Saturday, April 26, 2003
< comics/x >
SAME DIFFERENCE
(16-chapter b&w web comic, free, at Derek Kirk Kim's website, Small Stories: www.smallstoriesonline.com. A collection, Same Difference and Other Stories, will be distributed in May by Alternative Comics)
Review by Alan Rankin
Over the past few months I've been exploring the world of web comics, guided initially by the list at Scott McCloud's website. And I've discovered some really good ones, including demian.5's When I Am King, Justine Shaw's Nowhere Girl, and stuff by Jason Turner and McCloud himself. (See below for a list of addresses.)
This is my latest discovery, also recommended by McCloud: A nice little slice-of-life comedy-drama by Bay Area artist Derek Kirk Kim. A chance encounter at a restaurant puts Simon at odds with an unfinished chapter of his life, a high-school regret that was never resolved. Meanwhile, his pal Nancy reveals a secret of her own: a mean prank that's spiraled out of her control. Kirk Kim uses these two intertwining plots and some lively characters to say a lot about the ways we relate to each other, or more often, fail to relate. As Simon asks in the final chapter, "Who knows anybody?"
There's something else I discovered about Same Difference, quite by accident. Kirk Kim recently finished the final chapter, but when I came to it, it was still uncompleted. I read the chapter then in progress; intrigued, I read the preceding chapter, then the one before it. In this way, I read the whole story, chapter by chapter, in reverse – and it was terrific! Characters made reference to events that I only understood later, and the unfolding of these earlier events was as suspenseful as if they'd been planned that way. I'm not sure Kirk Kim will appreciate this endorsement – but frankly, his story works as well backwards as forward.
(Scott McCloud's website, scottmccloud.com, includes his own web comics and a list of others he recommends. demian.5's amusing When I Am King is at demian5.com. Justine Shaw's heartfelt Nowhere Girl is at nowheregirl.com. (Incidentally, Shaw was just nominated for two Eisner Awards.) Jason Turner's web comics are at strongmanpress.com. Other web comics are available at various places around the web; try opi8.com and onlinecomics.net.)
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< comics/x >
BLANCHE THE BABY KILLER #0
(72pp b&w comic, $4.95 from Songgu Kwon / 840 S. Hobart Blvd. #405 / Los Angeles, CA / 90005 USA. E-mail)
Review by Alan Rankin
Good action-adventure set in an alternate world that's fallen to Chinese Communism. The story seems to owe a lot to conventional Hollywood/Hong Kong action movies. What sets it apart are two things, mainly: some powerful, nightmarish images, vividly realized by artist/writer S. Kwon. And Blanche herself, who kicks ass – sort of a combination of Frank Miller's Martha Washington and La Femme Nikita. She's resourceful, appealingly human…and tougher than a railroad spike! (Wait 'til you see what she does to a would-be rapist – another powerful scene.) The continuing plot involves a demon, underground resistance fighters, and a floating eyeball the size of the sky. I'm definitely intrigued….
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< comics/x >
MUMBEAUX GUMBO COMIX ASSORTMENT
(Caesar Meadows / Jigsaw Junction / 108 West 6th St. / Reserve, LA / 70084 USA. Web: www.geocities.com/jigsawjct)
Caesar Meadows sent a handful of his tiny comics, all of which are worth checking out. Caesar, as you may know, is very much into the packaging aspect and dreams of seeing micro-comics available everywhere. The most interesting packaging in the batch I've recently received are the Mumbeaux Gumbo Micro-Comic Bot (four micro-comics with color covers that come inside of a full-color paper robot; it's a thing of beauty) and the Mumbeaux Gumbo Micro-Comic Set (six micros inside a tv set with legs and everything). Also received: Mumbeaux Gumbo Nano-Comic (an incredibly tiny – 3/4" tall – comic in its own color package), The Magic Panties (a comic in the shape and guise of – yes, you guessed it), Mumbeaux Gumbo Comix Six-Pack, Mumbeaux Gumbo #2 (32 pages of comix with color covers) and a couple of tiny comics that, I believe, were given away during Mardi Gras.
All of the work in these is by Caesar himself and it's fun stuff. If you've not seen his comix, I might suggest similarities to Tim Kelly or maybe even Josh Simmons in his goofier moments. It's pretty silly stuff, but obviously a labor of love. I like his cartoony style a lot and find these cool little comix inspiring. Even if you don't order anything I highly recommend going to his website and at least taking a look at the photos of his original package designs. One day you'll see Mumbeaux Gumbo micro-comics in vending machines everywhere and you'll be sorry you didn't listen to me "back in the day".
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Friday, April 25, 2003
< comics/x >
NAMBY PAMBY #2
(Rina Ayuyang / PO Box 320054 / San Francisco, CA / 94132-0054 USA. Web: http://home.earthlink.net/~rinaayuyang. No price listed; it's a 36-page digest plus covers – I'd say send a couple bucks at least. She also accepts trades, at least I think that's what "send your comic" means.)
Review by Carol Pond
This is a really nice comic. Rina appreciates the nuances of mundanity, those moments of life too often ignored in favor of bluster and busyness. Her stories are about the common place, the every day, told with a fine attention to detail. Her art is cartoony and effective, full of emotion. She utilizes several cinematic effects – long pans, slow zooms – to build suspense and establish place and mood. There are four stories in this issue: "Bunny Ears", a tragic moment in the life of a child; "After Hours", a very nicely done story about two old friends meeting for dinner; "2-Zone", mothers and sons and the bus stop; and "Regulars", about the uncertainty of belonging.
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Sunday, April 20, 2003
< comics/x >
SHPILKES #1
(Post Apocalyptic Funhouse / PO Box 12253 / Berkeley, CA / 94712-5253 USA. Web: www.altgeek.net)
Frederick Noland's comics are grotesque, but in a positive, life-affirming way. They're the kind of comics, though, that make you wish you knew a little less about the human race and, in my case, make me wish I didn't live in the South. The longest piece here is a tale of hillbilly legend that teeters briefly on the brink of Dave Cooper-style kinkiness. Said kinkiness results in backwoods pandemonium of the sort that, in my heart of hearts, I know is too fantastic to not be true. The other story features the bickering of cantankerous trendies bookended by the musings of a modern-day Romeo. That's a crappy description, but it's my favorite piece in the issue. Fredo says "'Shpilkes' is a Yiddish word loosely translating to 'pins and needles' or the quality of something that makes you ill at ease." Indeed! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go wash my hands.
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Friday, April 18, 2003
[comix]
PRETTY BEAVER #4
(Mary Knott & Beppi / PO Box 22949 / Baltimore, MD / 21203 USA. Mary's e-mail. Beppi's e-mail)
You may have seen their comics in anthologies like Sunburn, Proper Gander or Cool Strip Art Anthology, but Pretty Beaver is 100% Mary Knott & Beppi. Their comics tend to be a bit on the unusual side. Some seem autobiographical – but you hope they're not – and others are rather nightmarish or surreal. My favorite pieces in this issue are an illustrated poem (in a sort of goth-but-not-goth vein) and a story about an ex who cross-dresses for revenge (the concept and drawings crack me up).
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[misc]
LUCID FRENZY: A BELATED BEST OF 2002
(Gavin Burrows / 8 Brewer St. / Brighton / East Sussex BN2 3HH / ENGLAND)
Subtitled "The World's Most Impersonal Perzine", Gavin writes about his top ten live shows and movies of last year. I'm usually not much on live show reviews, but Gavin's are well-done and raised my curiosity about several of the bands. He's so well-versed in music that I wouldn't be surprised if you could find more of his writing on the subject elsewhere. I'm not going to give them all away, but bands reviewed include Robyn Hitchcock, Fugazi and the Mekons. No, I'm not going to tell you what his top ten films are, but it's a nice selection and I had to skip a couple that I haven't seen yet.
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[resource]
COMIXVILLE #5
(free for a stamp from Comixville / PO Box 697 / Portland, OR / 97207-0697 USA)
An interview with Nicole G ( Invincible Summer) begins this issue and is followed by short reviews/plugs for almost 40 comics and zines (many with art repros). Worthwhile.
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[comix]
DAFA FUNGUS #5 / 6
($2.00 ppd? from Jigsaw Junction / 108 West Sixth St. / Reserve, LA / 70084 USA. Web: http://www.geocities.com/dafafungus/ )
dafa FUNGUS is a jam comic by New Orleans-area cartoonists and whoever else happens to be around. Participants in this double issue include Caesar Meadows, Josh Simmons, Sub-Zero Permafrost, Tony Millionaire, Arthur Teagarden and many others (including regulars from Simmons' All About Fuckin'). As a jam, this thing's all over the place and, as with other jam projects, some of the panels further a linear plot of sorts and some of them don't. There's lots of fun stuff here, though, and I really dig the idea of cartoonists getting together to collaborate in such a freestyle manner. Not for the easily offended, but recommended to jam comix enthusiasts.
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Thursday, April 17, 2003
[zine:personal]
LEEKING INK #27
("$3.00, stamps or a fair trade" from Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 963 / Havre de Grace, MD / 21078 USA. Web: www.leekinginc.com)
Davida ( Xerography Debt) really knows how to put together a personalzine. Each issue is well-edited, cleanly designed, organized by month and contains much more than just journal entries. 2002 was a rough year for her and much of the writing here is painful to read, but compelling nonetheless. On the lighter side, though, there's a recipe for vegan "mac and cheese", what Bernie Goetz is up to these days (you won't believe it), a report from Baltimore's Creep Con and "Stupid Things I Have Done Lately". Very good reading and very personal. Recommended.
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Thursday, April 10, 2003
< comics/x >
TALES TO DEMOLISH #1
by Eric Haven
($3.00 cover; published by Sparkplug Comic Books / PO Box 10952 / Portland, OR / 97296-0952 USA. Web: www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com)
Review by M. Campos
You've already guessed that this is a tip of the Haven Hat to those great Kirby Marvel monster books, where some improbably big critter named Grodd or Gorrsst or whatever would roar out of a Siberian wasteland and scare everybody. Haven's story is simpler and very slight, but why you should get this book is the art – an intricate system of precise crosshatching and black that will keep you reviewing the pages for days, even after the short shock of the story wears off.
[ M. Campos is the pseudonym of an old woman who hoards cats and likes Godard films. ]
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Tuesday, April 08, 2003
< resource >
XEROGRAPHY DEBT #10
($3.00 from Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 963 / Havre de Grace, MD / 21078 USA. Web: www.leekinginc.com)
Xerography Debt is a different sort of reviewzine. Billed as "The Review Zine with Perzine Tendencies", the reviews are grouped by reviewer and tend to be more informal and personal. Said reviewers include editrix David Gypsy Breier, Fred Argoff, Androo Robinson (his section's drawn!), Bobby Tran Dale, Christoph Meyer and a bunch more who make for interesting reading. I'm not going to count them but quite a lot of zines are reviewed in this issue's 58 pages. XD is a laidback resource that's well worth your time and three bucks. However, if you don't want to shell out the cash, Davida generously puts most of each issue online shortly after it's released (URL above). If you choose to read it this way, however, be sure to shoot an e-mail her way if you like what you see.
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< comics/x >
THE WIPEOUT
(Fantagraphics Books, www.fantagraphics.com)
This is the new full-color graphic novel by Francesca Ghermandi, creator of Pastil. Apart from the covers of Pastil this is the first color work I've seen by Ghermandi and I'm pleased to report it's quite lush and stunning. The story involves a poor schlep in an unhappy marriage who falls for his saucy new neighbor who needs rescuing. A plan unfolds to solve both of their problems, but in Ghermandi's world, everything is not as it seems. Clever plot twists, bizarre characters and beautiful artwork made this a good read for me. If you'd prefer to read it in French, it was simultaneously published in France by Editions du Seuil as Bang! t'es mort. Recommended.
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Wednesday, April 02, 2003
< comix:history >
I Was a Teenage Newave Cartoonist
(A History of Minicomix: 1972-Now)
at Modern Tales
One of the regular features at the Modern Tales website is "Longplay", a monthly section edited by Joe Zabel and designed to showcase longer comic works as well as other non-comics material. The March edition is subtitled "Eyewitness Comics" and features artist Gary Dumm's experiences on the set of the American Splendor film (a Sundance winner), lots of American Splendor comics by Harvey Pekar and Dumm and other autobio comics by Henrik Rehr, Damon Hurd/Pedro Camello, Tatiana Gill, Neil Kleid and Tom Galambos.
The final feature – the focus of this review – is Bruce Chrislip's mini-comics history article. Chrislip, for those who don't know, is a cartoonist and the founder of the original City Limits Gazette. He also takes on the often thankless job of comix historian, his particular focus being the undergrounds, mini-comics and everything between.
This generously-illustrated five-page article begins with a look at how mini-comics came to be, their forerunners, and just how they're related to early fanzines and underground comics. The rest of the article is broken up in sections that deal chronologically with various factions and key figures (Clay Geerdes, Gary Arlington, jam comics, the black-and-white boom of the mid-'80s, etc.). In addition to the article and its accompanying illustrations, we also get a three-page gallery of mini-comics covers from the early '70s to now representing around 50 different titles. On top of that, there are also sidebars by Joe Zabel on the recent "Page Me" show at SPACES in Cleveland (subtitled "The Art of Zines, Comix and Other Artist-Made Books") and the recently-coined "story rockets" term.
Chrislip's history article is informative and should be useful to anyone unfamiliar with the origins of the mini-comics movement, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let it be known that Chrislip has stated publicly that he'd like to devote an entire book to this subject if there seems to be a demand for it. So, if you'd like to see such a project come to fruition, please show your support.
Speaking of support, you should know that the "Longplay" section of Modern Tales is only available to subscribers. A subscription, though, is only $2.95 a month and the content mentioned above represents a fraction of what's available on the site.
Past months' "Longplay" sections (still accessible) have featured Indigo Kelleigh's Chutney Point (152 pages!), jam comics, Alex Holden, Mat Tait, Peter Conrad and many others. Oh, and then there's the rest of the site, Modern Tales proper. Modern Tales features comics (many daily or weekly) by creators such as Tom Hart, Donna Barr, Jason Shiga, James Kochalka, Roger Langridge, Scott Mills, Jesse Hamm, Reinder Dijkhuis and tons more. Then, of course, there's the archive of completed stories and a dozen sketchbook sections by Modern Tales creators.
As I mentioned earlier, a subscription is $2.95 a month (which seems like a hell of a deal considering the amount of content), but be aware that – as I understand it – most of the strips are free on the day they go up. So if you're not sure about coughing up the dough, go look around and see if it's not worth it.
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