R.I.P.

Atlas by Dylan Horrocks

The new issue of Dylan Horrocks' Atlas came out this last week. I have been impatiently waiting for this new issue for quite a while now. Mr Horrocks has been one of my favorite comics artists for many years now, and if you've ever read Hicksville, you might have an idea why. I've seen Mr Horrocks post on the internet that he is interested in creative works that engage in "world building," and Hicksville and this new series certainly seem to do just that.

Atlas is an ongoing series with a main feature and a back-up in each issue. The main story, "Atlas," is subtitled "The Life of Emil Kópen" and this second issue continues to slowly build a world that includes its own language and its own form of comics. This series seems to be building on the themes Horrocks introduced in Hicksville. He even includes a technique from Hicksville that relates the comics and creators in Horrocks' world to creators with which the reader is already familiar, a quote at the beginning of each chapter. These quotes also refer to the story at hand like the Charles Schulz quote at the beginning of this chapter: "The brave man has the courage of the early morning."

Mr Horrock's art is masterful. He has a supple brush line, and a skill for page layout and spotting blacks. He has a few idiosyncracies, formidable noses, heavy eyebrows and heavy black eyes, but these just distinguish his art rather than detract from it. A Dylan Horrocks character looks like a Dylan Horrocks character, which helps to immerse you in the worlds he is creating.



Do yourself a favor and check out this title, or Hicksville if you prefer, but don't overlook a future master of the medium in a strong time of creative growth.

Paris by Andi Watson and Simon Gane

I haven't been very good about updating, but I'm trying to get back on track. In the interest of momentum, my next few posts will probably not be very in depth. Here's a book that I grabbed off the top of my to-blog-about pile. It is a mini-series from Slave Labor Graphics, and issue number two has just been released.

I have enjoyed all the Andi Watson works that I've read in the last several years, and when I saw that he was teaming up with the little known Simon Gane, I was really looking forward to this title. I'd originally run across Mr Gane's work in mini-comics about ten years ago, and hadn't seen much since. I found one book, All Flee, about a year ago, but it wasn't really story material that had much appeal for me. So learning that a story about two young girls, one an artist, in turn of the century Paris (my second favorite European city), I was excited, and quickly added it to my subscription list.

I am going to reserve any complete judgment on it at this point, other than to say that I'm enjoying it and that I recommended heartily for anyone who is looking for a book written by one of the best slice-of-life writers around and drawn by one of the truly unique artists working in comics. The sample panel above is indicative of the idiosyncratic style of the artwork, and is a breath of fresh air in the all-too-frequently stolid comic artwork found in your average indy title.

Check it out.

The $100 Laptop

So I read this news story...



...and thought:
"Thank God. Now all the underpriveleged kids will have access to online porn."

A Proud Papa

Here I introduce my excuse for not posting more frequently...

Clementine.

A Boy Named J.R.

I went and saw I Walk the Line last night. I thought the movie was well acted, and that Phoenix and Witherspoon did a great job in the singing parts. It was rare that the production used on their voices was noticeable in the film. The film did seem a little slow at times. I didn't get enough sense that the space given to the story was needed to delineate the characters and that it occasionally hindered the drive of the narrative. I think that the film could have lost fifteen or twenty minutes without dropping any of the vibe.

More than anything, the movie made me want to come home and put on some records by the Man In Black himself. Which I don't think is too far from what the director wanted, maybe just a little.

Slacking

Dammit, I went a whole calendar month without posting. There goes November.

Comic Book Covers

I've read in a few places that people are frustrated or annoyed with Marvel's policy of their comic covers being "generic" representations of the heroes rather than specific images relating to the story inside. If the concern is that Marvel is abusing the creators by using an artist's work over and over, well, that's what they pay for. If the concern is that a reader is not able to figure out what may be inside a given issue based on it's cover, it seems to me that if you are going to buy a Spider-Man comic book (and I certainly have), I would reason that you have some idea of what the story will be like. If the concern is that the artist on the inside is not the same as the cover artist, I think you might be jumping on that bandwagon a bit late. The earliest comic I can think of (I'll go with Action Comics #1 for familiarity sake) had artists inside that weren't represented on the cover, and there are many very popular artists who only create covers these days (Adam Hughes, Brian Bolland, and James Jean pop into mind).

In my estimation, Marvel's policy of not marrying cover to interior story content hasn't particularly produced some shoddy cover work. In fact, I think they have managed to update their style to finally move it away from the stereotypical, copy-laden, story-focused, generic covers that have plagued the industry for decades. I did a quick grab of a 1970's cover by one of the most popular comic artists from the era from my favorite online auction house. I took the first super hero cover I found, and it happened to be a Neal Adams cover from a very popular title. It happened to be at least minimally story-focused.
I don't think this cover has a huge advantage over any of the covers I grabbed from Comic Book Resources latest posting of Marvel solicitation copy and covers.

If anything, I think that the two new covers are at least as eye-catching, at that seems to be the most important feature of any cover.

This all may be purely editorial or management directed, but when they choose to, editors and artists can also come up with some great modern covers that function as storytelling.

Much maligned Mike Mayhew, for example, produced this cover for an upcoming issue of The Pulse, and I think it does a great job as a story tease, and as an eye-catching cover for a super hero title. It tells you enough about the interior story, and has a strong enough design sense to direct your attention to it on the stands. I only hate to imagine what adding all the required cover copy will do to these images.



And lest I forget, Marvel can also provide some awful cover fodder. This new title was the focus of their latest in-house preview magazine and it is outright ugly. I only hope, for the title's sake, that this cover is not the final one used.

Searching For A Future Clarity

I like music. I like it very much. I listen to music of my choosing every day. This is not a passive, I like what I hear when I hear it type of music listening. This is a decision to choose music that appeals to me every day.

Several years ago, I had a conversation with an acquaintance about the music I listened to. He could tell, from hearing what I listened to that I was passionate about my choices, and that I listened to music that was important to me. He said that he used to feel the way that he imagined that I felt, and that I would see, one day I would grow out of it. One day it just wouldn't be so important. I couldn't see that day, but I didn't discount the idea that when he felt passionate about music, he wouldn't have been able to see the day that the passion would fade.

The point of this anecdote is that my passion for many things has faded. I don't experiment with music as much as I used to. My money and time has been diverted towards other concerns. I don't read about unfamiliar musicians or groups as much as I used to, I have limited this significantly. I care much, much less about live performance then I used to. I do feel, however, that listening to music is a constant in my life, and that I care for the music in a significant way.

All of this brings me to my point. That I am still able to find bands that I connect with. Not through nostalgia, or desire to fit an image, but through a desire to connect with the art of making music that I can relate to. The band I wanted to share today is Against Me! Their newest CD is pictured here. It is energetic, intelligent, literate, aurally appealing, and passionate. It is not their best, but I do think it is the best to recommend to a new listener, mainly because I think it is the most accessible choice (out of three and a half albums). It is well-produced and I think that anyone that enjoys music created with guitar, bass, drums, and voice should hear it. I think it's important that many, many people hear it. Some other time, I will write about why it's not as good as the others, and why it is a perfect example of the difference between "art" and "Art." But not today.

An Excerpt From Sleeping by Thomas Morica

As she slept he thought that if he were to learn something from her, that this could be it: She gave as though she would always have something more for herself. He reached over and just barely touched her hair. She didn’t stir, and he held his hand to her. Her head was cool under his hand as he looked away and listened to her inhale and exhale.