Saturday, July 03, 2004
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, PART 1
In an effort to be more spontaneous in my blogging, here are some quick first reactions to the FCBD stuff I picked up.
Reggie-12: Wow, a Brian Ralph book that is actually funny, and that I like. It has words! It has more than two panels per page! Ralph devotees will probably complain that it's not "pure" comics like Cave-In.
Top Shelf Tales: Jeffrey Brown contributes three strips that don't have anything to do with relationships. I liked the first, a superhero parody (I know, I know--but it's funny). The two autobiographical one-pagers didn't really do anything for me.
James Kochalka has three strips in this, and two in Alternative Tales, which I guess makes him the winner. Looking at his work objectively, I can see that there's something to his art, though it's not as remarkable as his admirers seem to think. But his writing--gaah. I hate this kind of forced whimsy. The people who love it probably also like Jonathan Richman's solo stuff.
Scott Morse's contribution is basically a waste of eight pages, and I don't feel like reading Aaron Reiner's piece.
Alternative Comics: The Sam Henderson page is funny. The book's first story, by (I think) Josh Neufeld and Sara Varon, is an uninteresting account of Josh's grandmother, with uninteresting art. Dean Haspiel is a bad artist anyway, but he's particularly unsuited for illustrating Pekar. The rest of the stuff I either haven't read (the Bertozzi and Orff pieces) or don't have anything to say about.
This wasn't all I picked up, but right now I don't feel like writing any more. Maybe I'll finish up tomorrow.
In an effort to be more spontaneous in my blogging, here are some quick first reactions to the FCBD stuff I picked up.
Reggie-12: Wow, a Brian Ralph book that is actually funny, and that I like. It has words! It has more than two panels per page! Ralph devotees will probably complain that it's not "pure" comics like Cave-In.
Top Shelf Tales: Jeffrey Brown contributes three strips that don't have anything to do with relationships. I liked the first, a superhero parody (I know, I know--but it's funny). The two autobiographical one-pagers didn't really do anything for me.
James Kochalka has three strips in this, and two in Alternative Tales, which I guess makes him the winner. Looking at his work objectively, I can see that there's something to his art, though it's not as remarkable as his admirers seem to think. But his writing--gaah. I hate this kind of forced whimsy. The people who love it probably also like Jonathan Richman's solo stuff.
Scott Morse's contribution is basically a waste of eight pages, and I don't feel like reading Aaron Reiner's piece.
Alternative Comics: The Sam Henderson page is funny. The book's first story, by (I think) Josh Neufeld and Sara Varon, is an uninteresting account of Josh's grandmother, with uninteresting art. Dean Haspiel is a bad artist anyway, but he's particularly unsuited for illustrating Pekar. The rest of the stuff I either haven't read (the Bertozzi and Orff pieces) or don't have anything to say about.
This wasn't all I picked up, but right now I don't feel like writing any more. Maybe I'll finish up tomorrow.
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