been reading love and rockets for the first time. did you all know it’s pretty good? thought i’d share that.
i always put it off because i wanted to read from the start and the idea of themed single-author collections kinda bugged me. surely the appeal is the mix of what’s going on in each individual comic book! but it felt miserable to try to take them in on computer and short of spending $300 on the collected box set i finally gave some random tpbs a whirl, after picking up and loving Grip! The Strange World Of Men (all timer title). starting with three sisters (focused on luba, petra, fritz) and grabbing human disastrophism (palomar stories) afterwards bc i liked that first one so much. it’s hard to say what stuck with me the most, the perspective passed between background and foreground characters, that nobody felt straightforward or that their meaning or worth had been decided in advance, how much it was willing to leave unsaid or skip around, how much is going on with the cartooning in every panel and face. it sort of feels like a whole aesthetic universe sprouting out of the limits of old dan decarlo comics. i also gotta say there’s a treat to the collections specifically, in never knowing how far you are or where anything goes or if something’s already been explained or is going to be explained or will never be explained, the feeling that it’s total chance which particular angle on a character or bit of history you get to first
and i haven’t even gotten to any of the jamie collections yet!!
Yeah I used to be intimidated too about trying to get into Love and Rockets but a few years back I got a bunch of the tpbs digitally on sale and just started dipping in and out at random. You can pick any point basically and you won’t miss. Los bros. Hernandez are a treasure.
I finally read some Love and Rockets. It took me years even though HOBO has always said it’s a good series. I was never really sure where to start and I ended up starting with these two books.
The first one was good, and intense in ways I wasn’t expecting. I like the way the story doesn’t really pause to linger on significant moments but just keeps moving. This allows for a lot of significant moments.
The second book I also liked but it seemed like it would have had more narrative weight had I read some of the older books. But both of these books jumped back and forth in time in a way that made the stories self-contained, and I don’t think I would have necessarily thought anything missing had I not known there were a ton of other books leading up to these ones.
I will probably read more, either continuing this run or maybe jumping back to some of the older stuff to see what I think of that.
I ordered a couple of Hideshi Hino books back in March of 2023 as a result of this discussion.
My order was long delayed, but I wasn’t particularly in a hurry so I just checked the Star Fruit Books site every so often. Last year I learned that that the owner had died of cancer.
Some time after that, I learned that Glacier Bay Books was going to work on fulfilling the outstanding orders. And today I received a shipping notification from them. Looks like they also carry some titles that could be interesting.
Having never read anything by Daniel Clowes, I decided to give him a try. I got a cheap used copy of Ice Haven at some point, so I started with that. It was an interesting read, but I’d noticed it never seems to be on lists of his best work.
Last night I started Monica, based on HOBO’s recommendation a while back. I’d intended to read just a little before bed but it pulled me in and I ended up staying up late to finish the book.
The Daniel Clowes Reader is a good entry point as well. It has Ghost World and other stories plus interviews and stuff. The paperback is available for $35 at fantagraphics/amazon but it’s also on the archive (you need a free account to check it out).
Anyone like Charles Burns? I found him and Clowes sort of at the same time in my life. I am reading Final Cut right now. Black Hole really spoke to me when I was younger. But X’d Out was didn’t do anything for me.
I’ve read most of it in one day, but I like Final Cut well enough so far. Sad. It shouldn’t surprise anyone whose familiar with his work, though. Bugs, alienation, body parts, 1980s Seattle kids, illustrators illustrating, and a kind of loose plot. But there’s some new tricks with the narration I really like here.
Saw him speak last year. He’s really funny in person, which surprised me. He did a series of parodies on cheap romance comics from the 50s. Lots of silhouettes blocked by trees and horrific car accidents.
Found some original Charles Burns advertising art a couple years back when we were digging for stuff for work. I didn’t make sense for us to take it though, but I’m not sure if it found a suitable home. I should have left a send me to the Billy Ireland note on it or something.
Fun story: black hole is based on his actual high school friends. One of the characters was based on my best friend in college’s dad. This led us to an evening where I got to eat at Tai Tung in Seattle and had to explain to Charles Burns face the comic I read most recently was One Piece.
He is incredibly funny and well spoken, and had a habit of ending every anecdote with something mysterious like “and that led to the third time I almost died” without explaining and moving on to another subject.
Dang, sounds like this was a small print and it’s sold out everywhere. And I can’t find any scans online. Sounds awesome though. Hope I can read it someday.
