the best work of his career right now. A world apart from all other mainstream guys in terms of designing characters (all his super heroes have their own way of moving, crouching, smiling, etc...rarer than you think in mainstream comics). It's just pure pleasure looking at these pages...high level fun. I'd recommend not reading the dialogue in the word ballons though as it is pretty silly.



The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. I leave the USA for Sweden again in a couple of weeks, but for now I'm in Portland and Jesse McManus is my roommate again...we've been talking about (and reading) Calvin and Hobbes a ton. A wholesome American activity. This particular one has so much great stuff in it (it was the only 'treasury' book I had...had all the other Calvin books in their individual format)...multiple Calvins with the cardboard box, Rosalyn gets locked out, and the first major inklings of the more ambitious Sunday layouts. My old copy of this back home was read during many childhood dinner times and has lots of spaghetti sauce markings.



Social Discipline 1-3 by Ian Sundahl. Best mini going right now? I was in Excalibur comics, looking at Golden Age comics. Some of them are so perfect...like "Target Comics.' Just that name, the funny drawing on the cover. The urge to re-create that is irresisitible...and a lot of people re-create their favorite kind of comic. But the thing is...you don't need to, because there's a ton of perfect golden age comics around already, and only one you. Sundhal's stuff is like a perfect recreation of a seedy underground comic...or a true-crime comic...or a weird romance comic...EXCEPT that it's so good that it renders all that irrelevant. The stories are HIS...there's this one perfect story about a guy ending up in jail where nothings wasted in the storytelling. Every line, every little story element adds up to this tragic crescendo....but the perfection of the story (the economy) is just a foundation for these characters that look (i.e. the scratchy but lanky way they're drawn) and sound (really funny, horrifying, well paced, sad dialogue). SD has all these elements that pull you in---who doesn't wanna read a well done seedy crime comic?---but it's the personal artistic vision that makes it worthwhile.



King Aroo vl. 1 by Jack Kent. I read the 4 strips at the end of the Smithsonian collection of newspaper comics for years, waiting and waiting for someone to publish a big collection. Finally, it's here and it's great. The characters look like little decals. The humor is wooden and highly pleasureable at the same time.

One thing is that my eyes don't run over this stuff...have to read it a few times to get what's happening, which is strange for a comic that's so simply drawn. It's wordy, for sure, but I think it takes a little more time than other strips because it's a truly gentle work. Sometimes the joke is so light that it barely registers. But you don't feel cheated in the least. A different kind of strip in that way...little stickers talking to each other softly.



Pitt #1 by Dale Keown. Saw this in a back issue bin. People crack a lot of jokes about Pitt...but it still looks great today. A monsters face on the cover, violent people attacking him on the inside, all drawn really well. Done for 12 year olds. A better comic than whatever Green Lantern continuity glitch cross over that they're serving up this week.

A lot of modern arty comics are about monsters doing this kind of stuff but I'd rather one that is what it is and opposed to one that is about the thrill of seeing a comic like this. I like Fort Thunder OK (respect it a ton but don't go back to those 'stories' all that much), but can't make a case for it being better than this---not that this is the arc of the covenant or nothing. It's solid comic...a fine thing to spend your time making.



Mona #1 edited by Robert Boyd. Don't have this in front of me, but I wish I did. Had it years ago...been thinking of this as a forgotten, perfect anthology. That great Mattoti story that they made into an Ignatz book is here, a Jamie cover, and this amazing Matthew guest comic (anyone remember that guy? His story in here still has a huge effect on me). Embraces all aspects of comics (kinda what I'm trying to do with these reviews) and does it well. Robert Boyd come back!



The entire catalog of Teenage Dinosaur comics, published by Tim Goodyear.The best of a strong line from teenage Dinosaur is Real Madness Comics by Bobby Madness. Bobby Madness is one of those perfect cartoonists that influenced so many people and still has so much effect on certain kinds of cartoonists but someone never gets his due. I'm sure he could care less (?) but people are missing out on some great comics with this guy...jokes that go in weird places, stories that end abruptly, totally strange choices made by the artist throughout, all rendered in the most pure punk-rock style ever adding up to an undeniably potent artwork.

For all the talk of CF (which totally isn't his fault and jeez I sure dont want to add to mroe of it), Madness' influence seems equally powerful to a separate corner of the comics world (I'd like to mention Jamie Hewlett here as well, but that guy deserves his own essay).

I really, really like this Negro Frankenstein comic by Al Frank that Tim puts out. Such amazing storytelling all about tough times. Drawn super casually, probably why it doesn't catch on, but all consuming when you read it.



Department of Art #2 by Dunja Jancovic. Best comic of the year so far, for my money. Starts of with a genuinely chilling image of a mask floating around someones face. I can't say enough about this comic...can't do it justice. Part of me wants to write 'in a more perfect world, people would read this and not [fill in the blank]' But who cares about that. This isn't easy stuff, by any measure. It starts off being sort of traditional, and then seems to get wound up as everything (the pages layout, the way characters are drawn, the way text looks on the page, the story itself) becomes more abstract and complex. You have to read this thing closely and even then you have to work at it.

But not easy doesn't mean 'not for everyone.' There's a level of achievement here that is so realized that it can excite even the most hardened viewer. It represents someone with a high level of skill doing something that is wholly theirs...worth your time, your rereads and maybe a comic of your own in response to match the gauntlet that it throws down...

I'll get back to trying to do that now!

These guys can help you with all your questions in finding these books...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIGGX8jGvKI