Why didn’t we elect this guy when we had the chance?
It’s been interesting to watch the GOP spin machine paint Gore as “rage-filled” and “crazy.” I guess the old tactic of “too intellectual” and “dry and boring” just started to seem downright favorable in hindsight.
So I just finished the new McSweeney’s “comic issue.” It was definitely above par. In fact, at one point while reading it, I had to stop and lament to Eleanor that there weren’t more anthologies this good. Before it came out, a large contingent of comics fans were harping on the percentage of reprint and excerpt material in the book. Luckily, when it comes to recent comics, I’m pretty poorly-read (due to lack of funds) – thus, most of the book was new to me!
One thing that did strike a sour note was the preponderance of the “self-loathing” theme… though I suppose I should have expected it with a Chris Ware-edited anthology. And I know it’s become a cliche to rant against “sad, sensitive artist” comics! But people just keep pumping them out (not like I’m not guilty of the same offense.)
Ware’s book-slip comic was particularly culpable… and you’d think he’d have mined out this particular vein in his work already. On the flip side, his piece from the actual anthology was some of his strongest work to date. Most of the text pieces in the book, like those by Ware, “This American Life’s” Ira Glass, Michael Chabon, Glen David Gold, and Chip Kidd, also revolved around the “sad bastard” theme. Several recounted childhood experiences with comics of the life-scarring, painfully geeky sort. Ira Glass’s piece even closed with something like “sad, barely-read losers need art (i.e., comics) too.” Whew!
The stronger pieces: Kim Dietch’s piece on a death row inmate sparked my interest, though he usually leaves me lukewarm. David Heatley’s piece was weirdly compelling. Ben Katchor and his pseudo-historical anecdotes are always welcome. The Charles Burns, Joe Sacco, and Chester Brown excerpts cemented my decision to pick up their latest books as soon as financially possible.
On the maybe side: Jeffrey Brown’s work is always charming, but he’s in a serious rut. We don’t need three books about his girl troubles! R. Crumb is a demigod, but even he’s fallen prey to the “Sad Bastard” theme in this piece.
So I decided to carry through on my earlier threat, and devote this front page entirely to blog posts and the like. It was just too much of a pain to navigate through the posts with that big Little Trees image at the top of every page. So now Little Trees is off in its own section, and I’ll let you know whenever a new page goes up. Plus, now I can redesign this webpage whenever the urge strikes me.
Robert Newsome wrote me and let me know about two comics that I contributed to and forgot to put on my list, “The Journal of Modok Studies” and “Robert Newsome, Internet Phenomenon.” Maybe I was trying to forget!
It’s still going to be a while on that new Little Trees page, so here’s a comic that I don’t think I’ve put online before. I did it for the Fluke anthology back in January. Fluke is a minicomics and zine festival held every year in Athens, GA. It’s pretty awesome. I just wish they’d get a website for it up.
