An Awkward Pause
A couple of weekends ago, I went to flea-market like comic show at the PNE grounds here in Vancouver. It seems to mostly be people looking for hot wheels and funkos or if it’s comics, things slabbed in hard plastic called key issues. Luckily for me though, it means no one else is digging deep for the odd ball comics I am looking for. This time was a bounty of gems filled with comics that have been lost to time. My current obsession of 1980s/early 90s black and white comics continues.
If you want to send something for me to read, please see below.
Inkstuds
#2147 – 720 Sixth St
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3C5
Canada
and only if you are mailing from the United States
Robin McConnell
1685 H Street # 27043
Blaine, WA 98230
United States
The highlight of the show was finding this comic called Graphomania Comics Presents: Blade Star. It was put together by brothers Ryan and Randy Siplion. It’s complete and utter madness. The first story is a kind of Isle of Dr Moreau concept but takes place in a bustling urban city with the humanoid/animal monster hybrids robbing and murdering people. There is a great level of violent nihilism for absolutely no reason. The second story is about Blade Star, who is a wolverine type character that has a huge spike on each hand and flames shooting out of his head. He stops ribs out the guts of his opponents with a simple strike. Lastly is a story by Tim Tyler. He’s an artist I have recently gotten into. His work is probably the most accomplished in the comic. It’s ALL KILLER NO FILLER FUNNIES.
Ms. PMS came out from Swafford Publishing in 1991 as a part of their AAAAHH!! Comics. It’s probably as thoughtful as you can expect. I am astonished that I haven’t heard of it sooner. Probably one of the more misogynistic comics I have read in a while. Created by Christopher Swafford, it reads like someone that is incredibly jilted and holds infinite grudges. He even complains about people in his office, and being passed over for a promotion at pepsi cola “…because of this book”. It’s an unrelenting sci-fi super hero comic about a scientist investigating an alien space ship and somehow becoming the Para-Military Symbiot Unit. It’s like Spiderman and Venom all in one! The art moves around in different directions. It one moment he draws like Michel Fiffe has gone back in time, and the next it’s all muscular stringy and looking like Tim Vigil. The comic provides promise of future issues that include a character called The Funk and chapter 2 being titled Death of the Afterbirth. Looking online, he did do a second issue and then a couple of years later put out a comic called Condom-Man. I will be searching for both of those desperately.
Thrasher Comics, a sister title to the great skate mag, ran for about 9 issues in the early 90s. I have picked up 2 issues so far. The second I found in a box of undergrounds and my friend Cole tried to talk me out of buying it so he could because he said I wasn’t a skater. Son, I lived the 90s. My pants were all roughed on the side where my deck would rub against my leg. When I saw it had a comic by Spain featuring an skateboarding elderly lady called Granny McGurk, I was instantly sold. The first issue also features a story by Spain about my favorite kick-flipping grandmother. There are probably another 12 short stories in the comic, filled by names of people I don’t recognize. The first comic is the only story in colour, about a skateboarding white blues musician that calls on the spirits of Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton while he faces off against a pimp and his gang. It makes no sense, and neither do most of the other stories. But the really neat thing about it, is how the stories are so formalistically unique. It’s like they are comics by people that could draw, but did not do comics normally, so they are trying all sorts of tricks in story telling and having a hard time sticking the landing.
Lastly from my oddball stack is Alpha Wave, published in 1987 and put together by Jim Chadwick with art and co-plot by Marty Edwards. Alpha Wave is a full colour comic with the ink saturating the page so deeply, it almost feels moist to the touch. I feel like it wasn’t printed by a regular comic printer. Half the colour registration is completely off, making it hard to read at times because of the messy layering. The story centers around 3 siblings that come across a space ship that crashed to earth near their campsite. The ship had been defeating in a space battle. The siblings all get super powers and the sister of the 3 designs them skin tight uniforms. The story itself is pretty generic, but the art is really interesting. Colorist Pat Gabriele seems to be doing the heavy lifting in the book, trying some really interesting things with it, utilizing negative space from the whites to push the art further than in it’s competency.
New York Review Comics continues to do the good work of a presenting a strong line of forward thinking collections, making space for work that is important and historically scarce. Distant Ruptures is a collection of work by CF from 2000-2010. Carefully edited by Sammy Harkham, this book is a must have. It features all his full colour beautiful work from Kramers Ergot, and selection of his other work from early mini comics like Paper Radio and newspapers like Paper Rodeo. CF’s work at this type is really foundational to where comics are now. You can see the DNA of his work on all sorts of different artists in small press and indie comics. The first major story in the collection, is a stunning play in colour and form, as the main character shimmers through the page, drifting through shades and lines. There is a playfulness to the work that doesn’t take itself too seriously, CF is having fun in these comics and you can tell.
Bhanu Pratap’s Dear Mother and other stories came out from Strangers Comics in 2021 and it was a real eye opener for me. Incredibly fluid comics that were full of life and amazingly expressive style that caught me off guard. When I saw that Fantagraphics was putting out his next work, Cutting Season, I ordered it immediately. His work continues to impress me. It’s a poetic work that takes time and space and utilizes the page sublimely. He makes use of empty space to create moments of silence, and then will also do these stunning intricate drawings. New comics well worth exploring.
Also from Fantagraphics recently, is Hate Revisited. The fourth and final issue was out just a couple of weeks ago and I loved it. I was explaining it to someone about how it reminded me of the second Trainspotting movie. It’s not a work of nostalgia, but more about how you can never return to the past. But it’s a Pete Bagge comic, so it’s also quite funny. He fills in bits of the past, like how Stinky and Buddy met, but also how the actions of the past impact today. Our scars change us and make decisions now in a different way than we would in the past. Bagge remains one of the best at what he does.
Another work is pretty much the opposite in terms of how it embraces the past is Gotham City Year One, written by former CIA operative Tom King. Did you ever want to find out the origin of the chemical factory that the Joker fell in? Well then, this is the book for you. Truly the Phantom Menace of batman comics. This is a comic that has no right to take itself so seriously.
Tuff Shit Comics was an underground anthology that was produced as a fundraiser for a methadone clinic. It features work by Robert Crumb, Jim Osborne, Roger Brand, Justin Green, Bill Griffith and more. The quality and nuance of the work varies throughout. The cover by Robert Williams is pretty funny, with a cup of methadone taking down a room full of drugs and paraphernalia. Crumb’s story is actually cute and touching in a way. Getting a bunch of comic creators to stories about drugs can be pretty cringe inducing depending on the creator. Bill Griffith’s story in particular was just bad in so many ways. Justin Green’s is fascinating and weird. I really hope someone does a big book of Justin Green comics at some point soon.
The Scrapbook of Life and Death by J Webster Sharp is a terrific new book from Avery Hill. Sharp had sent me a stack of her amazing self published comics and I loved them all. Really impeccably drawn work that is dark, visceral and intense. This latest book continues her exploration of pyscho/sexual horror visuals. The work juxtaposes found text versus her own interpretation. She goes into a similar world that David Lynch explored in his early short animations and Eraserhead. It’s hard for me to describe the stark and imaginative drawings beyond just how they really tap into something horrible that few folks get to for me. It’s fabulous work and I look forward to seeing where she goes with it. I think this is her first published graphic novel.
Den 4 by Richard Corben. We have 4 new collections of Den. This latest collects work that was previously released as 2 books. I am forever thankful for the work that has gone into releasing this work.
