Coming in March, another of our Pin-Up paperbacks. This time we're collecting various cartoonists who worked for the Humorama mens' magazines of old, giving an overview of styles and content. Jefferson Machamer is a stand-out in these old pulps. His work looked like nobody else's. The women are decidedly manish and the poses stiff so it's odd that he did pin-up work. I was unfamiliar with Machamer when I was first flipping through the Humorama digests and I couldn't get my head around this guy who seemed, at times, to be drawing Jimbo in drag. (Gary Panter has called him…
L&R New Stories 1: A hack review.
This is an old post I'm just getting to: "Having just approved the proofs for printing the brand new Love and Rockets Volume Three I can't help but post about HOW FUCKING AMAZING these New Stories are. Absolutely mind-blowing on the part of both Gilbert and Jaime. "EVERY SINGLE PANEL of Jaime's work is ridiculously well-rendered. Like a mural you'd stare at for days and yet each one is cast aside as simply a panel in another story he's done. And even more amazing is how he's pulled off telling a perfect Superhero story– the thing I wish I got…
Noel Troll. A short review.
The minicomics of artist Noel Friebert, aka Noel Troll, are mysterious vignettes that can go from two characters engaged in fisticuffs to two characters engaged in a kind of moist sex without a moment's notice. It's decidedly jarring, visceral stuff but I love that it always feels very personal even when I don't know what the hell is going on. I keep his silkscreened book (object) Troggy the Little Brother on my desk to revisit over and over just to take in the whole elaborate package. Simultaneously loose and meticulous, it's an impressive art book made from a single, well-folded…
Letterbox
The email one gets when one works at a comics publisher is way more fun than the email one gets when one works at, say, a shoe company.
Vice & Vermilyea
Maybe you bought Mome #12 and now you're craving more fun with food from Jon Vermilyea. If so, Vice has a strip for you.
Enid’s Soul Mate.
Someone pointed out the Clowesian character in the bottom left of the new Abel/Madden drawing book and I knew the image was familiar so I did some digging around. Sure enough it's white girl Enid as black man Ed.
Hidden Treasures, or: Boody.
We're begining production on a collection of Boody Rogers comics, edited by Arf's Craig Yoe (who I recently learned lives in the castle that was used as the girls school on the TV show The Facts of Life). Opening up the first comic on the stack I saw some scratchy handwriting at the bottom of the first page and thought about how many comics I come across that are defaced by kids' scribbles. Then I realized this old comic isn't from my collection or yours, it's from Craig Yoe's collection. So of course that's Boody's handwriting…
From the Files.
The new masthead slogan for every Eros comic: "It isn't very good but lots of our other artists are even worse." Here's a tip to cartoonists looking to be published: It doesn't matter if you've lived through three murder attempts, don't slander the work of the publisher you're courting. (Kim Thompson has verified that this technique, though surprisingly often utilized, is not effective.) And maybe don't send in your self-professed "not very good" work. (See below.) (Thank you to Customer Service voice-of-Fantagraphics Stephanie Olczyk for placing this in the *ahem* "permanent" file. We'll miss you when you're gone.)
In Praise of Dennis: A Rant.
It never ceases to amaze me how much an artist can learn about cartooning from a single volume of our Dennis series . I can smell that shop. Ketcham didn't have to make readers smell the shop but he did it so naturally, so easily, it was like he drew with scented inks. He definitely didn't draw that shop from life–it's not believable in that way– he just knew the smell, knew the way it FELT to be there. And the way he manages these subtle perspectives. You're not exactly viewing it from any standard angle, but it's like…
COSMOCOPIA
Jim Woodring fans will want to visit our arthouse friends at Payseur & Schmidt. Available at a preorder discount is a very limited edition puzzle and print that will blow your mind (tiny detail shown here–more at P&S). I'll be surprised if this isn't Ebay fodder in no time.
