Carol Tyler’s books You’ll Never Know, Late Bloomer and The Job Thing, cover a very interesting and unique life. This is a pretty lively discussion, where we touch on alot of her work. It was such a good conversation, that we still had lots left to talk about. I hope she will be back on next year, when the second part to her You’ll Never Know series comes out.
This 22 page B&W short story comic takes me back to my Xeroxed zine-reading days. Runx Tales chronicles the escapades of a West Coast, queer punk guy with a penchant for problematic men and marginal employment.
Inside you will learn why weddings are always gay affairs, how to ditch your dreads and stank rags and become a “crust-puff,†and the sinister intentions of Portland, OR wildlife. My favorite pieces are “Cour d’Alene†and “That’s Why I Am So Obsessed.†The former tells the tale of a road trip Runx took with his “Butch lesbian protectress†to a small, hellish town in Northern Idaho to visit his grandmother. Their adventure is marred by a dash of homophobic harassment, but they end up drowning their sorrows in a special place called the Powderhouse Saloon. There is a part two, and I found myself wondering what happens next. The latter is an illustrated list of men that Runx became enamored with including a straight librarian in a bee suit and a velvet-wearing mansion-dweller.
While you might not like Runkle’s childlike art style, I think the handwriting and messy pages compliment his sense of humor and fun, frank storytelling.
With gorgeous covers by Aron Nels Steinke and Hellen Jo, Papercutter 9 sets the bar high in the lookin’-good department. The standard is upheld with Nate Beatty’s interior cover urban scenes and the work by the aforementioned artists and other contributor Elijah Brubaker.
Steinke’s story, “He Lives in Our Basement I am Sure of It, is a long auto-bio piece covering one dream, one house, one phone call and a ghost. As always, Steinke’s art is cute and detailed, and his thick black and white lines create a comfortable atmosphere, even when the characters are freaking out. He makes good use of multiple panel sizes to frame his meandering story, but in the end, the story was a bit too long and aimless. Most disappointingly, the ghost, who is such a strong and intriguing figure in the cover image, is relegated to a bit character in Steinke’s house-stalking neuroses.
Elijah Brubaker’s one-page Hubert and Ray story further develops the two misbegotten characters as they wander around town and talk about god. “I had a pet duck named Frito.†“Oh yeah, what happened to him?†“Dog.â€
“Diamond Heights: A True Story†by Hellen Jo, features a pair of drunken, foul-mouthed kids wandering around what looks like a deserted California suburb on an, I assume, stolen school day. When, at the top of a street they need to cross, shoeless and giggling twins appear, the girl is strangely affected. I love how easily Jo communicates the kids’ attitude and how it changes when the ghostly girls appear. The black skies and trees, intricate, vegetal backgrounds and cool camera angles add to the cinematically creepy feel. All the action may have only taken a few minutes, but Jo stretches it out and makes it tense and effective.
While this was not my favorite issue of Papercutter, I think Hellen Jo’s work makes it worth a read. I got the newest issue at MoCCA this weekend and I’ll have a review of that soon.
Dave Lapp‘s collection, Drop In, is a good example of the Canadian identity in cartooning. The stories cover a multicultural scope of experiences faced by impoverished children that Dave had worked with in an inner city art program.
Brian Sendelbach joined me to discuss his treasury collection Planet of Beer. Brian is known for his great strip, Smell of Steve. He is also been a regular visitor to Vancouver, which is good in my books.
Upon hearing the news that IVY #4 was finished, I decided that it was imperative to finally review the first three issues of Sarah Oleksyk’s excellent series. Chapter one introduces us to Maine high school seniors Ivy and her friends Marisa and Brad. Ivy is filled with teen rage and has artistic talent to burn. Like most kids her age she can’t modulate her feelings—when a teacher gets on her nerves, she calls her a Nazi, when her friends are casually talking trash about a classmate, Ivy pipes in with “I hate her! It looks like her face caught fire and somebody put it out with a pickaxe!â€
Ivy’s attitude increases her isolation and feelings of persecution as the stress of senior years wears on. Despite her talent and encouragement from her school, Ivy’s mom wants her to skip art school for a practical degree like business, causing resentment and breeding secrets. Her friends begin leaving her out of their once-shared world as Ivy becomes more focused on why everything sucks. The guy she likes at school has a nasty girlfriend. So when a chance encounter with a boy at a Boston art fair provides a release from both horniness and her daily life, she throws herself into it. The plot doesn’t hinge on any one of these details, but slowly draws the reader into Ivy’s world—even a reader who wouldn’t go back to high school for anything.
A large part of why all of this works is Oleksyk’s amazing art. Her beautiful, fluid black lines capture movement and static details (like Ivy’s sketchbook drawings or footprints in the snow) equally well. Unlike her main character, the author doesn’t need more figure work—her anatomy is perfect and effortless-looking, giving each character a unique and memorable physiognomy.
Though set in the present day, IVY feels a lot like a loving tribute to 90s teenagerhood, what with all the letter writing and lack of ipods, but IVY is no curdled nostalgia trip. Oleksyk has mastered depicting the throb of adolescence without resorting to exploitating the sexy bits or pandering to shared memories of songs or TV shows. She manages to mix empathy with her young character with an adult, critical sensibility to create an incredibly vivid and real portrayal of Ivy and her world. Frankly, it’s a relief to read something about a teenage girl, especially having been a pretty wild and angsty teenage girl myself, that doesn’t bore or offend me.
Chapter three ends with a fight, a flight and a miserable bus ride. In other words, a cliffhanger that’s had me panting for the next installment since I closed the cover. Now that number four is out, it is at the top of my must-buy list.
For more with Sarah, listen to Robin’s interview and then head over to tryharder and read mine.
Peter Kuper is a bit of highlight to have on the show. He has been involved in making comics in different capacities over the last nearly 40 years, at a super young age. His work has ranged from the very political World War 3 Illustrated that he does with good friend Seth Tobocman, to autobio works like New York, New York, and Stop Forgetting to Remember as well as his new collection about his time in Oaxaca, Mexico and other stuff like Spy vs Spy and his adaptations of works by Kafka and Upton Sinclair.
Simon Roy is an example of one of those kids doing good comics that is miles ahead of his age. Jan’s Atomic Heart is like a mix Gipi and Heavy Metal stuff from the 70’s before it became all barbarians with Boobs. Check out a preview here.
Bob Fingerman joined us for a chat about his two new books, Connective Tissue and From the Ashes. Both books are great examples of a cartoonist having fun making comics, which is what its all about really, having fun.
