New Issue of The Believer
by Nicole Rudick
Friday, May 7, 2010
The new issue of The Believer is out and is chock-full of comics goodness. First up, the fifth installment of Alvin Buenaventura’s “Comics” column. Some great work by Jonathan Bennett, Lilli Carré, Tom Gauld, and others. And Charles Burns ruins eggs for all time.
“Spiritual Dad,” a story by Jesse Moynihan and Dash Shaw, is tucked in the back of the issue. They’ve printed it vertically on a long section of folded paper, so it reads kind of like a scroll.
Gabrielle Bell’s done a strip (in glorious color!) that adapts a poem by Russian writer Sasha Chernyi about springtime and seasonal affective disorder in gnomes.
And finally, my interview with Dan Clowes, which covers a lot of his comics work—including his new book, Wilson, which really is phenomenally good—and his film projects, including the sad demise of his Raiders of the Lost Ark script. Burns, The Believer‘s resident cover artist, asked Clowes’s permission to make him look horrible for the cover image. It worked. His face frightened my kid. Somehow it manages simultanteously to be quintessential Burns and Clowes.
Labels: Alvin Buenaventura, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, The Believer
The comic is by Jesse and Dash is really good. No, really.
I believe you, Frank. I do. However, and maybe I’m not alone on this, I’m a little put off by the way the story is printed (like Bodyworld, right?) I haven’t even finished Bodyworld yet, even though I *really* like it, because the way I’m holding it annoys me, haha… I sound like a pathetic freak. OK, I’ll buy this Believer issue to make up for it.
I want to read that interview with Clowes because Wilson is absolutely hilarious, and sad, and great. The way the story tricks you with its segues and uses time between comics to make a joke got me every time. The book seems to almost be embarrassed of its own punchlines at times, thought maybe that was just my own cringing. Other than numerous slight references to daily comic strip artists, I can’t help but wonder if there are also some digs at contemporary comics artists in there (the whole thing almost reads like a satire of Bagge and Tomine, to me).
I think the format of Jesse and Dash’s strip was determined by the printing process. I think the long thin strip is the excess trim cut off from making covers for the magazine. So they made the strip fit on the strip of paper. (Similar to how comics were created in the 30’s from the excess of the newspaper trim. – ed.)