30 Jul, 2007
Indie Comics Roundup
By: Hal Johnson
So here at Indie Comics Roundup we’ll be looking every month at a selection of the independent comics that have come out over the last thirrty days or so. “Independent” is a misnomer here, of course, since technically Lady Sex Hole is independent and Gilbert Hernandez’s Sloth is published by AOL Time-Warner; but we all know what it means. The emphasis here will be on comics as literature as opposed to escapism, art instead of pornography, and extra points will be awarded for having a human being as a letterer.
Fox Bunny Funny
Andy Hartzell, Top Shelf
Fox Bunny Funny is the sort of book that demands to be read as allegory, although its unclear to me what the allegory might be for.
Its unnamed protagonist is a young anthropomorphic fox who wishes he were an anthropomorphic bunny. Since foxes, naturally, kill and eat bunnies this wish is problematic, and the young protagonist is bullied into being not only a bunny-killer but eventually a champion bunny killer. But the specter of his suppressed and forbidden desires still haunts him…
Teen Boat #7
Josh Green and Dave Roman, Cryptic Press
I intentionally hate most things so that my love, when it does come, will be pure. In more concrete terms, I hate most mincomics so I can love Teen Boat.
“The ANGST of being a teen—the THRILL of being a boat!” the cover of every issue proclaims, and that just about sums it up. Young Teen Boat lives a high school melodrama somewhere between Archie and 90210, except he is also a were-boat for some reason. Teen Boat maintains a very precise and difficult tone, always playing it straight enough that it could be a real teen farce, but always going a half step too far. And then he turns into a boat.
Stuck in the Middle
Ariel Schrag, ed., Viking Penguin
About as far from the world of Teen Boat as you can get are the teenage comics contained in Ariel Schrag’s Stuck in the Middle anthology. Schrag is already well known as the autobiographical comics wunderkind who had read too much James Joyce for her own good. She still hasn’t finished her own teen comic Likewise, long overdue, but it’s nice to see her return to comics with this enjoyable collection.
Nobody likes reviewing anthologies, which is why I’m not talking about Mome this month, so I’ll just run through this one briefly. The bad news is that the stories by Joe Matt and Daniel Clowes, both standouts, are also both reprints (from Fair Weather and Caricature, the copyright page says: they’re really from Peepshow #8 and Eightball #16, but I guess we’ll have to get used to people assuming graphic novels are comics’ default format). The good news is that the rest of the book is far stronger than is usual in the problematic world of comics anthologies.
Black Ghost Apple Factory
Jeremy Tinder, Top Shelf
Black Ghost Apple Factory is a short collection of even shorter minicomics. With seven stories packed into 48 pages, it’s fast moving and surprisingly dense.
Tinder’s work is in some ways reminiscent of Jeffrey Brown’s “emo” stories, but he sometimes elegantly and sometimes uncomfortably straddles the line between parodying the genre and indulging it.
The Aviary
Jamie Tanner, Adhouse
The Aviary is a comic of the absurd that gains its power by constantly appearing as though it’s about to cohere into sense, but never doing so. A man with a ape’s head walks into a burlesque house and tells one of the girls, “I am a patron of the pornographic arts. I would like to commission a masterpiece. I will pay you with love.” The woman, her knees freshly tattooed with the images of crows, is photographed with a fetish-masked pilot, the results displayed in a private art gallery. “Pay me, Heinrich,” the woman says; “I love you,” says the ape-headed man.
Forever Nuts: Classic Screwball Strips: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff
Bud Fisher, NBM
We are living in the golden age of comic strip reprints, which is good because the golden age of comic strips ended so long ago that there are few echoes of it still audible in our dull and shrinking funny papers. With complete serializations of Peanuts, Thimble Theatre, Krazy Kat, Dennis the Menace, Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, and, coming in September, Terry and the Pirates all in print, it’s easy to forget that not all comics of yesteryear are such gems that they deserve this archival treatment.
Tales from Palomar #2
Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics
Delphine #2
Richard Sala, Fantagraphics
Sammy the Mouse #1
Zak Sally, Fantagraphics
“The pamphlet market is dead,” Gary Groth decreed last year, and with some exceptions Fantagraphics has of late been trying other formats for its comics. This usually means hardcovers, but recently Fantagraphics, as part of some international conglomerate whose workings I cannot unravel, has been publishing the Ignatz Library, a series of magazine-sized comics on heavy-stock paper. Trying new formats to appeal to non-comics readers is nothing new: Love and Rockets and Raw are the obvious examples, but manga certainly owes its American success in part to its format. For this gambit to work, Fantagraphics has to persuade readers that there’s a substantial difference in the Ignatz Library, which, sadly there isn’t. The books are oversized, with sturdy covers, oversized dustjackets, and heavy-stock cream paper–they’re certainly high-end comic–but they’re also 32 pages for $7.95. This isn’t very different, but it sure is more expensive.
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