They’ll be a few readers of this blog (no doubt) that wonder at some of the talk here about webcomics and wonder what it has to do with them as readers of the great work. Well, obviously you have Rob’s adaptation of the work into the comic strip form to educate you and to lead you into this other world of comics. It’s this other world that interests me in the main and I too wonder how Rob’s comic book version of Ulysses fits into that world. So let me try and put Ulysses “Seen” into some context right here. Continue reading
Category Archives: Like in the Funny Papers
Other examples of Comics, Graphic Novels and Sequential Art
Reaching for the Top Shelf (iii)
There’s a cool like feature on Top Shelf 2.0 which organises related comics. There’s a fair amount of collaboration between artists and writers so following on from one team member usually leads to another team – it’s great way to make your own connected pathways through the catalogue. Sometimes the comics stack up – in more ways than one. Join me on a little journey through six comics and three creators to see what we can find. Continue reading
Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles
To be truthful, I didn’t know exactly who Noel Sickles was when I spied this impressive tome produced by IDW Publishing. I was just beginning my education of the early newspaper comic legends like Alex Raymond, who created “Flash Gordon” or Milton Caniff, who penned and penciled “Steve Canyon” for 40 years. In truth, not many folks would have mentioned Sickles among the top comic artists of the time, and that’s a shame … for Noel was one of the top artists of his day, period.
THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2009
The thing I find most constantly surprising about the BEST AMERICAN COMICS series by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the attention to quality. Not just quality in regard to the comix selected. After all, that’s really something they cover in the title, isn’t it? What I’m always surprised by is the attention to quality in presenting that work.
If your interest in comix goes beyond the spandex genre and into how diverse comix are as a storytelling medium, then these books should definitely be in your collection. In its fourth year now, the editions have served as a sampler of what’s happening in American comix as selected by some of the top names in the industry; Harvey Pekar, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry and, this year, Charles Burns. Each of these guest editors have had a long and important involvement with the development of comix as an artform, but Burns is a personal favorite of mine so I’ve been looking forward to this edition in particular for nearly a year.
Reaching for the Top Shelf (ii)
Once more I dive into the catalogue at Top Shelf 2.0 and with my noted martial arts prowess I snatch the nearest comic off the top of the pile. Lazy kung fu student am I! Distilling references from all over the seventies comes Kagan McLeod’s INFINITE KUNG FU – soon to be published in graphic novel format. This is a black and white martial arts and magic extravaganza which manages to pull in both blaxploitation and zombie movies with it’s heady mix of just about every kung fu flick you’ve ever seen. The most compelling aspect of this feature for me is the illustration – and make no mistake – Kagan is an expert illustrator who has work all about the place, but the best of which is collected on his own website KaganMcLeod.com. Kagan’s site also reminds comicbook creatorss not to be so narrow minded as to limit themselves in any way and to embrace all opportunities for illustration and cartooning.
Reaching for the Top Shelf (i)
Today I’ll kick off with a couple of webcomic reviews prompted by Rob’s recommendation of Top Shelf 2.0 last week. On my own blog I have tended to concentrate on the competitions over at Zuda Comics, but here I’ll be looking, not only at Top Shelf 2.0, but at the wider webcomic community to see if I can find anything that may be of interest to the more literate reader – that means no spandex and capes, unless I can’t help myself. I tend to follow my nose with this kind of thing and look for I name I recognise.
Best American Comics ’09
Houghton Mifflin’s “Best American Comics 2009” is coming out in a couple of weeks and I got my hands on an advance copy just a couple of minutes ago. If you’ve not read the three earlier editions of this series, well, I can’t suggest it highly enough. Pound-for-pound the best sampler of current trends in comics from this continent.
Matt Madden and Jessica Abel return as editors again this year, but the selections for this edition were made by another personal favorite of mine, Charles Burns.
Just flipping through it at the moment, but I hope to have a review of some of the comix up within the week to encourage shoppers. (No spoilers. Promise.) I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite some time!
TopShelf 2.0 offers new creative freedoms in comix
Welcome to TopShelf 2.0.
As some of you know, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately figuring out whether or not to like webcomics. It’s a silly question really. Rather like an icecream vendor weighing the merits of the stick versus the sugarcone. Comix are, despite how they’re delivered into the hands of the reader, a unique kind of artform.
The main point, whether in print or on-line, is to get picture stories into the world for people to enjoy. There are some formal differences between these two types of distribution of course, making this an exciting time to work in comix, but the essential reading experience is still there; artists using a unique blend of word and image to tell stories or express feeling.
More great graphic novels
Walking into a comicshop or mainstream bookstore to look for a good graphic novel can be a difficult thing for new readers. Gene Kanneberg Jr.’s book, as I mentioned, is certainly more helpful than the average bookstore employee or comicbook fan. I thought I’d include a list here of a ten novels I consider to be right at the top of the form. Keep in mind these are in no particular order and I had to work pretty hard to keep it limited to just ten.
More reading (but with pictures!)…
So this part of the site is going to be about comics, kind of a arcane cross-section of literature that is too often overlooked as something just about super-heroes or funny animals and that comics are a genre rather than story-telling method. Sort of like saying all of American literature is essentially described by the overwhelming success of Dan Brown or John Grisham novels. Even the recently launched New York Times Graphic Books best Seller List, a great help in exposing people to comics, is top-heavy with the mainstream power fantasies of the major publishing houses in American comics that are crossing over into summer movie blockbusters. It is, after all, a “best sellers list” and so represents what most people, no matter what their age group, are purchasing.