Comics Comics Comics
Saturday, July 19th, 2008 10:01 amThree things make a post:
Spike's black-and-white Lucas & Odessa, which is no longer online, was why I got PayPal. I'm sad L+O isn't there, because fat, 16, angst-ridden Odessa pinged my marrow. All of Sparkneedle is still there and this entirely non-verbal hallucination speaks directly to my imagination with no apparent cognitive filter. Now I can catch up with Templar Arizona.
Jessica Abel co-wrote Life Sucks, about schlumpy vampires created to staff a stop&rob convenience store by its ancient Romanian owner. Oh yeah -- it's the logical outcome of Harvey-Pekar/Buffy trainwreck. Very funny, but nowhere near as profound as La Perdida, but then, not much is.
Reading comics : how graphic novels work and what they mean by Douglas Wolk is art history + literary criticism. The first half is Theory & History and I couldn't put it down. Though I did start with floppy Archie comics as a kidlet, I've been pretty much a graphic-novel snob for the past two decades. The context Wolk provides for the spandex world finally helps me get them for the first time. The second half are essays/reviews on twenty-one important comics producers (that darn Alan Moore again, prevents one from simply writing "artists"). Wolk cautions they're not a 21 best, but 21 folks whose works sparked thoughts. There's plenty I disagree with, but the essays are well-written, considered, and fun. I'm gobsmacked that lit-crit could be a page-turner, but then, it's comics!
Spike's black-and-white Lucas & Odessa, which is no longer online, was why I got PayPal. I'm sad L+O isn't there, because fat, 16, angst-ridden Odessa pinged my marrow. All of Sparkneedle is still there and this entirely non-verbal hallucination speaks directly to my imagination with no apparent cognitive filter. Now I can catch up with Templar Arizona.
Jessica Abel co-wrote Life Sucks, about schlumpy vampires created to staff a stop&rob convenience store by its ancient Romanian owner. Oh yeah -- it's the logical outcome of Harvey-Pekar/Buffy trainwreck. Very funny, but nowhere near as profound as La Perdida, but then, not much is.
Reading comics : how graphic novels work and what they mean by Douglas Wolk is art history + literary criticism. The first half is Theory & History and I couldn't put it down. Though I did start with floppy Archie comics as a kidlet, I've been pretty much a graphic-novel snob for the past two decades. The context Wolk provides for the spandex world finally helps me get them for the first time. The second half are essays/reviews on twenty-one important comics producers (that darn Alan Moore again, prevents one from simply writing "artists"). Wolk cautions they're not a 21 best, but 21 folks whose works sparked thoughts. There's plenty I disagree with, but the essays are well-written, considered, and fun. I'm gobsmacked that lit-crit could be a page-turner, but then, it's comics!