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Commit To Your Future

3 May

By Ayo

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DAYGLOAYHOLE, no. 1
“It’s All Over!”
by Ben Passmore
self-published minicomic

http://daygloayhole.tumblr.com

1.

Immediately after complaining that too many cartoonists simply draw their characters *existing* but not really *doing* which is to say, the cartoonists fail to have their characters engage with the actions that they are supposedly performing, I read DayGloAyHole by Ben Passmore which antidoted that cartooning crisis with finesse.

The characters of DayGloAyHole are very animated and very present in their roles. Whether its walking, running, leaping or whatever, the characters appear to be *really doing* the actions that they are shown to be doing. Rather than characters that appear posed as doing a thing.

2.

Something that really bothered me is that the first protagonist of DayGloAyHole doesn’t have a name. The character drives half of the book (another character named “NO LIMITZ” drives the other half), yet he has nothing to identify him by. That bothers me. I literally read this book forwards, backwards and forward again before giving up hope. This character is literally nobody.

I’ve got a bone to pick with “The Everyman,” “The Unnamed Protagonist,” “The Man With No Name,” and other such nonsense. Commit to something, authors. You have to give things names. This “general” stuff just doesn’t hack it. There is no “everyman,” there is nothing to gain from obscuring basic contextual information. It doesn’t allow me as a reader to project myself onto a character or immerse myself into a character. It just makes me think that something is missing and makes me leave the story to try and see what I may have overlooked. Just name characters. Even Scott has a name. It’s “Scott.” Why does Scott get a name and Protagonist Man remains nobody, going nowhere, doing nothing? I don’t even want to hear that “thematic” stuff, it’s just lazy.

Authors have been pulling this “man with no name” nonsense forever and a day and that has to stop. It’s not about whether the character is named “Jeff” or “Herbert,” it’s about how can I think about this character? What do I even refer to him as? I mean, there’s a character in this book called “NO LIMITZ” because he has “NO LIMITZ” carved into his forehead, presumably with a knife. Any name will do. Just something to hold on to.

3.

There are basically no women in this comic, except for two backup comic strips that exist outside of the main story. Written and drawn by Kate Hanrahan and Erin Wilson, these strips gently play at undermining the hyper-masculinity of Passmore’s story. A fitting close for a book that reveled in maleness for its duration.

Some girl drug-overdoses. Everybody who does drugs in fiction always overdoses.

26 Apr

By Ayo

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Jupiter’s Legacy, no. 1
Mark Millar, Frank Quitely
Millar World/Image Comics
April 2013

Look, Frank Quitely is the best superhero artist in the world. His use of space in his signature horizontal compositions is still understudied and overlooked. Nobody put out a better superhero comic this week because nobody is better than Frank Quitley.

But sweet heaven, this was also likely the most boring comic this week as well. As a debut issue this was about equivalent to the first track on a hip hop CD that features two and a half minutes of the rapper talking lazily to his friend over a good beat about something so vague that it fails to even make an impression. Feels like a waste of a good beat.

The Comics Journal’s Tucker Stone and Comics Alliance’s David Brothers already gave this comic as serious a looking as it deserves. This is the kind of work that gets produced when writers and artists are allowed to rest on their laurels and feed off of the fat of their past achievements. As the introduction of a new work, Jupiter’s Legacy is lazy. It is banking on the reader’s emotional investment., not the work at hand. But as a brand new story with new characters, a new world to explore, the only emotional investment of loyalty that a reader can have is an investment in the authors. Having enjoyed another work previously doesn’t make this project better than what appears on the page. On its own merits, Jupiter’s Legacy is just no good.

How About Alex?, -or- The One Punch Chump

29 Mar

By Darryl Ayo

“Let The Good Times Roll”
Uncanny Avengers, no. 5
Rick Remender & Olivier Coipel
Marvel Entertainment

Not to be Mister-Anti but I actually liked this comic book. It moved several characters with distinctive worldviews through one day that ended with somebody getting his neck broken by accident. The flat-note ending was pitch-perfect for me and I like that the ending’s implication is…implied by the way Rogue looks up to see the press cameras all directed at her. Not a word is needed after that moment and not a word is offered. That is the end of the story, CRACK, neck broken.

But let’s be reality, the reason people care about this particular comic is a scene that happens earlier. Alex, a character who is indicated by the story to be the leader of this group of characters, delivers a press conference where he says something so silly that I’ve never heard it before in real life.

Alex:

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Short and simple: my only problem with Alex’s speech is that “mutant” isn’t “the M-word.”

“Mutant” in comic storyland isn’t a slur in and of itself. It’s a group descriptor like “gay,” “black,” “Muslim.” A slur would be a crude term of division which shouldn’t be spoken in polite company (taking its cue from “the ‘N’word” of real life). The slur would be a term of undisputed hostility and derision (ie, “gene-joke,” “mutie,” “freak”), not the term which merely describes the group of people.

Now, Alex could be a “self-hating mutant,” I suppose. Particularly to contrast with his brother Scott, who is concurrently raising a mutant revolution army in some other comic book. Scott the separatist and Alex the assimilationist. That could work as a believable tension. But it still doesn’t work in the particular language twist that this scene tries to achieve. This scene doesn’t achieve its goal of paralleling real-world expressions of oppressed people (which the mutants are meant to represent).

Here is writer Rick Remender weighing in about the contrasting opinions on twitter

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Not a problem, I live in Greenpoint.

All jokes aside, I strongly suspect that Remender was responding to people who opposed his story’s anti-bigotry message rather than members of oppressed groups who objected to the logic of his story’s argument. That said, he’s made his statement and that’s that. I do find it interesting that nobody in Marvel Entertainment editorial second-guessed the tone of character-Alex’s press conference. That nobody saw the glaring problem of equating general group description with the idea of a pejorative slur. Because even a character who is self-hating in his or her cultural identity would know that the generic descriptor isn’t a “___-word.”

This comic makes a try at tackling a real-world issue. It misfires. That’s okay, try again.

-Ayo2013xoxo.

Overreaction is my only reaction; which only sets off a chain reaction

16 Dec

By Ayo

Human beings don’t act like this.

“Cable and X-Force,” no. 1
Dennis Hopeless & Salvador Larroca
Marvel Comics, 2012

Here’s what I can understand from this comic: previously, Cable was dead. Now he’s alive and stalking his daughter. Not in the “bad” way but in that creepy movie way where he watches her from afar. For no apparent reason. The implication is that he wants her to live a normal life with her foster parents but let’s be honest: Cable is a psychic, cyborg soldier from the future and his daughter is also a soldier from the future. He could just send her a telepathic “hello” message and be done with it.

This comic has no real thrust to it. It does the thing where the story starts in the midst of action then backtracks to some causation. But the reader isn’t given enough of the action OR the causation for it to have any effect. It’s all just layers of vague implication. Also Cable shoots his uncle Havok in the face which is only funny because Havok’s enduring character trait is that he’s a rube and a chump. He’s all “I know this man. Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like…” ZAP.

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The highlight of this issue is Domino. She’s Cable’s ex-girlfriend, a super-proficient spy/assassin/mercenary who smiles as she jumps from high places. I like Domino a whole bunch and have to restrain myself from buying comics that she stars in. As you can see, my will was weak this time.

Dating Ironically

7 Dec

By Ayo

“Arrête, cést icî L’empire de La Mort”
“Bad Brains/WOTW”
By Simon Hanselmann
Space Face Books, Nov. 2012

http://girlmountain.tumblr.com/

http://spacefacebooks.com/

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that I read somewhere that Simon Hanselmann is relatively new to cartooning. If that is the case then he has taken to the vocation like a fish to water. This is a beautiful comic. Clean character design, expressive storytelling and smooth panel-to-panel transitions: nothing is awkward about reading this story. The drawings are relatively pared down but are so instantly readable and the panels’ relationships to one another are so effortless that the reading experience feels fully immersive and engaging. Slick cartooning.

As a narrative, I don’t quite understand the comic. I know Hanselmann’s characters Megg, Mogg and Owl from the strips that he has posted on his website. But the actual plot events of this particular story are mysterious to me. I’m not complaining. I’ve read more than my share of abstract minicomics in my day–and I’ve made them too. But Hanselmann doesn’t feel to me as though he is trying to go over our heads; even though his work is richly coded in a language of his own symbols. I just feel as though I’m missing a step somewhere in this story.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

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xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A lot of Hanselmann’s Arrête, cést icî L’empire de La Mort reads essentially like stream of consciousness psychedelia. The storyline is very much about drugs and possible psychological problems, which both effect people’s perceptions and coping abilities. These combine with the general setting and characters which are all a fantastic in composition and in nature. Talking animals who shift between humanoid and beast mode. Alien spaceships. A television actor. All just sort of appear and can be accepted as nothing strange.

This sort of storytelling convention is quite common in the world of artcomics and minicomics. The story takes place externally but it feels internal, like somebody’s dream. Part of me feels that externalizing psychological and emotional strife is an excellent use of visual storytelling.

It is interesting that Hanselmann uses no captions or narration. Everything happens by action or by characters talking. This furthers the feeling that I get as a reader that the author himself is in a process of discovery and exploration as much as his characters. I’m happy to follow him along and learn whatever he discovers.

Destroy all the gods!

21 Nov

By Ayo

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Mini Kuš, no. 6
Killman
By Box Brown
September 2012, Komikss (Kuš)

Side remark which has nothing to do with the story or the author: the design idea that Kuš uses for these Mini Kuš books is absolutely wonderful. Kuš in general has some of the most pleasing and user-friendly book design in all of comics. Their aesthetic is at once clean and information-rich. I’m a big fan. This particular book credits Markus Häfliger for “layout” so please take your bow.

[applause]

Now onto the serious business of our protagonist Robert Cordozar Brodus Killman.

[applause respectfully dies down]

“I’ll never be free… until they’re all dead.”

Killman goes by Robert now and is in the process of punching, kicking, torpedoing and laser-blasting the gods of the universe to death, one by one. The gods are widely known to be tyrants of the planets and oppressive rulers of the slimy blobs that represent the remaining mortal people in the universe. It all gets a bit tricky midway through and I lost the plot a few times but the fluidity of the storytelling kept me engaged.

The terms are a bit unusual here because while the creatures that Killman battles are called “gods,” there is a being in the story that represents an approximation of the Western idea of “a god” that features heavily and supplies the backbone of the story. I don’t know, this is making my head throb.

Superhero comics’ best job is externalizing and outsizing regular problems or philosophical ideas. It isn’t hard to grasp author Box Brown’s themes: anti-authoritarian, anti-Western religion. The protagonist literally becomes one with everything and finds that Eastern religion does not suit him any better. We leave the story with Killman essentially victorious but ever vigilant against gods and other spirits. Superhero comic books are about wearing your essence on your sleeve and Brown takes up the task admirably.

Apropos of nothing, the protagonist is partially named after rapper Snoop Dogg. “Cordozar Bro[a]dus,” Robert Killman’s middle names, comprise the given name of the popular performer of hit singles such as “Gin & Juice” and “What’s My Name.”

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Camila collected moments and memories.

21 Nov

By Ayo

¿How Do I Know Who I Am If I Forget?
By Luis Echavarría Uribe
2012
udveloquequierever.blogspot.com

Memory involves the retention of experiences and episodes. Camilla of “How Do I Know Who I Am If I Forget” realizes that memory is also central to personal identity. People often painfully hang onto the past in destructive ways because the alternative is the danger of erasing oneself entirely. Who am I to be if not myself? Who am I if not what I have been?

The reader earns more insight from this story if they are allowed to experience its events and plot on their own. The moments in this short story derive their resonance from being experienced in their proper context. Telling you about the plot would “spoil” its effect. It’s a relatively small scale story, though one of great significance for its protagonist.

“How Do I Know Who I Am If I Forget” is a story about loss, but also about holding on, and retaining an identity. It’s about owning experiences in a way that allows the protagonist to incorporate them into her core identity and also allows her to carry on in life.

Uncompromising.

19 Oct

The Infinite Wait and other stories
By Julia Wertz
Koyama Press, 2012

Julia Wertz keeps it moving in her stories. While the stories in this volume tend to involve Wertz laying in bed sick as much as going around to jobs, events etc, Wertz is very good about moving quickly through periods of time which in reality represented days or weeks of relative inaction. She manipulates time in the simplest way that cartoons can, which is by compressing like moments into single mentions. The result is less a shared subjective experience which most cartoonists strive for, and more an distanced, matter-of-fact telling by a speaker who has lived the experience, is over it, but is telling the experience to a friend. Thus, there is a tone of casual, conversational familiarity to Wertz’ stories. Similar to a new acquaintance giving you “the long version” at a casual party.

The three stories in this book all overlap concrete events in Wertz’ life but approach these facts from different angles. “Industry” focuses on every job that Wertz has ever held but the reference to one of those jobs in “The Infinite Wait” serves as kind of a callback. You have had coffee with this person on three separate occasions. She has spoken at greater length about that detail earlier and its mention ties her stories closer to a reality that you can imagine.

In this way, Wertz’ narrative tics and storytelling phrasing becomes familiar to you. As a storyteller Wertz reflexively uses asides to clarify details or to mock things retroactively. She also frequently puts literal-yet-subjective descriptions of what people once said into their dialogue rather than attempting to reconstruct the dialogue naturalistically. This is another sort of an aside. In some ways it feels to me more hers than the traditional comic strip caption-with-arrow-pointing-at-things style of aside. I enjoy both techniques as Wertz employs them. Her stories are absorbing enough to me on their own but these snide jibes and jabs at past-people further humanize Wertz as a narrator and storyteller: long memory and enduring grudges, I think.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The stories are funny but I’m not sure that “funny” is the primary tone that they convey. Wertz’ stories remind me of a friend who is laying bare a life’s worth of stories but surprisingly little baggage. There is no plea for pity or cry for sympathy in these pages. Yet, one wouldn’t call Wertz’ writing dispassionate or even quite matter-of-fact. Honesty without the usual emotional trade off of ear-bending and wrist-twisting.

Ironically, this makes me place even greater trust in Wertz as a narrator and storyteller. Anyway, there’s a really great, show-stopping joke in the middle of the story “Industry” that is almost an unfair gag in that the setup is that there was no setup, bam, surprise, that’s how you tell a joke.

-Ayo2012xoxo.

Let’s celebrate African stories but only if those Africans conform to our specific checklist of requirements.

1 Oct

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A review of a review.

This is Ayo talking about Aya. I know it’s confusing.

Caitlin Hu wrote a review of the first Aya graphic novel:

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/required-reading-aya-de-yopougon-feminist-book-review

(avoid the comments as there are major spoilers for the Aya extended series)

This is a pretty terrible way to read books. Aya’s author, Marguerite Abouet wrote this series of books based on her life and observations in Ivory Coast. Caitlin Hu diminishes Abouet’s story by referring to it as “heterosex” and “problematic” with only a vague sense of justification based on a notion that Aya isn’t Hu’s ideal of a central character and that Aya’s friends are okay but tragically heterosexual. The passive-aggressive manner in which Hu attacks “Aya,” by lightly complimenting elements of the book and then taking those compliments back seem to underline the reviewer’s discomfort with stories which aren’t directly about the Caitlin Hu Experience. Hu is condescending and imperialist. She reviews Aya as though she were a better authority on how three girls lives in Ivory Coast ought to be written than the woman who lived that life.

What part of the game is that?

-Ayo2012xoxo.

I feel like I’m all at once.

24 Aug

By Ayo

“You Mustn’t Be Afraid”
By Luke Pearson
NoBrow 7: Brave New World
2012
lukepearson.com

Four pages about the fear and acceptance of death. A man is given an opportunity to tidy up his mess–a lifetime’s worth of baggage and debris. Upon squaring away his junk, he finds that he is ready to embrace his end. It’s not a serene acceptance. The man runs full-tilt, bracing himself, eyes shut, into his end.

It’s not that we die, it’s how we go.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Luke Pearson’s comics are too good to be true. But true they are. I have enjoyed his work but also avoided it because I’ve been let down by exciting cartoonists so many times. Pearson hasn’t let me down yet. It’s about time that I started giving his work the respect that it has earned.

Pearson embodies a kind of cartoonist who I once sought out very eagerly. Often I found my hopes deflated and I eventually surrendered. The cartoonist who can tell coherent stories using metaphor and symbolism without being cheap or corny. When I got into artcomics, gritty naturalism was the order of the day. I found those cartoonists interesting in their own right but my heart lifted when I read Jaime Hernandez’ “Flies on the Ceiling” and Gilbert Hernandez’ “Fear of Comics.” My grin couldn’t have been wider than when Gabrielle Bell’s eye-level, deadpan diaries strolled casually off of the curve of the earth in stories like “My Affliction.” There is something about this stuff that gets directly to my heart. I like this stuff so much that it takes a great deal of storytelling power to pierce through my armor. I’ve been let down so many times.

Many cartoonists and writers mistake effect for cause. If a story has a dreamlike sensation, many writers believe that they must essentially spew it from the top of their heads. Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes planning and deliberate construction to make a story comprised of symbols and metaphors come together and sing. It takes a delicate touch. Not undercooked and not overwrought. Not too obscure but not right on-the-nose. A sense of playfulness while adhering to the thematic drive and destination. Luke Pearson knows how to do these things. I vouch for his comics.

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