really want to see what the deal is with those huge crepax tomes…
i like a lot of fantagraphics stuff but it can be hard to recommend bc it’s always out of print!! of the ones i spotted they still have in stock, i enjoyed the blutch book “total jazz”, the reprint of sala’s chuckling whatsit, and i really wanna get the most recent daria tessler one. if you have enough money you can also get enough peanuts reprint books both to beat someone to death and also completely conceal the body.
also curious abt this one
edit: wd also recommend one of those big prince valiant reprints as very good in a way i think is much easier to appreciate in a physical edition
reading nausicaa very slowly… i haven’t read this in years but it’s better than ever, i think it’s possibly the best thing miyazaki hayao has done, i love that it’s presenting this long, novelistic sci-fi / fantasy narrative and the drawings and cartooning are unbelievably good… i wish they’d published it in chaptered form because it’s been making increasing sense to me to read comics in parts if they were published serially, so i’m just reading through a scene or two at a time instead
imagine you see a panelvan with an airbrushed scene of a barbarian posing on the side. sweet, nice piece, you say to the driver. hey man thanks, says the same fucking barbarian as he pauses V: Hävitetty and steps out. where’d you get it done, oh I did it myself after reading this & hands you Bloodrik
this collects three issues, colourised versions of the original two ashcans + a new issue. they’re pretty light on themes or meaning, but that doesn’t matter. we’re here for the rage and violence. and the art
but can’t eat it. he climbs a mountain, brutally eviscerates someone, and finds something to eat. the end.
the pacing & layout is good, plenty of plot points arranged to appear ‘suddenly’ on a page turn. the violence is bloody and over the top. and there’s a gag or two
Andrew is an illustrator first and storyteller second. but to bulk up the issues, each has a short side story. and these rule as little experiments in writing and art and character development, as you see how Bloodrik is a fucking dumbass who occasionally learns one new thing. a couple of Aesop-style fables and a horror story
The book starts with an explanation of how the comic came to be, and it’s clear that a lot of the desolation & anger in the comic is Andrew processing the frustration of having a killer idea & character stuck in his head for 10 years
an operator wakes up in a heavily-damaged meat-powered combat suit in the midden pits of Shikka-Go, roused by the blood of an enslaved Yanqui princess. a deva informs the Hudsoni, who seek to kill it before the next full moon. lead by their First Knife, they fail and are captured.
First Knife recognises the suit’s marking & reveals that there are more operators in Santa-Lu, where their knife was taken from & offers to guide them there
this is a lot more cerebral and depressing than Bloodrik, I had to look at an atlas. and the appendix has a reconstructed historical timeline that goes heavy on the satire (topic: the terrible lasting effects of the anthropocene)
the creators are prepping for a new series, Sharp Eye, an unrelated detective story in the same setting
i’m thinking back 20 years, but my frist girlfriend had a few eurotica books. all of them classily-presented black and white bdsm comics, like that one.
I finally got around to starting Barefoot Gen this week. I didn’t realize the series was so long (ten books) and I didn’t expect it to be distressing in so many different ways on top of the obvious. I’m on book 4 tonight.
I guess I have the comic sans one. I didn’t even notice. Maybe because it doesn’t stand out as much in an actual comic as it does elsewhere. (To me, at least.)
Rumor is the upcoming collection of Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing will include his intended ending where Swamp Thing becomes the true cross Jesus is nailed to.
Is this run before or after Alan Moore’s? I really loved Moore’s run of Swamp Thing. It made me think Swampy is one of the more interesting DC characters around, so I’m down to read more if any of it is any good.
Edit: oh, the first sentence in that reddit post answers my question!
