Inkstuds Radio

Here’s another stack of comics I have read recently. Hope folks enjoy these. Most of have also been posted instagram. If you want to send comics for me to check out, my mailing address is

#2147 – 720 Sixth St
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3C5
Canada

It took me a while to jump into this. It’s a big book with a bunch of words, sometimes I don’t like to read too many words. I finally spent a relaxing afternoon reading Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust. I really loved it. The other book of Ulli’s that i had read from fantagraphics was a memoir work, this one is based on a novel by Marcel Beyer. It’s a heart breaking work about life in Germny near the end of the war. The story is hard, but full of life and deeply complex characters. They find a way of exploring motivation, stories and perception. New York Review Books continues to put out extremely solid graphic novels. It’s interesting that 10 years ago, the book market flooded itself with graphic novels, putting out a lot of subpar hurried work looking to cash-in on a new business model to them. New York Review Books popped up a couple of years ago and has been providing space to important voices in comics, that puts quality well above easy commercial work.

I’ve been doing a giant reread of bprd. Reading those hellboy omnibus collections made me nostalgic for the related work. This volume collects some of Guy Davis’s last comic work, which seems so weird, as he had been such a force for years, but obviously movies pay much better allowing for a better quality of life. When you look at his monster designs in the sketchbook sections at the back of these volumes, you can really see where his interest lies. His comic work near the end of the run, just isn’t as strong. Less lines, more short cuts. Still great work though.

All this is juxtaposed with some early Tyler Crook work, who has developed in leaps and bounds from his time on bprd. The work he cranked out on harrow county is really phenomenal. The bprd collection includes some recent private commissions of bprd character, which is lovely and shows you his development within the book.

The thing I love about this series is how everything is just getting worse and worse and worse. Nothing really ends well for anyone.

My memory is hazy, but i seem to recall that folks were complaining about Duncan Fegredo filling in for Mike Mignola on the art duties for a couple of Hellboy storylines. Hellboy omnibus 3 collects all these storylines. I am a big fan of Duncan’s work, going back to my days of reading Vertigo comics in the 90s. He’s always had a great detail, but also a figurative looseness that gives his characters a lot of life. The writing on this book continues to be solid with Mignola doing some major fleshing out of Hellboys story. I wonder with being able to step away from the art duties on this, allowed to Mignola to tighten up the story. In terms of writing, it’s probably my fav Hellboy work. This volume sets the stage for a bunch of stuff in the Mignola-verse, giving it a weight I didn’t notice before.

This Abe Sapien collection, the Drowning, is a hardcover collection of over 300 pages of a variety of different Ape Sapien back stories. This feels like one more unneeded in the series of Hellboy/BPRD side stories. Including a variety of flashback stories, this book seeks to fill in the puzzles. The earlier work in the collection drawn by Jason Shawn Alexander is pretty good. There’s a strong imbalance in the book, with earlier work that came out before the ongoing series feeling like it has purpose, while the latter part of the book not really serving much purpose too anything other than telling way too much back story that fills in some gaps that we didnt really need to know about.

Education by John Hankiewicz was published earlier this year as a part of fantagraphics FU press, the line for less commercial more challenging or underground works. I have really enjoyed John’s work since first getting a copy of the sparkplug published Asthma sent to me by Dylan Williams in the early inkstuds days. The work has always been striking In an interesting formal way. Figures traversing space with amazing visual clarity.

This work feels very personal, quietly saying a lot between the lines. He creates these perfect corners of rooms that breakdown an internal dialogue that weaves into odd directions getting more removed from reality in conjunction with artwork. It’s really neat how he can do such perfectly drawn work that captures movement in such a unique way.

Good for fans of Ruppert and Mulot, Anders Nilsen and Gabrielle Bell.

I think this Simon Hanselmann mini is called entertainment. But the small writing on the cover it makes me feel old. I always pick up Simons stuff. I have been a fan for a while, doing an early interview with him some time ago. Simons work is dark, ugly, brutal and unforgiving. A glancing read of his work makes him seem like a heartless dick, and maybe he is, but it’s also very personal. Shitty life experiences processed through the page.

This is a more passive work. A handful of gags punctuated with some gut punches. Who knows if this will be reprinted, Simon seems to just pump these out, maybe to cover his weed bill? It’s kind of amazing in terms of indy comics, to be producing this much quality work. It shows an unparalleled work ethic. I’m excited for more Simon comics.

I am particularly looking forward to his next official book work. Simon’s writing has advanced a lot, and it sounds like he’s delving into some deep stuff. This mini touches on some of that.

I popped by luckys the other day and was looking through all the different Peow books that are out. So much great looking stuff. I am super broke right now, so just bought the one book. Dust Pam by Thu Tran. It’s amazingly printed with a beautiful array of colours. Probably the weirdest beautiful book. A collection of stories about bugs, garbage bags, brooms, vacuums and more.

Peow has quietly evolved from a boutique publisher of weird Swedish riso comics and zines, to a place for fresh new interesting voices. It’s well worth seeing what a store might have in stock by them and taking a shot on something new.

 

It’s been feeling really good to incorporate regular reading into my life again. Quite often I just hold off on reading something because maybe I will need to interview that person one day. So no more rules, no more waiting, just read and enjoy.

If you would like to send stuff for me to read, you can do so at the address below. I probably won’t read pdfs, as I am an old man stuck in his ways.

#2147 – 720 Sixth St
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3C5
Canada

I’ve read the occasional Matt Furie Boys Club thing. I have always enjoyed his art, especially his detailed painted work. Boys Club is a lot of fun. it reminded me of my own time in my early 20’s living with a bunch of friends. Those times were weird and crazy. I have many stories that include the time we had a friend that worked the graveyard shift at a Burger King 2 blocks from my house. I was very poor at the time and being able to go and hangout in closed up shop and munch down on food was very exciting to this 19 year old. Making my own burgers while slipping around on the incredibly greasy kitchen floor, grabbing packets of cheese curds and just inhaling them. Cheese was a luxory at that point. Cheese in Canada is more expensive than anywhere else in the world. One time I took home a poutine and put it in the fridge and heated it up the next day in the microwave, in its styrofoam container. I have never gotten so ill, so quickly from eating something. Boys Club perfectly encapsulated that time of bad choices, fun nights and no regrets. Thank you Matt Furie.

I had read the first installment of Zach Worton‘s Curse of Charley Butters a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed it, but wasn’t really sure where it was going. Zach has a great art style that serves his comics really nicely. His previous book, Klondike for Drawn and Quarterly was great. Super fresh style made for comics. His latest book, collects the first part of Charley Butters with the full rest of the story. It’s a solid volume from Conundrum Press (conundrum also published the inkstuds book many years ago, so publisher, Andy Brown is a saint in my eyes). The book quickly shifts into high gear with the other parts. What at first seemed like would be a fake history of a mysterious artist, quickly changes into a look at personal failure, addictions, obsessions and all regrets. While Boys Club was fun and silly and lives in this great bubble, Charley Butters is the result of the bad choices we make, or the good choices we don’t make. being shitty to friends, resenting people and life. Zach really works these characters and doesn’t make things easy, but not in a super depressing why bother way, but in an experiential way, challenging who we need to be and the motives behind our decisions or actions.

Volume 2 of the complete Hellboy Omnibus volumes was fantastic. It’s like comic popcorn. i really like the lack of any kind of moralistic superiority to Hellboy. He’s just a devil dude who was brought to earth to bring about the end of the world. What do you do when all sorts of horrible people are telling you, your destiny, go crazy and wander the earth and get into all sorts of messy fights. I know this all connects with the greater BPRD story-lines and whatnot, but I like the way Mignola is able to limit the hellboy stories and you can enjoy them on their own, without having to fall into this bigger thing, which I will be revisiting soon. Also, there is some A+ Richard Corben stuff in it, so that’s always worth the price of  admission. I feel like this book is where Mignola is really hitting his stride in terms of the greater Hellboy story arch.

Sophie Yanow’s What is a Glacier? Sophie is a strong thoughtful researched cartoonists, so I went into this expecting a book about how we are all fucked because of impending environmental disasters. Instead it’s a really touching read on the uneasiness of life and where we are i our lives.

Going through my own period of personal change and re-evaluating, I really appreciate Sophie’s lack of answers, but instead a focus on not having an answer. There’s a teetering existential crisis that feels really raw and universal. Go read Sophie’s comics. She’s great.

Poor little Joanie by Caleb Orecchio. Published by Comics Work Book last year I think. Caleb mailed this and another mini to me and they got lost in my mess. I am trying hard to sort through things and catch up on reading. This is a collection of 4 panel gag strips that have some story connecting them. I don’t completely understand the whole time, but I really appreciate Caleb’s drawing and capturing of expressive figures in motion. The work has a lot of life to it. I would be really interested in seeing a more specific contained work. I have never been super into daily style Strips, but I see the skill in what he is doing.

I really enjoyed this book, Solanin by Inio Asano. I don’t read much manga, a fault in my part. I was always learing of manga when I was young, because I made grand wide assumptions about the work. So it’s always been too much of a gap in mind reading. I saw my old pal Sarah horrocks writing about Asano’s work, and other folks talking about his works, so when I saw this used at my local book, I figured I would give it shot.

This book is full of so much heart, but not in a saccharine way. Very honest personal and comforting. A good book for a summer afternoon outside.

I’ve really been enjoying read and trying to log off. All these distractions pull my brain down and take me away from the work.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about the difference between talking about comics as something other than the work itself and actually just reading comics and sharing thoughts about the work itself.

Reading and writing these little reviews has been really cathartic in reconnecting and centering.