Howard Chaykin continues his lightly fictionalized history of comics, moving from the 1950s and the anti-comics crusade, up into 2002 and the birth ofHoward Chaykin continues his lightly fictionalized history of comics, moving from the 1950s and the anti-comics crusade, up into 2002 and the birth of the 21st century. It has a huge cast - fortunately Howard provides a 3 page index with portraits. More fortunately Howard, unlike some artists, can actually draw people so you can recognize them. And yes, one is a fictionalized Chaykin, because during this period he was there (half the fun is figuring out who is based on who).
If you have any fantasies about how wonderful it would be to draw comics, especially mainstream ones, this will probably cause you to rethink that. And having be on the outskirts of the field since I was a teen (more than half a century ago) some of the more outlandish and nasty revelations are sadly very close to the truth.
There also is a lot of dark humor - it is fun watching Howard draw dozens of fake comic book covers in different style . Overall if you are into comics, or comics history, you will find this an interesting read. Some people will hate it, but I really enjoyed it. However, you need to know a bit about comics to get the full effect.
In this volume, we get to see some of the older guard of comic creators coming to terms of where they stand in the industry. We get to see that their names don’t mean a heck of a lot at the end of the day.
This directly reflects what happened in real life with many comic book creators. It is out with the old, and in with the new. We get to see that the transition is already in place. We get to see the industry’s mentality in motion.
We also get to see management putting the screws to the talent. It doesn’t matter whether it is old talent or new. Both generations get it from them in surprising ways. It is hard to watch and even harder to stomach.
The story and art by Chaykin is out of this world. There are very few auteurs left in the comics world, but Chaykin certainly is one. The writing and the art are both magnificent and he is again at the top of his game. This is one of the best series out there. ...more
Dave Sim is known for making life hard for himself. He set an incredibly ambitious target of 300 self published issues for his magnum opus Cerebus TheDave Sim is known for making life hard for himself. He set an incredibly ambitious target of 300 self published issues for his magnum opus Cerebus The Aardvark, only getting assistance when Gerhard joined on backgrounds from issue 65. A funny animal Conan knock off that became a dense, political and social satire, Sim and his creation inspired a mini self publishing boom in the early 1990s, spawning Martin Wagner’s Hepcats, Terry Moore’s Strangers In Paradise and Jeff Smith’s Bone and, along the way, upset a lot of people with his opinions on a whole range of topics.
After the completion of Cerebus, Sim took a short break before returning with Judenhaas, a one shot comic about the Holocaust. He followed that with Glamourpuss, a weird fish of a comic. It was part satire of the fashion industry and part comic history, specifically Sim’s first stab at The Strange Death of Alex Raymond. Glamourpuss ended after 26 issues, torpedoed by its very select appeal and schizophrenic content.
Undeterred, Sim announced his intention to complete the Strange Death. Originally proposed as a four volume series to be published by IDW, it faltered. With failed crowdfunding attempts, it seemed fate had conspired against the project, the final straw that Sim is now unable to draw, without severe pain.
However, finally, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond is here in a single volume, courtesy of publisher Living the Line.
If it had to be categorized, then Strange Death might be described as a history of comic art. Specifically photorealistic comic art. But there is more to it than that. Initially exploring what he proposes as three schools of photorealistic art, Sim splices it with commentary and an exploration of the circumstances around the instigator of one of those three schools, Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon, and his death at the wheel of fellow artist Stan Drake’s gull wing Mercedes. He delves deeply into the three photorealistic schools, replicating the work of the artists he features in the book.
But what initially appears to be an Understanding Comics-styled exploration and deconstruction of the medium becomes something far more dense and strange.
Sim appears in the book, featured as the tortured artist; determined to complete this project, and to explain his thought and creative process. He outlines his theory that comics have metaphysical properties, that they influence reality. In a warren of rabbit holes, he attempts to demonstrate that the lives and fates of Raymond, his rival Stan (The Heart of Juliet Jones) Drake, creative luminaries such as Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, intertwine… but were forecast or determined by comic strips.
Sim’s financial and health problems meant that the book would have been left unfinished, if it wasn’t for Carson Grubaugh assisting Sim from around two thirds in and Grubaugh then going solo for the last the last 31 pages. But Grubaugh, a truly great artist in his own right, makes no concessions to Sim and uses what has gone previously as a springboard into completing it the book in his own way, and spends the last few pages offering his own opinion on Sim’s theory on metaphysics.
Comparisons with Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics are inevitable, but a better comparison would be with Bryan Talbot’s huge and equally ambitious, meta textual and criminally underrated Alice in Sunderland, that explores similar themes.
It’s an incredibly ambitious project. It isn’t an easy read, though not without humour. Arguably, Sim overreaches and the project begins to it collapse under the weight of his ambition. You may come away from it with the conclusion that Sim is a nut, and still be unsure as to what metaphysics actually is, but Strange Death should be appreciated for the beautiful art, if nothing else. It’s a magnificent piece of work and should be read by lovers of the medium. But put a few days aside to read and process it.
Be awed by the art, dazzled by the ambition and baffled by the theory....more
Cartoonist John Backderf, commonly known only as ‘Derf’, was a regular voice in alternative newspapers before making a big splash in 2012 with the briCartoonist John Backderf, commonly known only as ‘Derf’, was a regular voice in alternative newspapers before making a big splash in 2012 with the bristling My Friend Dahmer, his memoir of attending high school with the notorious serial killer. Between the two, he put out a gem of a graphic novel, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, a book so clever, heartfelt and seemingly commercial, one is left to wonder why it never connected with a larger audience (the ginormous arms on the cover may have been a deterrent). A simple coming of age story about a complicated teenager, the book is a humorous page-turner and works like gangbusters.
The story centres on fictional Otto ‘The Baron’ Pizcok, a protagonist who in sheer force of personality, could hold his own with ‘The Dude’ Lebowski. He’s a six-foot-four high school band nerd of supreme self-confidence who didn’t just create his own nickname; he invented a persona of mythic proportions, who defends the misfits of the world and records his farts on cassette. The Baron meets his destiny when he attends real-life legendary Akron punk club the Bank. In one night, he loses all of his remaining inhibitions in the slam pit, delivers a thrashing to two creepy stoners and then takes the Ramones out for burgers. He’s hired as muscle for the club, and thus the Baron has found his tribe in this rock and roll sub-culture.
The Baron and Ohio, however, are another story, as the ‘Trailer Parks’ half of the title concerns Otto’s underwhelming school and home life and whether or not he will flee the dead end, semi-tragic Midwestern streets after graduation. Appropriately for the creator of The City, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks is all about its setting, contrasting Ohio’s drunk, stoned and sometimes insane Midwesterners with the drunk, stoned and sometimes insane emerging punk scene. It makes perfect sense that a sheltered iconoclast like Otto would trade one group of going-nowhere oddballs for another, the major difference being that one is stifling and the other bursting with freedom. The latter also has him hanging around with the likes of Klaus Nomi, Wendy O. Williams, Rolling Stone rock critic Lester Bangs, Stiv Bator and the Clash. That this level of rock-geek wish-fulfilment never comes off as fan service is a testament to how organically the book rolls out its anecdotes and cameos.
Reading Derf’s short strips with their snippets of daily life and broad, boxy caricatures, few could have guessed he would emerge as a leading voice in graphic novels, but from the outset, the pacing and flow of Punk Rock and Trailer Parks is near flawless. Compressing stories into one to four panel bites for fifteen years taught him to cram a huge amount of information in a small space, and the sizeable ensemble supporting the Baron is vivid and memorable. In the year covered, we see developing relationships with his high school lust/crush, a pregnant nymphomaniac Christian, Otto’s near-sighted, ex-Communist elderly uncle who drives a lawn mower around town and best of all, a middle-aged “punk angel” who initiates a May-December sexual relationship with his majesty. (“I AM the Baron!!”)
Punk Rock and Trailer Parks is a story that crackles with life and compassion as its main character uses charm, talent and sheer brute force to pry himself away from the dire circumstances of his upbringing. It’s hoped the acclaim for Derf’s Jeffery Dahmer book has some buyers looking back to this earlier success. It would be wonderful to revisit Otto in young adulthood to see what other adventures the Baron had in store for him....more
Daniel Clowes' "Pussey!" perfectly captures the 90's era of comics with its rampant speculation, multiple covers, inflated prices, and various cheesy Daniel Clowes' "Pussey!" perfectly captures the 90's era of comics with its rampant speculation, multiple covers, inflated prices, and various cheesy sales gimmicks. It also manages to skewer both the creative and business aspects of the industry.
The titular character is a prototypical introvert geek that grows up devouring comic books and drawing superheroes at the expense of developing social skills. Dan Pussey eventually breaks his way into the biz as an illustrator, and we follow his rise and fall as an artistic force in comicdom. An omnipresent, Svengali-like publisher influences and dominates Pussey's life, manipulating our hero until he's cast aside and supplanted by the next hungry, young, and trendy penciller.
There's plenty of humour in the author's dead-on portrayal of weird comic fans, egocentric artists, and industry tropes, but Mr. Clowes goes beyond this low-hanging fruit by showing the darker side of comic creation, most tellingly with the character of the elderly publisher, Dr. Infinity. We see creative types like Pussey used and abused over the years by Infinity, who takes credit for their accomplishments and pays them peanuts while collecting the lion's share of the accolades and profits.
Real-life incidents (though thinly disguised), such as the Siegel and Shuster Superman debacle are woven into Pussey's tragicomic story to demonstrate this shocking abuse of the creative folks, making me thankful that legendary comic artist Neal Adams is fighting so hard for creator's rights. Any comic reader or collector, particularly those who lived through the wacky excesses of the 1990's, will want to add "Pussey!" to their bookshelf (alongside Mr. Clowes' "Ghost World")....more
Anyone familiar with the history of comic books should recognise the name Jack ‘King’ Kirby. As the father of much of Marvel’s mythology, his influencAnyone familiar with the history of comic books should recognise the name Jack ‘King’ Kirby. As the father of much of Marvel’s mythology, his influence pre-dates Stan Lee and continues to this day. While his tales of Captain America, Black Panther, Darkseid and the Fantastic Four are almost as well known as Shakespeare these days, what is less well known are the many chapters of his own – rather interesting – personal story.
Jack Kirby: The Epic Life Of The King of Comics is an unofficial comic book biography written and drawn by Tom Scioli. Pieced together from numerous sources and interviews, it provides an unfiltered look at the man who crafted some of the finest artwork and stories of the modern age.
So what better way to tell the story of the King than through his most popular medium, the comic book? Each page is filled with a familiar 2×3 layout, with Jack himself seemingly narrating the storyboard of his own life. The book flows like a seamless tapestry, starting with his childhood spent on the streets of 1920s New York, onto his harrowing experiences during the Second World War and through into his many years working for both Marvel and DC during the swinging Sixties, all the way up to his sad death in 1994.
Jack not only lived through pivotal moments in history, he also created a lot of his own. For those less familiar with the industry, Jack Kirby: The Epic Life Of The King of Comics may seem a bit too free-flowing as we bounce from topic to topic and year to year, without Scioli providing cultural context to the work being discussed or the people involved.
But this is most definitely Jack Kirby’s history of comic books as he remembers it, complete with a narrative agenda that can be biased and, at times, uncomfortable. Kirby (and many others) famously did not get sufficient credit for his work at the time, with much of it going to the arguably still more famous Stan Lee. Jack’s life revolved around comics about good vs evil, so naturally his own story is peppered with villains. Stan Lee brought out a comic book style biography of his own back in 2015 and we can’t help but wish that Jack Kirby had been alive to read it, as it might have softened some of the bitterness that taints his recollections.
The artwork in the book is an impressive achievement – it constantly, subtly, evolves, reflecting Jack’s life and his own growth as an artist. Scioli is often touted as drawing with a Kirby style and it pays dividends in this work, as he cleverly turns panel backgrounds into intricate collages of some of Kirby’s most iconic works. Whether they’re fakes or a homage, we don’t care, as the opportunity to read/watch one of the masters of the art form creating in front of our eyes is an emotive experience.
Despite an unavoidable natural bias to some of the storytelling, Jack Kirby: The Epic Life Of The King of Comics is an opportunity for fans to read about comic book history from the man who created most of it....more
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