How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread (Lengthwise)
Reading and collecting comics has been an ongoing journey to find that perfect feeling I got from reading comics when I was young. I have fond memories of sitting outside during a sunny summer day, reading a stack of Justice League comics from the great run by Keith Giffen, JM Dematteis et al. There is something about that moment in time where there are no worries or concerns and you are just living in the pages. I still read and enjoy, but I struggle to find a way to return to that place of pure bliss. Am I looking for that perfect comic in the perfect conditions? Can I find another way to find a place of solace. It’s been a weird year in this house. I am in an ongoing state of existential weightlessness, unable to find my bearings, but maybe writing will help. Doing research has been a good escape and develops some sense of purpose when I have had a significant lack of it for some time. I started writing this back in February. I had so many lofting goals for this substack and the stress of personal life got in the way. I have been spending the last several months unsuccessfuly looking for work. I know the right thing is out there. It just takes time.
This latest stack is a bit of mixed bag. I have been ordering lots of weird indie comics from the 80s of varying quality and content. Some are amazing, some are absolute pieces of trash and some seem to come from another world. I have been buying way too many comics recently and need to actually read them. Its trying to shift that hoarding gene into a collector gene.
I have been doing some fascinating research into Canadian comics history. It’s been interesting to be able to solve some comic mysteries, finding weird obscure comic artists and spending some time with them, learning more about their work and how they are as people. I have met with a bunch of different cartoonists over the age of 75 lately.
As always, if you want to send me stuff to read, please see below. Also, if you are someone that collects old comics like me and have doubles, ask me about my want list.
Inkstuds
#2147 – 720 Sixth St
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3C5
Canada
and only if you are mailing from the United States
Robin McConnell
13820 NE Airport Way
Suite #K320087
Portland, OR
97251-1158
The first book in my stack is a straight up banger. The Legend of Kamui by Shitaro Sanpei was originally printed in the legendary Garo magazine in Japan. Drawn and Quarterly has been publishing a wide range of great works that were published in the same magazine, but they have been much more arty, experimental and adult oriented. At first glance, Kamui looks like another action-packed Japanese Samurai manga, but it’s not. Everything in the story serves a purpose to discuss distinct class issues that have a heavy bearing on the work and the period. It’s not a story about the noble lone Samurai out for justice, but instead, it’s about how regular people survive in a land with justice or compassion. The commentary in the book doesn’t pull any punches pushing against the rigid norms in place and the inhuman treatment of lower classes. I think this is the first of many book to come in the series. I read it all in a sitting. Maybe I found a little escape with this book. For a 50+ year old book about a time several hundred years ago, it is extremely prescient and timeless.
The Lover of Everyone by Beatrix Urkowitz is dynamic little book of heart break, love and the conversations in between. Beatrix’s work just flows so nicely. I have been a fan for a longtime, going back to those little mini comics from Oily press and probably earlier. Her work is just so full of life and fun. The cast constantly moves and changes and stays lively. I love the fluidity to her work. The are little conversations that don’t say much but also so much around reassurance and communication, how we can be present for each other while also communicated our needs. Published in 2022 by Parsifal Press and collects 4 smaller works that share a thematic scope, but very different in their own place.
The Quadro Gang was published in 1988 by Joyce Lorraine. It is one of the wildest comics of it’s time. Originally published near the end of the black and white boom but reading like it was done by someone who had not read comics in 20 years since they were a child or possibly done by a child. The book is about 4 sisters that are just causing trouble for everyone. It’s crudely drawn, not particularly good, but also fascinating. What were Joyce’s intention with the book? Was it done as a money-making plan as one of the many people under the delusions of the success of bigger books like Cerebus and the turtles? The end of the comic mentions a second issue, where did she want to go with this? Was it going to be a pitch to a newspaper? or was it already a pitch and failed so she put the comics altogether in this comic? So much that is a mystery.
Mansect by Koga Shinichi is the latest offering from Ryan Holmberg’s horror line, Smudge Comics. I think this is the strongest offering so far. The books have been pretty great for the most part, but there is something extra grotesque in this book. The art is just oozing from the page with mutated half insect people, devolving and evolving. There is no moral to be taken from the story, it’s just nastiness. Getting these idea’s out on the page before they take over his head. Junji Ito must have been huffing these comics with glee. You can see the DNA flow between creators.
Bowling with Corpses is Mike Mignola’s first significant comic work since putting Hellboy away. It’s really great to see Mignola fully on his own and not tied to a million comic cross overs and a giant universe, instead he is just doing the best comics that come naturally to him, grim tales of the past. Set in a similar world during Middle Ages, Bowling with Corpses is a series of short haunting vignettes that develop a wider understanding of the setting over the course of the book. I love seeing Mignola completely untethered and writing comics that are just a creative outlet. He lives and breathes his influences in art stories and art and takes the time process, synthesize and see what comes out in the end. It’s a darling short book that I really appreciate.
My big obsession with underground comics has really taken me down some odd paths. Matt Thurber had mentioned to me that he saw an underground comic by Laurie Anderson. I had totally forgotten about it until I was looking up work by George Dicaprio. He published a handful of comics early in his career. Baloney Moccasins was his first stab at it. Written by George and drawn with meticulous detail by Anderson, it is a really fascinating work. It’s not like his more horror based work, but instead it’s a reimagined Medieval parable about a factitious Borgia Pope as commentary for the current political climate. The use of the US capital building on the cover helps tie it modernity. There is a number of great little gags and turns of phrase in the book. My favorite is a catapult to launch shit from an isolated island community at visiting clergy leadership. For the art, Anderson is very informed by Medieval paintings and art, utilizing familiar motifs in gruesome and filthy new ways. The book itself was published at a larger 8 x 11 size, quite unlike the standard undergrounds of the day and on a higher grade paper but with a card stock cover. One online commentator mentioned to me that Dicaprio printed it in the NYC mayor’s office. That might be apocryphal, but would also explain the printing and paper. With a different contents, it could look like a report on urban planning. Maybe it is a report on a special kind of urban planning.
Demon’s Blood is another wild self published comic. It’s put together amazingly crudely, with staples in the wrong spots and extra staples under the cover. I love it. The book starts out with an intro by writer Jeff Bennett, who calls himself a novelist who has never read a comic. Well that is pretty obvious once you start reading the comic. I am going to try my best to summarize the story, it’s a guy fighting a demon that is also a snake, and people are being sacrificed in a cemetery! The mysterious guy has a feel companion that supports his efforts. They also meet a plucky teen that wants to help out. Published in 1986, this comic also provides promise of a second issue that has never materialized. The last page of the comic before the inside back cover, is a list of issues of GI Joe that the artist, Chris Short, is looking to sell. Perfection.
It’s hard to stay on top of new comics coming out. There seems to always be more and more amazing new cartoonists putting out forward thinking work. Comics as a medium has grown so much in the 20 years since I started doing Inkstuds. It’s an evolution of an artform developing in so many different directions. Death Spark is a welcome anthology that gives you a range of different strong work. Edited/publisher Thomas Campbell/Comics Blogger sent me this in a stack of comics that I greatly appreciated recieving. I felt like right after I got this, my life kind of fell apart. Life is ephemeral, comics are forever... anywho, couched under an Audra Stang cover, is a mix of folks new and old printed in lovely riso inks. I have always enjoyed Trevor Alixopulos comics. His work is subtle, meditative and ultimately funny. Look out for his 2 books from Sparkplug many years ago. Critic turned cartoonist, Katie Lane’s story is a bit difficult for me to read, mainly because of my aging eyes. The naked play between two friends taking photos is beautifully drawn with a great use of bold colours. The book ends with a brightly lit story by Michael R. Muller. I wasn’t familiar with Michael’s work. It works really great here, just popping through the page after some very stark and darkly drawn/coloured stories.
I really like Faygo’s Red Pop drink. I think it’s supposed to be strawberry flavoured, but I can’t really tell. It’s mostly just sweet and delicious corn syrup. I am so unhealthy… Anywho, I thought it might be fun to track down a copy of the Insane Clown Posse Comic. Coming out in the year 2000 from the same publisher of Lady Death, it’s everything you need from a comic about the best rap group in the game. Probably one of the most hyper violent and morally offensive comics I have ever read. It’s heavily influenced by Todd Macfarlane’s Spawn comic. Our heroes are killed and come back from the dead to haunt and destroy an evil record company executive while also saving innocents at the same time.
Austin English’s Domino Retail and publishing enterprise just continues to be all killer no filler. Crease feels like a spiritual sequel to the great Orchid anthology. A collection of literary adaptations that sit as great comics in their own. So many of comic adaptations feel too direct and literal with absolutely no vision. Crease is the exception to the rule. Starting out with a stark John Hankiewicz excerpt of Jean Genet’s The Thief’s Journal. It’s a great pairing. Genet is so visceral and poet and well accompanied here, still leaving so much for the reader to take in. Poverty, theft, sex and survival mix together into the brutality of early 20th century Paris. Ian Sundahl is an artist that Austin has been championing for years. You can see why in this adaptation of an anonymous diary called My Secret Life. There’s a quiet mundane quality that draws you into the moments of sexual excitement that feel purposeful by not trying arous. The book continues on with great comics by Chris Cajero Cilla and E.A. Bethea under a cover by french cartoonist, Caroline Sury.
Josh Pettinger is starting out his new serial pretty strongly. Pleasure Beach promises to take you through the ringer. You can’t return home and the past is always worse than you remember. It’s funny, uncomfortable and horrific. There’s an underbelly that you try to avoid looking at while you off enjoying yourself; Pleasure Beach rubs your face in it so you just don’t forget what you tried to escape. Looking forward to more.
