Oh boy, Comics Comics 4 will debut at Comic-Con! This one’s got Shaky Kane, Dan Zettwoch, Woody Gelman, Brian Chippendale, Sammy Harkham, Joe McCulloch, Mike Reddy, PShaw!, Eamon Espey, Benjamin Marra, Berserk, and much much more (well, just a little more). Come by and grab one and argue about Alex Ross with us! PictureBox — booth 1630.
Two of my favorite online writers about comics, Matthias Wivel and Joe “Jog” McCulloch, have recently weighed in on Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, and they were both able to articulate some of the issues I had with the book in a much more detailed, supported, and impressive way than I was capable of when I spoke to Tom Spurgeon about the book last December. (The Arrival section is about two-thirds of the way down that link, by the way. Look for the big ship.)
They’re both really smart, incisive reviews, but I guess overall I’m a bit more with the critical but relatively gentle Jog than the more scathing Wivel, if only because I do think Tan showed a pretty remarkable affinity for comics storytelling, completely apart from whether or not the book suffers from thematic and aesthetic shortcomings. (It does.) These two reviews made me think a bit harder about my own earlier judgment, though.
In the aforementioned interview, I eventually said that despite my problems with the book, “there’s a very plausible argument to be made that [the artistic style and simplicity of story] were appropriate choices considering the audience Tan was writing for…”
That audience, of course, being children, a fact that is conspicuously left unmentioned by either Wivel or Jog. Which doesn’t mean they’re wrong! If anything, I’m starting to wonder if my letting that fluke of marketing influence my criticism was a mistake. Is it condescending to give a children’s book a bye if it doesn’t fully address a complicated social (and political) situation? Shouldn’t we at least expect the attempt? I mean, of course, there are limitations to the form, but it’s not like The Arrival couldn’t have included a few more layers of subtlety without turning into a full-blown tract about xenophobia. A few changed panels here and there could have made all the difference.
Obviously there are shades of gray here, so I don’t know. This bears more thinking. For now, I’d just like to substitute the “very” in my quote with “somewhat”. I’m the Decider!
UPDATE: Wivel points to a relevant Shaun Tan interview in the comments.
He’s first over the line one more time.
Brain’s still broke from SPX, but here’s two links in the meantime:
1) Craig Yoe has posted a cover of “Jug Band Music” by the late, great Wally Wood.
2) Jog has written a great review of C.F.’s Powr Mastrs 1. I need to stop linking to Jog — just bookmark him, please.
I’m probably not going to write anything extensive about Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple‘s new Omega the Unknown miniseries until the whole thing gets published, but here’s a post just to note that the first issue is out. (For those who want a more thorough review, Jog has written a good one.)
I’ll limit my remarks to these:
1) It’s nice enough, but I’m not sure if Dalrymple’s art really works for this story. Jim Mooney‘s fairly generic ’70s superhero art in the original series really effectively set the tone, and pumped up the creepy “what’s happened to the Marvel editors?” factor a great deal. Dalrymple’s drawings, on the other hand, are too weird on their own to create that clash of expectations. Still, it’s way too soon to say anything definitive, and I’m not sure exactly where this story’s going yet. It may work in the end. And it’s nice to see Marvel experimenting art-wise in any case.
2) I think it’s funny how many of the online reviews of this comic have mentioned the literary tone of the dialogue, and attributed it to Lethem’s background as a novelist. It’s funny because that aspect of the new comic comes pretty much directly from the Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes original.
3) So far, the new Omega is following the original plot very closely. Only a subplot featuring a mysterious superhero called the Mink (civilian name: Mr. Kansur) is new. His part in all this remains to be seen, but considering that the comic credits the script to Lethem and “Karl Rusnak” (hey, that’s “Kansur” backwards!) I imagine that’s where a lot of the action will be.
UPDATE: Using my crack journalistic skills, I’ve learned that Rusnak is a real person (and Lethem’s best friend from childhood). Still, my Sherlock sense is still telling me that that name’s a clue!
As most of you know, this is the week Comics Comics 3 is supposed to be shipping to finer comic stores, and early reviews are in!
Tom “The Comics Reporter” Spurgeon calls it “lovely-looking … full of engaging essays where writers stake out a unique aesthetic position and then defend it. A lot of comics coverage leaves off that first part. The third and best issue.”
Joe “Jog” McCulloch (who, as a contributor to the issue, is perhaps not completely trustworthy) calls it a “fine newspaper of comics information and festivity”, and further claims, “It’s a scientifically proven fact that a copy of Comics Comics can heal a multitude of diseases if pressed against the offending portion of the body, though it’s gotta be a sick body part, not just offending.”
Last but not least (well, technically, I guess it is least), Newsarama’s Chris Mautner ranks the issue as “pretty good”. But he also says there are “lots of crack reviews”, which sounds very good to me.
Next post: less hype, more blog.
This is just to remind you that the new issue of Comics Comics should be arriving in stores this week!
This time around:
*Sammy Harkham interviews Guy Davis (and they collaborate on a beautiful new cover)
*The legendary Kim Deitch explains the Meaning of Life
*Dan has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show
*David Heatley and Lauren R. Weinstein in conversation (they also collaborated on a brand-new oversize drawing)
*The long-awaited (by me) conclusion to my article on Steve Gerber
*The beloved Joe McCulloch on Mutt and Jeff
*An illustrated list from Renée French
*An amazing back cover by Marc Bell
*Plus a terrific new redesign from Mike Reddy, the debut of our new letters page, hilarious Matthew Thurber cartoons throughout the issue, somewhat more careful proof-reading, reviews of The Avengelist, Casanova, “Curse of the Molemen”, GØDLAND, The Immortal Iron Fist, Reading Comics, Ronin, Self-Loathing Comics, Swamp Preacher, and more!
We will also try to offer it for sale here on the site very soon.
Does YOUR favorite store carry Comics Comics?
Assuming there aren’t any disasters at the printer, the new issue of Comics Comics will finally debut this weekend at the MoCCA festival in New York, and it’s probably the best one yet.
This time around:
*Sammy Harkham interviews Guy Davis (and they collaborate on a beautiful new cover)
*The legendary Kim Deitch explains the Meaning of Life
*Dan has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show
*David Heatley and Lauren R. Weinstein in conversation (they also collaborated on a brand-new oversize drawing)
*The long-awaited (by me) conclusion to my article on Steve Gerber
*The beloved Joe McCulloch on Mutt and Jeff
*An illustrated list from Renée French
*An amazing back cover by Marc Bell
*Plus a terrific new redesign from Mike Reddy, the debut of our new letters page, hilarious Matthew Thurber cartoons throughout the issue, somewhat more careful proof-reading, reviews of The Avengelist, Casanova, “Curse of the Molemen”, GØDLAND, The Immortal Iron Fist, Reading Comics, Ronin, Self-Loathing Comics, Swamp Preacher, and more!
So stop by the PictureBox table (A14-16) this weekend to pick it up (there’s plenty of other new stuff and some great signings, too), and if you won’t be able to make it, keep your eyes open. It should be out in stores in early July.
Does YOUR favorite store carry Comics Comics?
Sometimes I think the much-respected Jog tends to write at greater length than he really needs to, but he’s still the best, most reliable, and easily the hardest working regular online comics critic I’ve encountered.
He is also, inexplicably, one of the very few who even try to understand where Paper Rad is coming from, and he’s just delivered a sharp review of their latest.
I know a lot of Comics Comics readers have already seen Marc Singer’s recent part-right, part-way-off-base review of MOME, because I recognize the names of a lot of the commenters there, but if you haven’t seen it yet, the post itself and the comments that follow are pretty interesting.
Via Jog — who, by the way, somewhat recently wrote one of the more insightful reviews of Cold Heat (drawn, as you probably know, by CC editor-at-large Frank Santoro) I’ve yet seen.
Speaking of Frank, judging by their Website, Copacetic has only a few copies of his ’90s masterpiece Storeyville left, and I believe they’re the only place where you can still purchase it. So this may be your last chance if you want to get your hands on Storeyville in its original format.
Finally, and via Tom Spurgeon, a Steve Gerber anecdote from Marvel’s Tom Brevoort. [UPDATE: Gerber has responded.]
