Friday, December 10, 2010

Books I Really Liked and Wrote about Twice in

Daniel Clowes's Wilson:
Another tour de force by a cartoonist who never stands still: a post on style and one on drama.

Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius:
What do you say about the cartoon ineffable? I tried here and here. {Ok - This last one was written in 2009, but the collection came out in 2010.}

Charles Burns's X'ed Out:
This comic offers a deep look at Tintin's unconscious by a master psychoanalyst. More commentary is here.

If I had a "Best of" or "Favorites of 2010," these books would be at the top.
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For other writing by me on the flume in 2010, see here.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Lisa Hanawalt Interview


Lisa Hanawalt's work is funny, smart, innovative, gross, and a lot fun to look at. What follows is an interview conducted with Lisa via email. Please click on the images to enlarge them; there's so much worth looking at closely.

KP: The “comics world” -- both mainstream and alternative -- is often described as a “boy’s club” that’s not welcoming to women. Are you conscious of this in any way?
LH: I like to pretend it’s a non-issue, but I also think the planet is a boy’s club. Dwelling on it too much would drive me crazy, but I still worry about being pigeonholed and marginalized. A lot of readers found the “Menstruation Terminology” pages to be the most disturbing part of I Want You #1, but I’m really glad I included them. I’m not going to use my comics to pontificate or get overtly political, but I’m interested in illustrating my view as a female frankly in ways that people haven’t seen before. KP: The kind of work you do, the “gross” aspects of some of your comics -- with your interest in things like abnormal skin conditions -- seems somewhat unusual. How have readers, both male and female, responded to this aspect of your work?
LH: Just based on my influences, I never thought it was unusual for women to be gross; I’ve been reading Renee French and Phoebe Gloeckner since high school, and later I discovered Julie Doucet, Shary Boyle, Sue Coe, Jenny Saville (the painter), etc. There are so many female artists who focus on grotesque anatomy and sexuality -- it’s strange that that’s still shocking and subversive to most people. I’ve definitely gotten comments like, “You’re funny/gross for a girl,” but judging by the response to my work, I’m pretty funny and gross for a guy too. KP: I'm curious, can you trace your interest in drawing things like skin problems and facial deformities to anything in your childhood . . .
LH: I suffered from some gnarly acne at a young age, so maybe that triggered an interest, haha. I think it’s an instinctual thing; we privilege faces and they’re probably the first representational thing we start drawing, so disfiguring them is an obvious way of expressing anxiety and horror. It’s all part of my inveterate focus on morbidity. I draw those things partly just to get them out of my head. 

KP: Is that letter from I Want You #2, in which the letter writer chastises you for the crude and misguided nature of your work, real?
LH: Yes, it’s actually from a dear friend who I’ve known since I was a little kid. I think he believes I’ve morphed into something he’s fundamentally opposed to, but he doesn’t understand that my sense of humor was just as twisted when I was nine years old. I’m ok with people finding my humor too blue or my drawings too disturbing; they’re definitely not for everyone. But questioning my morality is kind of unfair. KP: People often say that the alternative comics world is not all that responsive to humor comics, that readers prefer memoir or character-driven fiction. Is this an attitude you’ve seen? 
LH: Not really, I mean, I recently heard Michael Kupperman say something to that tune (about the reception to his own work), but I haven’t experienced that attitude first-hand. And I don't think it matters too much. As much as I love the world of alternative comics, I try not to be concerned with how well my work fits into it. KP: Some of the He-Horse and She-Moose stories are character-driven pieces, driven also by the strong desires and anxieties of the protagonists. And “Saturday Night” (IWY #2) closes with a profound and almost unanswerable question about the relationship between anxiety and happiness . . . 
LH: There was actually a long pause between the writing and inking phase of “Saturday Night,” because I was so worried about it being cheesy . . . but it’s certainly genuine. I’m interested in that relationship and how anxiety can feel like such an integral part of a personality that it no longer seems like a problem: “This is just how I am.” So I’ll keep exploring that, at the risk of being too earnest. But I think if I drew myself saying those things (instead of He-Horse) the comic would be unbearable to me.

KP: Your 2008 minicomic, Stay Away From Other People, has a few short pieces that either are, or gesture toward, autobiography. But I Want You doesn’t have any pieces that are quite like these earlier ones. Are you no longer interested in creating autobiographical or diary-type comics? 
LH: Most of the narrative artwork I made until about three years ago was diaristic, and while that felt cathartic, there was also something gross about exposing myself so much. So in I Want You #1, I experimented with making my autobiographical stories a lot more abstract by turning them into funny lists or drawing people as animals. It still feels intensely personal, but now there’s a filter and it’s a more of a secret where these different elements come from . . . I’m not just barfing myself out onto the page anymore. That confessional style really works for some people, though. I love reading juicy diary comics. KP: When I read and then reread “Extra Egg Room” in I Want You #2, I had a different response each time. At first, it seemed genuinely disturbing -- the idea of all of these birds flying down the horse’s throat felt like a gagging nightmare come to life. But later, it seemed funny and almost magical -- and a chance for you to draw striking and unusual images. I'm wondering what sort of response or responses that you have to a story like that, either when you are drawing it or when you reread it: do you see it as disturbing or funny or both? 
LH: That story is very personal; it came directly from a sketch I made while flying and feeling totally panicked while also laughing at my own irrationality. I think that’s why it’s impossible for me to separate what’s disturbing from what’s funny about it. He-Horse is terrified . . . but then his speech is overly formal and there are all these cartoon-ish elements that make the phobia seem silly. I consider a story a success if it can result in opposing reactions; I don’t want anything to just hit one note. KP: You draw in a number of different styles, but tend to reserve your most detailed approached for animal illustrations and animal narratives. Does the story/idea determine the style or vice versa? 
LH: Maybe the style is arbitrary, but there’s usually a strong case for it in my mind. “Extra Egg Room” could have been done in watercolors, but with a disturbing narrative like that I’d worry about the emotions being overwrought. Watercolors feel more moody and expressive to me, while the sparse and more precise line art is a method of pulling back and letting the disturbance be more intellectual. I like using watercolors for silly lists and faux how-to’s; they add a bit of warmth where you’d expect the illustrations to be more clinical, maybe. I like how “The Worst Sandwiches” look almost velvety. 

KP: In I Want You #1, a few stories use traditional gutters between panels. But none of the stories in #2 do; consecutive panels typically share the same border, so there’s no white space. Is there a particular reason for this? Is there something about the blank space of the gutter that often doesn’t look right to you? 
LH: I’m accustomed to seeing the page as one big thing (probably because I come from a painting background), so all those white borders feel unnecessary. But I might use them for something in the future. 

KP: The lack of gutters increases the sense of controlled chaos, allowing patterns in one panel to brush up against different patterns in another panel. This seems to be part of your “aesthetic” and sense of humor in some of the stories -- you like a little chaos, such as the car and plane crashes on the covers to I Want You #1 and #2 . . . LH: That’s an excellent point about the lack of gutters -- if there were white spaces around the panels it would reduce the sense of chaos. I want the artwork to be enveloping to the degree that the page disappears a little bit . . . formal elements like panels create distance from the story and draw attention to the fact that “this is a comic strip.” And it’s true that I like a LOT of controlled chaos in my artwork. I love drawing fights and collisions, and there’s something really sexy in that tension. My favorite thing is in movies or theater, when there’s a perfectly dressed set with tons of carefully positioned props, and then of course at some point everything goes to pieces, all the drawers have been pulled out and emptied onto the floor, and maybe someone has swiped everything off of a tabletop and/or wrecked a cake. That’s the most satisfying thing to watch. KP: What projects are you working on? 
LH: I’ll start drawing I Want You #3 soon, but first I’m taking a short break to mess around with papier mache. I’m a clumsy sculptor, but it’s challenging and kind of fun, and it’s always revitalizing to take a break and make work in a different way. I felt like I was getting into a rut, maybe. I’m actually slated to install a window display next week at Desert Island, (a comics shop in Brooklyn) so I’ll be foisting my hobby on the public! Part of it is literally a piñata, so people will get to bash it to pieces when the installation ends. KP: Has winning the Ignatz for “Outstanding Comic” at SPX this year changed your work or life in any way? 
LH: It motivates me to move on, make new work, and not lean on that recognition in any way. I mean, I’m incredibly honored. But I Want You is my first published comic and I still feel sort-of freshly hatched … so I can’t linger on it. I feel like I can be so much more outstanding. Please visit Lisa's website. Please see this review of Lisa's I Want You #1 I wrote last year.

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Monday, November 8, 2010

Fans of great writing about music should check out this piece by my pal Scott Saul on Thelonious Monk at the Boston Review. Scott is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties and he also writes for The Nation.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

X'ed Out: Review Notes

[From Hergé: The Calculus Affair]

[From Charles Burns: X’ed Out]

Earlier this month, I sent in my first piece for The Comics Journal, a review of Charles Burns’s X’ed Out. [Note: it's now up at the Journal's website.] When The Journal was only a print publication, reviewers knew that readers, who had to go out of their way to purchase the magazine (in dank ‘n dirty “specialty shops”), would likely be knowledgeable about comics. But because the journal is now online, anyone interested in reading a review of X’ed Out might find mine through google. So past assumptions about who might be reading and what “the general reader” would know, for me at least, are no longer valid.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Missing - APE 2010




Two copies of a large, expensive book (see picture) were stolen from our booth this past Sunday at APE. We know that they were taken from us, Pigeon Press booth #120 (see map below), sometime between 10:00-11:00 am on the morning of October 17. We’re putting this out there in the hope that someone might have seen them being taken from behind our unattended booth or being carried away that morning. If you were an exhibitor in that area of the San Francisco Concourse, please let us know if you noticed anything or might have taken any pictures in that area during that time period. It's unfortunate that this happened and we'd really like to get the books back. If you have any information or might have seen these books this weekend please let us know.

-Pigeon Press


Books missing from Booth #120 shown in red. please let us know if you might have noticed anything that morning between 10:30-11:00 especially if you were an exhibitor in the green area shown.



Monday, October 11, 2010

Boy's Club #4 & I Want You #2...

...available at APE this weekend, order direct from pigeon-press.com [Nov 2010], or ask your local comics retailer to carry them.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Comics Criticism, 1970-2010

A few things I read recently and liked:

Rob Clough on Kevin H. Clough gets at what's great about Ganges: the philosophical content, formal imagination and inventiveness, and visual charm.

Sam Lipsyte on Daniel Clowes's Wilson. Lipsyte's a great novelist and carefully engages Clowes's work, especially the dialogue. He avoids the kinds of critical generalizations that flatten a text (and make a reviewer look careless), and instead sees Wilson's complexities and humanity. A very well-written review.

Alan Choate on Crumb's Genesis. There's a lot of ok criticism on the web, but there's little that's this thoughtful and informed.

Tim Seidler and Jon Hazell on Herb Trimpe (a letter published in 1970 in The Incredible Hulk #131). Though they are critical of Trimpe -- an artist I like (his Hulk covers of this era are masterpieces) -- their visual trope-based criticism is eye-opening. The writers clearly don't like what they see, but they back up their opinion in an effective and entertaining way. I just bought 40 1969-1972 Marvel comics, and this letter has me reading them in a new way, paying far more attention to how artists stage aggression, violence, and fight scenes, key features of these comics. You never know where you'll find interesting criticism . . . [click to enlarge]:

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Ripped from Tomorrow's Headlines


I scanned this clipping because it reminded me a little of events depicted in Wally Gropius. Some fellow stole a 1.4 million dollar tax refund check--doesn't say how--from a real estate magnate--apparently the 45th wealthiest man alive--then impersonated said magnate to deposit the check at a bank. The funniest part is the suspect listing "smoke shop" as his occupation on the paperwork.
Also in the news, I recently appeared on the radio program Inkstuds. I note this mostly because my coworker Jim Ellwanger created 4 amazing 5-minute medleys from his collection of radio jingles for the breaks. Listen to the battery in my phone die!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Crumb's Genesis, The Pastoral, and Presence

In a reply to Ng Suat Tong in an ongoing discussion of Crumb’s Genesis, I commented on a panel that I think is particularly successful in ways that get at why Crumb’s adaptation as a whole is compelling -- the pastoral tableaux that opens chapter 2:

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Buenaventura Press Gone Out of Business Sale - San Diego Comic Con 2010



Since I already have the booth that I reserved from last year I'll be in San Diego this week at booth #1734 (near Fantagraphics and D&Q, directly across the aisle from Giant Robot.)


Here's what I'll have for sale:


  • All of the BP titles including Comic Art Magazine, Boy's Club by Matt Furie, The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld.
  • Some of the few remaining copies of Kramers Ergot 7 which has been unavailable since last year. It will never be reprinted so here’s your chance to grab one before they are gone for good
  • All of that "Other Stuff We Like." Rare and imported goods that we've gathered over the year through our travels and were previously available in the BP Webshop. Minis, foreign anthologoies, artist's books, silkscreened goodness, etc...
  • Warehouse finds including back issues of Comic Art Magazine, and long out of print mini comics...
  • A ton of original artwork and obscure prints from my personal collection by many of our favorite cartoonists.
  • Rare comics and books from my personal collection.
  • Also stop by throughout the weekend for daily blowout sales.


Lisa Hanawalt and Johnny Ryan will both be with us. Come by to get your books signed and to check out their new prints and original drawings!

28 Recent Clowes Interviews and Features

UPDATED 7.20



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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Crumb's Genesis and Comparisons, Briefly

The fundamental achievement of Crumb’s Genesis for me is that it avoids something that’s central to so many illustrated versions of the bible or representations of biblical scenes:

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Judicial Fumetti and Narrative


The front page of the print edition of today’s New York Times features a fumetti about the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings.

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Reading and Why

In a recent post at The Hooded Utilitarian, Ng Suat Tong uses numerous ideas from Walter Benjamin as ways into an insightful discussion of comics criticism. Along with text from Benjamin, the thread features quotations and comments from a number of HU contributors, and me. Most of the writers, myself included, paint a fairly positive picture of their motivations in writing about comics. But such uplifting beliefs seem like only a part of the picture. No doubt, we are often motivated by things like a genuine desire to “express ourselves”, “learn about something by writing about it,” “entertain”, “raise the public discourse,” or “elevate standards.” All worthy goals . . . But

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