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Tuesday, September 7, 2010
SPX and Mini-Comics
This year’s version of SPX is this weekend on the 13th and 14th. So I wanted to point to a couple of resources to get you all jacked up about the show. This will be the first year that the show will be held up the pike from the Holiday Inn in Bethesda. The new building is gorgeous, but I think the location lacks the diverse neighborhood stuffed with eateries and shops that surrounded the Holiday Inn. The Marriot Hotel & Conference Center is much closer to The Vegetable Garden restaurant though. That's a huge plus.
The new and improved Comics Journal website has a nifty preview of this year’s show.
Also, the TCJ message board has their annual ”What are you bringing to SPX?” thead. The same type of thread also shows up at the AdHouse forums. This looks to be a good show with several interesting books debuting, including Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip (go here to download a PDF preview if you don’t know what I’m talking about) from D&Q, Project Romance from AdHouse, and from Fantagraphics you’ve got Shadowland (Kim Dietch), Monster Parade (Ben Catmull), and Premillennial Maakies (Tony Millionaire). Do whatever it takes to get this last book. I have been laughing my ass of every night over the past week at this damn book. It’s the first five years of Maakies and it’s beyond fabulous.
Here’s an exhibitor list for publishers and self-publishers. Fantagraphics has their schedule up on at FLOG!, and it’s just dripping with talent.
Unfortunately, I’m not going this year, but of course I’d really like to attend. For me, SPX has always been about mini-comics. It’s the best place to pick up a bag full of comics that you would have to seek out individually elsewhere – one-stop shopping for minis if you will. You’re always going to be able to order the Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly books from multiple sources including Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, but SPX (and a few other shows like MoCCCA, APE, SPACE and STAPLE) is the place where you can touch and feel mini-comics that you may have never had a chance to see up close.
I’ve received and reviewed an avalanche of mini-comics over the last year at the SIZE MATTERS blog, but it hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for mini-comics or small press books.
After considering making a long list of mini-comics to look out for, I started looking at this list compiled for Comic Book Galaxy last year. After reviewing it tonight, I was surprised at how it still holds up. There have been a few since then that could be added to the list, but in order to add something I would have to take one of the following away. I’m not willing to do that just yet. This was and is a subjective list of what I consider to be the ten most innovative mini-comics of the last several years. I should qualify this list by stating that these are the mini-comics that I consider the most original or innovative.
You won’t find Mat Brinkman’s Oaf or any of his other minis anywhere unless you’re very lucky, but these stories have been collected in the excellent Teratoid Heights book that should be easy to get your hands on. Just Google it and take your pick of online sources. What makes Brinkman’s minis innovative is how well each wordless panel flows so smoothly into the next. His art is deceptively simple, using almost nondescript character designs of faceless monsters, but despite this, or maybe because of it, his stories are engrossing. The short tales in here are not complex narratives, but they have the feel of primal truth and a universal appeal. Readers of any language could pick up this book and follow the story. In “Bolol,” the main character, a long armed amalgamation of Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman gets up and walks towards a river. As he makes his way to the water, these tiny creatures pop up and watch his progress. They crowd behind him and one by one they hop onto his leg, slowly making their way up to his back. Eventually there are hordes of these little critters riding on his back. Sensing something, he turns to see what’s going on. He sees nothing, turns the opposite way to look and the reader sees his back covered with the tiny creatures. He calmly jumps across the river, and once he hits the other side the critters jump off and disperse.
Oaf is seven short wordless tales inked in stark black and white. It has a brown cover screen printed with the distinctive title “Oaf.” Under the title, Oaf rests in midair as a cloud floats by him. Instead of the normal staples that hold a comic together, the spine is stitched with gold thread that matches the color of the cover image. The saddle stitch cover is a nice, but time consuming, touch that many mini-comic creators use instead of staples. It lends an even more distinctive “hand-crafted” feel to a comic that’s already special.
With his Maggotsand Ninja series, most recently Golden Peenut Butter Ninja #4, Brian Chippendale has created a totally new panel structure and narrative flow. You read from left to right, then go down to the next row of panels and go right to left, then down and left to right and on and on. It’s a continuous thread of a snaking tale that is a little disorienting at first. It’s similar to the feeling you get when you first read un-flipped manga in that you have to remind yourself what direction you should be reading. After a few pages, you’ve adjusted to this new flow and it seems natural to let your eyes follow this pattern. Another difference in Chippendale’s comics is that there is no gutter between, above or below the panels. There’s only a thin line separating panels, sort of like Ron Rege’s comics, but much more dense in structure that Rege’s lighter work.
This issue takes place in dark rooms, old mansions and most of all – underground. There are caves and cave openings, underground tunnels and caverns containing all manner of surprises. There are the weird elves that chase SID Bear with their perverted and violent rhymes. As he runs away he laments, “Damn I hate the hallways down here.” There are armies of plastic men with plastic milk jugs for heads and other creatures that are almost impossible to describe with words. Of course there are ninjas too. This issue is packed with story and events and there are normally twenty-five panels per page. You read the comic turned over on its side going back and forth as your eyes descend each page. Reading it in one sitting will almost leave you disoriented and if the contents don’t leave you that way, the cover will. Front and back covers are printed in six garish colors that reflect the silliness of the events inside.
The now defunct Highwater Books was supposed to publish a book collecting a ton of Chippendale’s work, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer. You can write to Brian for copies of his mini-comics at:
Lightning Bolt
PO Box 1361
Providence, RI 02901
In Allison Cole’s Stress Mess, and in her other comics, she creates a distinctive look for her characters that is instantly recognizable. Everyone in Cole’s comics looks like they are wearing the head to toe pajamas that you may have wore as a kid. You know, the pajamas with the built in feet thingies… Picture those with a snug hood that fits over your head showing only your face. That’s a Cole character. I’ve read criticisms of her comics where people complain that everyone looks the same or that she uses this unique design to hide her inability to draw “correct” body structures, but I don’t buy it. It’s the way she draws her characters and it works well. She also incorporates some amusing ways of showing emotions or movement. For instance, the word stress floats by her head with outward curling lines framing it. A tiny hair from an eyebrow is plucked and its trajectory is drawn with a plummeting dashed line and intermittent arrows.
Stress Mess is the story of Cole stressing out as she tries to start drawing a comic. When she’s under stress, she picks her eyebrows. That’s it, except it’s not it. The ghost that haunts her room visits her and asks her what her what the hell she’s doing. She explains how she began picking out her eyebrows at an early age when she was under stress. It’s simple yes, but it’s human and surprisingly funny. I handed this to my wife Kate and she loved it. Cole isn’t trying to change the world with her comics, but she’s established a unique way of telling stories that has a strong visual charm. Check out her website for more mini-comics and look for her graphic novel Never Ending Summer from Alternative Comics.
Warren Craghead’s Jefferson Forest is actually available from the USS Catastrophe store or Rick Bradford’s Poopsheet Shop. You can view samples at each site and purchase through PayPal. Craghead’s art seems to float on the pages of this comic. It’s a little les experimental than his Jefferson Estates comics; it’s more organic in the way that it relies on simple sketches that seem only half finished. Closer inspection reveals that these pencil drawings are complete, but Craghead only needs to supply you with just so many lines to create a full image. It’s a nice trick and one that very few artists can master. You don’t always have to keep adding lines and details to make art click with the reader or viewer. The right lines and shapes create a meaningful image in that each person who looks at it can interpret it or add to it in their own mind. Craghead’s work is soothing and you can see more of it at his art blog.
Sammy Harkham’s Poor Sailor looks to be sold out everywhere online that I checked, but if you find a copy of Kramer’s Ergot 4, it’s in there. Also look for Harkham to get this one back in print in the future (he has reprinted it in a hardcover from Gingko Press). Poor Sailor is a one panel per page square bound mini-comic inspired by Guy De Maupasant’s “At Sea.” The title character Thomas and his wife live a quiet life until his brother visits with exciting tales of life as a sailor. Thomas is irresistibly drawn to the sea and his wife Rachel knows this. Harkham’s skill at depicting Thomas moving away from Rachel and towards the sea is considerable here. Quiet moments are stretched and interspersed to create a sense of time passing and then Thomas slips away in the night, promising Rachel’s sleeping figure that he will return. It’s a potent moment, but Harkham is only preparing the reader for what’s to come. This story is comics making at it’s subtle best and it proves that sometimes less is more.
Kevin Huizenga’s Gloriana (Supermonster #14) also looks to be sold out, but please check out the sample pages, especially sample page 3 where it shows an example of Huizenga’s miniature physics lesson. Gloriana is a startling experiment with time and how it’s represented in comics. It starts out simple enough with a Glen Ganges (a recurring character in Huizenga’s comics) and Wendy story where Wendy is pregnant. Glenn watches her and thinks, “My wife has a little baby in her tummy.” Then he’s outside in the yard raking leaves as his child grows. Glenn is teaching the kid to ride a bike and as he lets go, the kid crashes. In the next panel, Wendy admonishes him to come over and help her with the groceries. He had been daydreaming.
Next Glenn is in the library and time and space break down as he tries to describe the sensation of turning towards the window and being momentarily blinded by the sun. At first it’s like a visual hiccup, with the lines repeating themselves with recognizable visual composition, but as he writes the words “The sun was setting,” the visual structure falters and the recognizable becomes the abstract. Birds, the moon, monster, and the sun flicker and flash before your eyes, culminating in a centerfold page that unfolds to a four-page spread. Things start calming down a bit and then the next story is introduced.
It’s the next story that forces Huizenga to break out the physics lesson and I won’t spoil here. Look for this story and other amazing Huizenga work in the Drawn & Quarterly comic Or Else. Other issues of Supermonster are available at USS Catastrophe; they’re each well worth your time and money. (Update: this comic has thankfully been reprinted by the good folks at Drawn & Quarterly in the Or Else series
Lark Pien and Thien Pham’s Monster Box #2 consists of a gorgeous little cardboard box that contains two mini-comics and a sticker set.  There are several little sets like this that I’ve picked up in the last year or so, but this one is the one that works the best as a package. There are smaller boxes and smaller comics, but they give up content for their unique size. Monster Box #2 strikes the right balance between content and package. Each mini holds up on it’s own as an entertaining story. My only complaint – there’s no bottom to the box – when you hold it up the comics fall right out. I know, don’t hold it up like that…
What list of innovative comics would be complete without John Porcellino’s King Cat Comics. Much has been written and said about Porcellino; he was even the cover interview in a The Comics Journal issue. What is it about these mini-comics? First off, they’re pretty easy to get your hands on, so almost anyone that wants them can find them online or in select comic shops. But more importantly, each of these comics are proof that you can capture all of life’s little moments with pen and ink in comic form. In anyone else’s hands, these moments would seem clumsy, even awkward or hackneyed -- picture the worst poems that you wrote as a misunderstood teenager. Now picture the opposite, think about the details that you take for granted everyday and the weight of all those details piled upon each other. In short, picture a life.
Like a good poet, Porcellino takes the small and breathes life into it. He makes you care about the bird in the yard turning its head your way or the memory of a warm summer night many years ago when you skateboarded down the street with your best friend. As I sorted through issues of King Cat trying to pick a favorite, I finally settled on issue sixty-one. In it, there’s a complete mini-comic strapped inside the issue that’s dedicated to his cat, Maisie. There are sketches of Maisie sleeping and the story of how John and Masie “met.” The comic finishes with a list of names that he calls her including “Diggie Diggerson,” “Baby Talks-A-Lot,” “Madamoiselle Pussycat,” and my favorite “Razorback Hog.” If you’ve got an animal in your life that you love, you’ll relate. Kate and I were laughing so hard when we read it that we were crying. If you have no love in your heart, then this may not be your thing…
Fay Ryu’s Hello is a mind-bending twenty feet long when it’s unfolded. That alone sets it apart from almost everything else out there.  But, Hello as a narrative story has it’s own merits. I discovered this one while I was editing my comrade Rich Watson’s column and immediately got my own copy through Ryu’s website. Sadly, the mini-comic is sold out, but you can buy it as a book through that same site. Beyond the unique accordion-like format, which you don’t have to actually unfurl to read, Ryu’s use of color in Hello works to replace words as the workhorse for setting mood and emotion. The stark city of Eden is a grungy gray-blue, a headache colors everything bright red, certain characters show up as orange, green or red on the street. Check out samples of Hello at the website.
Souther Salazar’s Please Don’t Give Up is another one that you won’t find anymore, there were only 175 copies made, but you can find a reprint of it in Kramer’s Ergot 4. This is the mini-comic that I would take with me if the situation ever dictated that I had to give up all comics except for one. Seriously, I wouldn’t hesitate to grab this one mini-comic and leave every other comic, graphic novel or newspaper collection behind. So, I’m not sure you can trust me on this one; it’s that close to my heart. But I’ll try anyway.
Please Don’t Give Up is a shout in the face of adversity. It’s an unending howl to continue when things might not be going your way. It begins with the title stretched out over a couple of pages then the words “Despite what seems…” against a backdrop of a cat chained to a factory desk, several cats with worried looks and question marks over their heads, and one huge scruffy cat with a tag that says, “LOST.” The next page continues the sentence from the previous spread, “…like every reason to,” and there’s a cat escaping a many-headed menace; the cat is flying with a super hero’s cape trailing behind. Later the words “Keep trying,” and then “Keep going” appear. But then a gloriously detailed and ornate four-page fold out plays to weakness with the words “Self doubt…and fear…will whisper…disappear.” Here Souther does a beautiful thing with the next two pages; they’re black as night except for a lone car that powers through the night. Its headlights are barely piecing the blackness, however the words “Please don’t give up” appear on the road under the car.
Salazar’s art is what makes this and his other comics so innovative. He’s an interesting artist who has a knack for juxtaposition of images and text. Add clippings of receipts and trimmed images from other compositions and you end up with unpredictable and engaging art that’s difficult to resist.
Dan Zettwoch’s Iron Clad is also, of course, sold out and I have no idea where you can get a copy of this.  I seem to remember that Quimby’s in Chicago had a copy on the shelf, so if you call them they would be happy to send you that last copy. Iron Clad’s screen-printed front cover has an extended flap that slides into a slit in the back cover, effectively sealing the comic. Opening the comic up reveals orange endpapers and twenty-one pages, including footnotes and technical specifications, detailing the 1862 battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
You don’t have to be a history major to appreciate this comic. In the footnotes, Zettwoch admits to taking “many liberties” in his “attempts to create a fluid and colorful reader experience.” He goes on to apologize if he fails at his attempts, but he needn’t have done so; Iron Clad is a larger-than-life comic, with not one, but two (!) sequences where the pages unfold to a four-page spread. Zettwoch goes to extraordinary lengths to capture the epic scope of the battle, a task in which he succeeds.
So there you have it – ten innovative comics from the last couple of years. I guarantee you that you’ll find some minis to make your own list if you attend this year’s SPX.
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Also this weekend (Oct. 12th), Gary Panter will be lecturing in St. Louis at Washington University. The next day an exhibit featuring Gary Panter and Art Chantry will open at the Philip Slein Gallery in St. Louis.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
