oldangelmidnight wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 10:06 am
I bet some ILF folks would be into Simon Hanselmann. Crisis Zone does the best job of capturing the vibes of early pandemic times that I've read. Content Warning: everything. Seriously fucked up.
I was deep into Hanselmann during the early tumblr/zine era, but he kind of ran himself into the ground, at least in terms of subject matter. Also, it didn't help that he allegedly abused his ex (also an old tumblr pal) before he became a comix star, ripped off several of her ideas and employed them as his own, and so on and so forth (I can't find the earliest series he never finished without any of his stable of characters, but it lacked the kind of weirdness he's known for). I was always fond of his work ethic and skill level, but I suppose all of that was at the behest of pain and suffering onto others (the bill totally fits, sadly).
Love & Rockets is forever, however, but I wish Fantagraphics would keep the hardcover Hernandez Bros. anthologies in print. I never have understood their printing strategies on the whole (still books from ten years ago have skyrocketed and are woefully out of print, and maybe it's just the licensing of the material at this point), sometimes in poor quality, sometimes the absolute best. But there are plenty of gems in that catalog, even if they're only available digitally at this point (not my preferred method of comic viewing, but I'm not the target demo, mebbe).
Winsor McKay and Tintin are both absolute bangers, but it's also hard to forget all the racism inherent in both artists' works (at least Krazy Kat was an equal opportunity offender: we are all bums, on strike).
Charles Burns is the greatest visual artist of his lifetime, but his writing is absolutely terrible. Kills me everytime I think about
Black Hole, which probably should have been a wordless exercise. It's a pity that a film version never was made (only because I love
Sin City in all forms so much). Miller isn't perfect, either, but holy god, that movie truly is.
Big love for:
Wally Gropius by Tim Hensley (an unhinged throwback comic that is wild and who's creator is sorely missed),
Bezimena by Nina Bunjevac (softly surrealistic Italian pontillism stretched to maximum efficiency),
Beta Testing The Apocalypse by Tom Kacyzski (future humor...today!), whatever Clowes is doing these days (still haven't gotten to
Monica, but I should change that, shortly), and
My Friend Dahmer (by Derf Backderf) was almost unbelievable but also one of the scariest things I've ever read (never saw the movie, but it's pretty perfect in it's own form, as is).
Recently picked up but hold no weight on:
Is This Guy For Real? by Box Brown, who's Andre The Giant book was pretty great - this one's about Andy Kaufmann, with an emphasis on his wrestling fascination/infamy & an old comp of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Lastly, I have to admit that
Ghost World, the book that brought most of us to this genre, still is an absolutely perfect germination of so many things that hit home with me, still, even if it's kind of a cliche at this point (cliches work because they are true). I always get a kick out of reading interviews with Clowes, because he's like from another world sometimes, but that world is the one that brought him to birth
Ghost World unto all of us. It's basically my
Ethan Frome, but I don't read it on every birthday (I probably should).
Most importantly (one last thing): one book that nobody talks about (at least in my circles) that is an absolute pivot to most comix is
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days, by one Al Columbia. Columbia is some kinda supergenius, Cheshire cat, evil deviant uncle, or maybe just the guy in the mirror, I dunno! He's everything to me sometimes. Anyway, this book always pops up in my life, and I always send it along to some unsuspecting person whom I believe will cherish it as much as I have, with varying results. But it doesn't matter! Technically, it's an unfinished work (of masterpiece!), but I've always seen it as perfect as is (Kafka's
The Castle comes to mind, possibly all those greek statues with missing limbs and ears). He pulls from all the best of early era styles, subverting them into a melange of horror and dense dread, and, somehow, real hope. It's probably the one comic-style book I've read most often, and it's still an absolute nightmare everytime I read it. If you enjoy the animation style of
Cuphead, but hate video games but are probably colorblind anyway and love to hallucinate frequently due to gangs of sleep paralysis demons constantly appearing from out of fucking nowhere after the sun finally sets, this is definitely the book for you.
