diary of a guttersnipe 03/10/2014: tardiness is a young man's game

by Shawn Starr

Mini-Reviews

The Shaolin Cowboy #1-4 (Dark Horse)

by Geoff Darrow, Dave Stewart

One of the major problems i had with the previous issues of 'Shaolin Cowboy' was Darrow’s proclivity to put words everywhere, with needless amounts of dialogue on top of needless amounts of dialogue. In the newest volume, Darrow pushes away all of the needless exposition in the first issue fairly quickly, and then goes on a three and a half issue wordless fight sequence between the Shaolin Cowboy and a roaming naked mob of zombies which cross his path. Where are these zombies from? Fuck if i know. That therein lies the beauty of this latest volume, because it does not matter at all. They’re there and for nearly sixty pages (and more than a dozen double page spreads), Darrow gleefully illustrates the undead mobs disembowelment at the hands (or a pole which connects two chainsaws) of his titular character.

*stray observations

.This series seems almost like a throwdown with James Stokoe on the most dicks in an obsessively illustrated comic.

. All of Darrow’s male zombies seem to be uncircumcised. Found that worth pointing out.

Sex Criminals #4 (Image)

by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky

I still don’t really understand the mass praise for this book. The writing and artwork are fine even funny at times, but it being hailed as a top ten work just does not compute. Maybe it's a continuation of the praising of basic competence which has prevailed the past few years best of lists. Where Mark Waid’s 'Daredevil' or BKV/Staples' 'Saga' are put up on the shoulders of the masses and raised to a pantheon that only those who write B+ works aspire to inhabit.

Anyways, I guess jokes about butt stuff are much funnier than i ever thought.

-----------

a (mildly tweaked) reprint

“When you roll up on us, you better make sure we is dead – cause Mayor or not, we gonna roll back up on your punk ass!!!” 

Gangsta Rap Posse #1-2 (Traditional)

by Benjamin Marra

On a cursory glance, 'Gangsta Rap Posse' reads like the scrawling of a twelve year old who watched too many NWA interviews and music videos, but ultimately it is so much more than that. Operating both as an artistic reaction to the inherent silliness of the more manufactured aspects of Gangsta Rap (because as many cops as Ice Cube claims to kill, it’s 2014 and he works for TBS now) and a love letter to the the genre; Marra walks the fine line between farce and sincerity. 'Gangsta Rap Posse' revolves around a prominent Los Angeles 'Gangsta Rap' group as they make their way across the city towards their newest album release party, and as one would assume, depravity runs rampant over the ensuing twenty-two pages.

This book isn't a mad dash across town though, Marra allows the Posse to explore the city. To let the work breathe if you will. Taking breaks to shoot up a Neo-Nazi party, and prove who the real "Master Race" is, foil an assassination plot set forth by the mayor over the Posse releasing a sex tape "G.R.P. (Gang Bangs Mrs. Mayor)", and settling the issue of copyright infringement over a balcony window. 'Gangsta Rap Posse' exists for these digressions, the plot is irrelevant really, except as a pretense for these moments.

It's in these cutaways that Marra is able to weave in historical Rap events; creating a depth one wouldn't expect from a book with the title 'Gangsta Rap Posse'. Harold Smithsonian (George Clinton) and Snoozy Koblins (Bootsy Collins) of the Funk Congress International (Parliament-Funkadelic) attempting to assassinate the Gangsta Rap Posse over sampling, is a controversy which has plagued Hip-Hop since its formation (entire albums have been created with sampled beats). When the Posse holds Harold Smithsonian out a window and forces him to sign over the rights to his music, Marra is referencing Suge Knight's ("supposed") acquisition of Vanilla Ice "Ice Ice Baby" royalties, an event which lead directly to the formation of Death Row Records and the birth of Gangsta Rap.

As Tucker Stone pointed out, Marra's greatest artistic strength is his ability to make his characters act. Subtle gestures like the cocking of the Mayor's neck after being corrected for going on a racist tangent, the childlike shame on the Mayor's face when talking about his wife's sex tape, tell so much more about the character than any exposition dump ever could. In addition to facial gestures, Marra plays with the stiffness of his lines to give an additional dimension of character to his figures. While the Posse and members of Funk Congress International are depicted with a loose swagger, the Police are posed almost as mannequins, a subtle and effective way of differentiating the two groups and their personalities.

This book would have failed if it was merely an exercise in irony, a send off to 70's Blaxploitation films with Gangsta Rap archetypes swapped in for "Dolemite". An interesting elevator pitch, but not much more than that. Instead 'Gangsta Rap Posse' takes this simple idea and builds on it. Adding tidbits of Hip-Hop history and controversy, giving the work a depth that allows it to rise above simple parody. 'Gangsta Rap Posse' delivers on it's title, but through Marra's art and reverence for the genre, does much more.

------------------------

link dump

Off the bat, a podcast reunion of sorts for the Matinee Idles which was a movie podcast which featured The Chemical Box's very own Joey Aulisio and Alec Berry.

Speaking of Alec Berry, he's been rather prolific of late with his take on 'Ms. Marvel' #1, 'Celebrated Summer', 'Number' #1, and 'Moon Knight' #1. He also started some kind of essay publishing site called ByLine and a new podcast that he wisely abandoned after a week or so. Alec and Joey did a Best Of episode in there somewhere too.

Tucker Stone interviews Julia Gfrorer. Gfrorer is an supremely under-appreciated artist in the art-comics scene. With the release of 'Black Is The Color', this issue seems to be starting to change. Following the success of her $5 postcards (I got one of them. It was a rabbit), she is offering some affordable commissions right now.

Newly translated Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot titled 'La Poubelle de la Place Vendome'.

   

I keep finding scans of 'COPRA' online and it keeps bumming me out.

A Dash Shaw lecture which took place at the California College of the Arts. I saw Shaw give a very similar lecture at TCAF, it was very insightful. Also, Shaw announced a new mini-comic coming out from Fanta later this year called 'Cosplayer' which i’m excited about.

Michael DeForge’s 'Kid Mafia' was collected recently by Secret Headquarters, or at least the first three issues. That's one of my favorite DeForge comics, and largely only avaliable from him at conventions, so a collection should be a good way to get the work out there.

I read this Vladimir Nabokov interview with the Paris Review shortly before the release of the Alan Moore series of essays in the form of answers “interview” which recently came out. It’s weird, but Nabokov shit talks for almost the entirety of that interview in a way that i feel Moore wishes he could.

I watched every Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee last month. The Chris Rock one was probably the stand out, but they’re all pretty great. As an aside, one of my ex-managers met Chris Rock when he was shooting a scene at his work and i guess every time Rock ran into him, he kept asking him about his kids and if he was gonna go see "Madagascar 2" when it came out. This isn’t that funny of a story until my manager told me his wife had just filed for divorce a week previous (I would tell that story to everyone i ever met if it was me).

Ryan Holmberg on Post-War Manga. Ryan Holmberg on Manga is always a must read. I’ll miss those 40+ page essays in 10 Cent Manga.

The Inkstuds 500th episode. Featuring my two favorite Inkstuds recurring guests.

Leading into the final days of Angouleme, Katsuhiro Otomo was the hands on favorite to win the Grand Prix, but in an odd twist 'Calvin and Hobbes' creator and noted recluse Bill Watterson won the prize. Since Otomo is still up for the prize next year (as long as he is alive), here's his out of print and therefore extremely expensive early work 'Domu', which has recently appeared scanned in completion online. I have heard rumors that 'Domu' is better than 'Akira', but i’m not sure how much of that is bluster about having read the work and how much of it is truth.

A review of Jack Kirby’s adaptation of '2001: A Space Odyssey'. I have read most of that series in issues since it will never be reprinted (and not never like 'Miracleman', i mean like never ever). Since it is a very good comic, and as the review points out, an interesting work to look at to see what Kirby took and didn't take from the Kubrick film.

diary of a guttersnipe 09/16/2013: back in a civic

by Shawn Starr

I’ve decided to be proactive in treating this random cough i have had for the past few months, and i’ve begun taking cold pills and switching from whiskey + cokes to screwdrivers. Should be cleared up in a few days.


Mini-Reviews

Thor: God of Thunder #12 (Marvel)
by Jason Aaron, Nic Klein

It’s difficult not to see the departure of Esad Ribic from 'Thor: God of Thunder' at the conclusion of the Grodd The Godslayer “mega-arc” (11-issues) as anything but a death nail for that title. Esad brought a heaviness to the title, his artwork carries with it a sense of weight and density that few other artists in comics can achieve - making the fight scenes (featuring overly muscular men wielding hammers punching and smashing their way across the cosmos) feel real in a sense, the hammer blows have a weight behind them and the damage they caused is felt. The other aspect of Ribic’s heaviness is his artwork's clear association with 'Heavy Metal' (both the magazine and musical genre); his artwork begs to depict these genres tropes, it needs to depict outer space and celestial bodies and Conan stand-in’s beating each other up while giving speeches on the state of the cosmos.

With Ribic’s departure, Aaron brings Thor back to earth after a little over a year (publication time) in space, promptly reinserting the god of thunder back into the Marvel Universe and leaving behind much of Ribic’s trademark imagery. This is first achieved by a series of pastiches (showing Thor with the citizenry of the 616, a pub owner noticing the once absent thunder returning and pulls out a barrel or two of mead for the returning hero, Thor meets with an inmate about to be put to death - the inmate in these last moments now realizes that if only he had met Thor earlier he could have avoided his life of crime, etc.) which are all built around the idea of humanizing and bringing him up to speed with the 616 universe. Now this is a god whom we have just watched smash his way through the universe riding on a viking ship with three time displaced versions of himself while on a quest to kill a rogue “god” (see the godslayer had turned himself into a god in his battle against the gods, ironies a bitch, huh?). The deflation is needed in the absence of Ribic, but it’s one that stops the book in it’s tracks, gone are the epic speeches and in their stead is melodrama and YouTube jokes.

Nic Klien’s artwork at times has flourishes of a cosmic scale, there are a few instances, in particular two splash pages both off world where his charcoal texturing adds a depth to the landscapes that looks promising, but his artwork for the majority of the issue is rooted in an amalgamation of house styles that he doesn’t seem completely grown out of yet, and which Aaron seems to only wish to reinforce in his search to bring Thor back “home”.

-----------------

links

Mother News, a free newspaper out of Providence, has recently achieved their past editions. The paper itself is quite good, but the main draw here is that this archive contains monthly strips from CF, Mickey Z, Charles Forsman and Michael DeForge (along with others). With so many free alternative newspapers shutting down lately (the long standing Boston Phoenix shut down publication last year after a nearly fifty year run), it’s nice to see one still running, along with publishing strips from some of the best new creators in comics. I’m doubtful this will be possible by the end of the decade.

Speaking of Esad Ribic, he will be taking over art duties on Hickman's 'Avengers' starting in December which actually sounds pretty cool.

-------------

A Newsarama interview with Ben Marra. What Newsarama is doing interviewing Ben Marra and why they are doing a “countdown to SPX” is beyond me, but i guess it will get more eyes on Marra’s work, so it’s ultimately a good thing. This interview reminded me of a semi-recent interview with Howard Chaykin on CBR about a new-ish release of his (something about Westerns and TV) where towards the end of the interview, when the inevitable “what else are you working on?” question is asked, the answer is something twenty times more interesting than anything else being talked about in the interview. The crazy thing is the interviewer doesn’t just stop the whole process and latch onto that cool project he just mentioned, they kind of bury the lead instead (In the case of the Chaykin interview it was the mention of a 'Black Kiss Christmas Special' along with 'Black Kiss 3'). Here's the one from the Marra interview:

Newsarama: What's next for you? More blades, more lazers, what?

Marra: I'm currently hard at work on a few projects. I'm working with Josh Bayer and his brother Sam on a new line of superhero comics called All Time Comics. Be on the lookout for those soon. Recently, I wrote a comic that Michael DeForge is drawing and Dash Shaw will be coloring. It's a sequel to Michael and my story that appeared in an issue of 'Smoke Signal', a cyber/bio-punk tale called Faunamancer. Desert Island Comics is going to put that out.

It would be difficult to imagine a stronger lineup for a collaboration in comics right now, alt or mainstream. (An Aside: the interviewer's jokey and slightly pandering tone throughout the interview was really annoying to me.)

-------

CF does “Batman”; signed Paul Pope.

Autopic reports from Secret Acres, and the Autopic organizers.

Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy talking 'The Best of Milligan & McCarthy' over at Robot 6.

Frank Santoro on Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.

----------

“Whether Grace left Dogville, or on the contrary Dogville had left her - and the world in general - is a question of a more artful nature that few would benefit from by asking, and even fewer by providing an answer. And nor indeed will it be answered here."

I finished "Dogville" this week, or was it last, i’m so infrequent with these columns my understanding of time is really beginning to get fucked up. Anyways an interval of time ago, I completed a viewing of Lars Von Trier's film "Dogville", a story of a town who takes in a stranger running away from the mob and how they deal with having complete power over one individual. Their dealings leaves something to be desired over the film's near three hour run time but the ending is something i don’t think i’m going to forget. The narrator, who is so intent on explaining the feelings of each individual and their thoughts, chooses to ignore giving a grand point to the film's violent and possibly deserved ending. It leaves it up to the viewers to decide if the characters who sanctioned each of these acts was right, and if they deserved the consequences put upon them. It’s a film whose ending i will change my opinion on as time progresses, but right now i read too many Josh Simmons comics and i smiled at that shit.

“It was as if the light, previously so merciful and faint, finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a Gusberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and floor in the buildings and... in the people. "

------------

Lack of context seems to be a big deal in comics this month.

iFanboy is dead. Fuck iFanboy.

I really liked this Jonny Negron piece.

Michael DeForge released what i am assuming to be the entirety of the fourth issue of 'Kid Mafia' online. I’m holding off on reading it until the print version comes out, but since most of the 'Kid Mafia' issues are only available from him at a con this might be your only chance to read it.

Youth In Decline had a big week in pre-orders news, they opened with a new issue of 'Frontier' which highlights the artists Hellen Jo, and then followed it up with their first T-Shirt which consists of the company logo (designed by Michael DeForge).

diary of a guttersnipe 01/28/2013: books published in 2012 that i enjoyed, part one

by Shawn Starr

I float between hating and respecting the idea of "best of" lists.

They can, on the individual level, evoke a certain connection to the writer, their reading tendencies, their taste, but then again they can become lengthy posts on the same comics that everyone else has (masturbatory PR material and stuff of that ilk).

And then there's mass survey lists which seem to only succeed at ruining the point of these lists in the first place and only exist to give publishers nifty quotes for their next issue or collected edition (Named as one of CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2012, etc.).

Anyways, here are some comics that i would define as my favorites of 2012, in no particular order, which i hope will imbue you with some sense of what i find important in comics, and if not, then just ignore me, I'll fuck off eventually.

the list

Thickness #3 (Self-published)
by Lamar Abrams, Jimmy Beaulieu, Edie Fake, Julia Gfrorer, William Cardini, Sean T. Collins, Gengoroh Tagame, Andy Burkholder, HamletMachine
edited by Ryan Sands, Michael DeForge

The final issue of 'Thickness' may not be the greatest in the series (that honor is left for 'Thickness' #2), but in its final iteration the series strips away any semblance of pretense and delivers one of the most beautiful, funny, and disturbing anthologies in many years. In 'Thickness', Ryan Sands and Michael DeForge produced their first definitive work, in what i hope (and expect) to be a continuing series of definitive works by this partnership.

It's the new alt-comics heavy-weights drawing smut.

Step aside America's Best Comics, you anthology of obviousness! I gots me some full penetration to view.

An expanded upon excerpt from my original review of 'Thickness' #3:
"I remember going to see "Hostel" as a sophomore in high school and being scared to death, the TV spots advertised it as one of the goriest films ever made, and then all i remember is just sitting there and feeling nothing besides disgust at how terrible of a movie i was watching. Gengoroh Tagame's 'Standing Ovations' though, a little less than a decade later, is what my fourteen year old self thought he was going to see. And it scared me to death.

Tagame produces a work here that i don't think the word torture porn can even be applied to, because, while it’s exactly what that phrase purports to capture, it’s so beyond everything else in the genre (besides maybe "A Serbian Film" ?), that it does not feel like it applies anymore. It transcended the genre.

'Standing Ovations' is one of the few things that has ever lingered with me months after putting them away, it won’t be forgotten. It’s a Bret Easton Ellis torture scene from 'American Psycho' that just keeps on going and makes you question whether the author is a little to into it. Tagame outfits his story with more BDSM, more fetishism, and...more...torture and...god help me more lingering. It’s fucked up.

And the very real thing about this comics is that there's no point, there is no grand political statement, there is just torture, and depravity, and that's what makes it even more scary. This could just happen, without cause, because that's how life works. You're an out of your prime fighter who's more valuable to someone getting nails driven through your dick and having your urine soaked underwear jammed down your throat so a million people online can pay to cum, than as a simple living human.

I'm genuinely afraid to read his book from PictureBox later this year, but i have to read it. The feeling lingers. Like in all good horror. It needs to be experienced. Again."

Lincoln Washington Free Man #1 (Traditional)
by Benjamin Marra

2012 was a big year for Ben Marra, his adaptation of 'American Psycho' via Raymond Pettibon splash pages finally saw print as an over sized newspaper, which perfectly reflected Patrick Bateman's crumbling reality and fragile ego. 'Ripper and Jack' was a burn the world to the ground satire of Crumb's 'Fritz the Cat', a revision of the film star as a Saturday morning cartoon, and then there was 'Lincoln Washington Free Man'.

Lincoln Washington subverts Kirby's six panel grid of pure action to tell the story of a freed slave who simply wants to have his forty acres and a mule,and live his life. The problem he finds out (as in all classic Westerns) is that the world won’t let him, as a band of Reconstruction Era Southerners attempt to put him back in the shackles he’d broken away from years earlier.

It's a violent and race centered story that has garnered Marra his first major exposure via a lengthy Comics Journal interview, but also produced the first backlash against his work. He ain't Spike Lee so i guess he isn't allowed to make "Do The Right Thing".

An excerpt from a discussion i participated in on this book, this entry pertains to the books inking style:
"He certainly has a lot more spot blacks in Lincoln Washington, a contrast from his last work ('Gangsta Rap Posse' #2) which was all line work. I’m not sure if it’s a reversion, though. His early inking style is quite heavy handed, while Lincoln Washington’s inking seems like more of a continuation from 'Gangsta Rap Posse' than a reversion. His inking here is more restrained than his previous works, and utilized with greater purpose, something that I would not generally identify with Marra. By doing away with all the excess inking, Marra seems to have figured out when and where it’s absolutely necessary to the story and leave it out in any other instance.

In 'Gangsta Rap Posse' #2, Marra choose not to distinguish the black cast from the white with any additional shading or color, that probably stems from  trying to keep the colors (black & white) in balance on the page, along with streamlining the process. It works on that project, and there’s a definite improvement in the art between issues #1 and #2, but here it needed the blacks to distinguish the character from his surroundings.

Lincoln Washington is the only black character in the book (except for his wife, who appears for a total of three pages), and he’s entering an “alien” and hostile place (Post-Civil War South), so his color has to be at the forefront, requiring a heavy shading/color process to separate him from the white residence. What could be ignored in 'Gangsta Rap Posse' really can’t in 'Lincoln Washington Free Man'. Race is a far more prominent detail.

If you look at the first page of Lincoln Washington, the only two objects that are completely black are Lincoln Washington and the title “O’ Sins of Men, What Demon Fathered You” which both distinguishes Lincoln from his surroundings and connects him with the title explicitly, the title both works as a comment on the sins of racism (America’s original sin) and Lincoln Washington, who is a man empowered by the souls of slaves to avenge the wrong doings perpetrated by white slaveholders. The colors are used as a way of separating and defining Lincoln as a character."

Lose #4 (Koyama Press)
by Michael DeForge

(along with every other DeForge comic that came out this year, but mostly 'Lose' #4.)

What's really left to say about DeForge, every comic he puts out is a breath of fresh air in a market of conservatism and stagnation. DeForge drops an issue of 'Eightball' level quality every month it seems, he maintains a level of quality that is daunting. It's almost unfair to everyone else. DeForge will be spoken of in a few years in a reverence that's only reserved for the legends. He's that good. And he's only getting better!

Anyways, 'Lose' #4 was a masterpiece, just like 'Lose' #3 and 'Lose' #2 (I haven't read 'Lose' #1 so i can't comment, although if anyone has an issue of it, i have a wallet the desperately needs to lose some weight). Its the fashion issue, and while the first story on bondage didn't leave me blown away, DeForge's fake documentary (Ala 'Spotting Deer') on the Canadian Family was one of the most engrossing things i'd ever read.

This year also featured a new issue of 'Kid Mafia', which although difficult to track down (i don't know of anyone who has copies of it besides DeForge himself) is well worth the effort. 'Kid Mafia' is an amazing take on teenage wish fulfillment, a what if scenario with you and your friends cast in the role of Tony Soprano, only that your main source of travel is still a skateboard and you don't really know how to talk to girls yet. Additionally, DeForge dropped 'First Year Healthy', which is just...wow. That guy's got talent.

2013 Looks to be an even bigger year for DeForge with an omnibus of sorts collecting his mini-comics, another issue of 'Lose', and a Drawn and Quarterly collection of his serialized webcomic 'Ant Comic'.

Negron (Picturebox)
by Jonny Negron

'Negron' is not the first book to reprint material readily available on the internet, those have floated around for the past ten years in various formats and collections, but what is different about 'Negron' is that it's the first book to successfully reprint the experience of reading the internet, 'Tumblr Comics' if you will. Where every other collection of the 'net' goes wrong is their need to contextualize the material within the confines of print, that's how you get a Kate Beaton collection that looks like every archival strip collection ever put out, and not a book reflecting her immediate interests, and the role of community surrounding the work itself.

'Negron' on the other hand moves past these dated approaches and attempts to recreate that Tumblr approach by showing it's artists obsessions in a continuous line. It may be edited, but its edited and curated to express Jonny Negron's singular impulses at each moment. For example, there is 5 pages of illustrations of woman eating phallic food, because that's what Johnny Negron was into at that moment in time. Narrative is overrated anyway, obsession is where it's at.

The End Of The Fucking World (Oily)
by Charles Forsman

It's difficult to read this book's title and not read it as a critique of the comic publishing landscape at the moment, at least from a small press stance. Small Press Publishing has been on the wain ever since 'Love and Rockets' jumped to the yearly book format (probably even earlier) and everyone else just abandoned ship. That all seemed to turn around in 2012 though where the scene reinvigorated the idea of serialized monthly alt-comics, and 'TEOTFW' lead the way in both its regularity (every month, eight pages, no matter what), a price point that could not be matched, and in quality. Oily and Retrofit and whoever else is out there prove that the world is not actually fucking ending, it just needed to find a new approach.

OK, enough context and bullshit. 'TEOTFW' did not make my list because of that, it’s just icing on the cake of greatness.

'TEOTFW' is the story of two teenage lovers running away from home, and while that is not the most original idea (nor is having them be murderers), what separates 'TEOTFW' from a dozen other instances of this story is the care Forsman takes in crafting the story such as the way each issue reads with the near perfect pacing, the trading off of narrator between James and Alyssa, how their individual perceptions shade the books events, James' cold calculated voice-over making the threat of violence at any moment, all the more real, while Alyssa’s voice always has a sliver of hope and love underlining her every word (she may not be innocent, but she didn't choose to love a sociopath, she just does). With eight pages there's little room to spare, and while Forsman's line-work is sparse, it's not unlike Jaime Hernandez or Charles Schultz' work in how it's whittled down to the essentials. Forsman understands that you can convey just as much, if not more emotional weight and information in one single line than a billion little ones.

(Also that scene where James and Alyssa dance, that scene is perfection)

come back next week for PART TWO...

diary of a guttersnipe 11/12/2012: dead people are infinities of maybes

by Shawn Starr

I attended the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival this past weekend, i don't have any pictures because i hate taking pictures (along with having pictures of me taken). I was the sole Chemical Box member in attendance because Sandy is a bitch who hates fun. Also the electrical companies in New York are terrible at their jobs (Hurricane Sandy is also the reason there was no column last week).

Mini-Reviews

The End of the Fucking World #12 (Oily)
by Charles Forsman

Every issue fills me with this sense of dread, even when nothing happens. I'm just waiting for the hammer to drop, even when the only thing that's happening is an awkward conversation between a daughter and her estranged father.

Ripper & Friends #1 (Traditional)
by Benjamin Marra

Following the Fantagraphics reprints of EC Comics, the once hallowed line has had it's reputation tarnished a bit (most notably by Chris Mautner, along with the earlier and recently reprinted, Ng Suat Tong essay 'EC Comics and the Chimera of Memory'). Pushing the well founded idea that the EC line is not so much a collection of masterpieces, but instead a line which produced mediocre to pretty good comics with top tier talent that had touches of brilliance.

With 'Ripper & Friends', Ben Marra begins his own similar critique of a much beloved classic comics work. That being one of Robert Crumb's seminal works 'Fritz the Cat' (a title also recently collected by Fantagraphics), a work which has been long seen as a biting satire of 60's culture.

Taking Crumbs "classic" comic turned movie one step lower on the intellectual totem pole, Marra casts 'Ripper & Friends' as a Saturday morning cartoon about a gang of dogs running away from the evil dog catcher and a mean landlord (which i am sure are all vicious critiques on "Fascism" and "Capitalism" or something). By taking Fritz from the respectability of print (and its semi-important place in film) and turning it into a children's show, Marra is able to strip away the vague intellectualism that Fritz spat out (always of course, in the midst of trying to have sex with a Crumb inspired woman) and was thought to represent. This in turn places the importance back on what the majority of the book was about, which was an anthropomorphic cat trying to fuck some stupid college girls. In Marra's version of this story we are treated to a drugged out dog and his gang trying to get revenge on some meth head college dropouts to in turn live another day to shit on another lawn.

By taking away much of the pretense of Crumb's 'Fritz the Cat' and leaving it as a bare bones work of obscenity laden gags, Marra (like Johnny Ryan) moves closer to the core of Crumb's work on Fritz, while also moving further away from the general consensus of the work.

Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor #1 (DC)
by Joshua Hale Fialkov, Frazer Irving

If you ever wondered if Frazer Irving could get me to buy a He-Man tie-in comic, the answer is yes.

Eat More Bikes (Koyama Press)
by Nathan Blumer

This is a very funny comic.

----------------------------------

"I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower, So I can fuck the world for 72 hours "

----------------------------------

A continuing series of reviews/essays/thoughts on the anthology 'Thickness'

Thickness #1 (Self-published)

by Katie Skelly, Jonny Negron, Ze Jian Shen, Derek Ballard, True Chubbo

edited by Ryan Sands, Michael DeForge

The first issue of 'Thickness' is bare bones compared to later issues, featuring four short stories along with a reoccurring strip by True Chubbo. Drifting from the every day to the exotic, 'Thickness' #1 escapes any attempts at categorization in it's first issue, a trait the series maintains throughout it's (so far) 3 issue run. While many anthologies try to craft a through line with each issue (or simply stick within a set genre), 'Thickness' takes pleasure in its evasiveness and moves seamlessly between humor, action, horror and the abstract. Just like there are a million different fetishes, there are a million different stories to be told within the pages of 'Thickness', and the editors Ryan Sands and Michael DeForge choose not to limit their contributors with silly confinements.

The standout of 'Thickness' #1 is without a doubt Johnny Negron's 'Grandaddy Purple, Erotic Gameshow', this was my first exposure to Negron's work and its easy to understand why he rose so quickly in prominence. The story centers around a masked man breaking into a club/brothel and being given a prize for his successful infiltration, all he must do is choose a door.

What makes this story stand out is Negron's ability to move effortlessly between genres and tones, beginning with an action movie break-in (depicted as dynamic as anything Otomo ever drew) transforming into a absurd late night game show and ending in one of the most graphic sex scenes featured in 'Thickness', and at no point does any of these tonal jumps feel like anything but an organic extension of the narrative.

Negron's use of panels to manipulate mood and pacing are also worth mentioning. Opening with a cinematic three panel grid Negron begins to litter his page's with tiny groupings of panels which take on an animation like quality. The "regular" panels are still used for the major story beats, but these small batches of panels force the reader to slow down and linger on the moment they're depicting to a much greater degree than they would if given a full panel, creating an expansionist quality to them. It's a pacing technique that turns this almost completely silent comic into one of the densest and interesting in the series.

Katie Skelly's 'Breeding Season' along with Ze Jian Shen's 'Pearl Divers' offer a nice counterbalance to Negron's tale, taking on a more comedic and wistful tone. The most striking detail of Shen's entry is the use of an abrasive neon red as it's only form of color, that has a jolting effect after Negron's deep purples, acting almost like a light switch being flipped on after you've become accustomed to the dark.

---------------------

words

Bergen St Comics makes every other comic shop I've been to look like shit in comparison. Utter shit.

Michel Fiffe is doing a monthly comic called 'COPRA', and i think its safe to say, just on a quick flip through, that it will be the best looking monthly comic coming out.

Additionally Michel Fiffe's piece on meeting Steve Ditko was an amazing read.

I really liked this single thought "Random Thoughts" column.

I finished reading Bret Easton Ellis' 'American Psycho' on the car ride to BCGF, and my major takeaway was that, as a work of satire, Ells may have pushed the violence too far both in its frequency and elaborateness. At times it felt like Ellis fetishized the killings more than Bateman ever could.

Josh Simmons is unsettlingly normal.

If 'Wayward Girls' has ever cleared customs, i would be shocked.

BCGF was hot as a donkey's ass (even though it was 50 degrees out) and filled beyond capacity, proving that even art-comic conventions have to obey the fundamental rule of comic conventions: everyone in attendance needs to be as uncomfortable and close together as possible.

Ben Marra is easily the chillest dude i have ever meet.

This is one of the better episodes of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell.

Started reading 'Marvel Comics: The Untold Story', my favorite part so far is Stan Lee defending Marvel as being multicultural by replying to an article and listing all the black characters at Marvel, including The-Man-Ape. Yep. The-Man-Ape. Not racist at all. (He also says Negro a couple times)

Watching Charles Bronson get fatter and older in each successive "Death Wish" sequel is sad to watch.

episode 011: back in the day

in this episode joey and alec bitch about things for 20 minutes or so and then move on to discuss topics such as hellboy, criminal: the last of the innocent #1-2 by ed brubaker and sean phillips, captain america & bucky #620 by ed brubaker with marc andreyko and chris samnee, captain america #1 by ed brubaker and steve mcniven, daredevil #1 by mark waid with paolo rivera and marcos martin, rachel rising #1 by terry moore, and twisted savage dragon funnies edited by michel fiffe with stories from benjamin marra, ulises farinas, and joe keatinge among others.

music by local h

download