Fishtown Drives Blogger To Drink

Fishtown from IDW will do the following things:

1. Be on at least half the "best graphics novels of 2008" lists (provided the reviewers get to read their copies in time).

2. Be made into a movie.

3. Make Kevin Colden rich; and if not rich, a least reasonably well-off.

4. Put IDW on the map as a serious publisher of original graphic novels, complete with successful book store penetration. Lord knows they already have 30 Days of Night and other successful titles under their belt; but Fishtown is going to put them on the map as a contender to Vertigo and the graphic novel imprints of the major book publishers.

Fishtown is a chilling portrayal of teenage apathy and bloodlust that will no doubt bring to mind Columbine and the movie "Bully." If the story seems similar to these more high-profile cases, only the more sadder that these events seem to be a pattern in the world. The storytelling is raw and unflinching, drawn in a style that brought to mind Dave Gibbons via "Requiem For A Dream". One of the characters even looks like a young Walter Joseph Kovacs.

Were the teens involved in the Fishtown murders products of their environment or merely evil? Colden won't let the reader off the hook with such simplistic answers. Fishtown is a trip through the mundane but no less destructive gates of hell that lurk in the quiet enclaves of working-class America.

And yes, had I not been still in the middle of my workday, I would have grabbed a drink after reading the book. It's that powerful.

On sale now: Fishtown, a 120-page hardcover graphic novel from IDW, $19.95.

Would You Pay $125 For A Comics Anthology?

There's a lot of hubbub lately over the latest volume of Kramer's Ergot, an "indie" comics anthology. The reason? It's $125 for 96 pages.

To be fair, the book itself is enormous in size, 16 x 21 inches. You've got all the cool cats contributing to it: Chris Ware, Kim Deitch, Daniel Clowes, Jaime Hernandez, etc. But it's still one-hundred and twenty-five bucks. Or $78.75 pre-ordered on Amazon.

Personally, I have no problem with the price on this book. I mean, I'll never buy it. Well, maybe for $50.00 with a torn cover five years from now at The Strand.

There's so much drama over the pricing of Kramer's Ergot 7, and I'm trying to figure it all out. Is Buenaventura Press being elitist by charging so much, preventing the world from partaking in the latest comics from the masters of the medium?

Look, the people who really, really want this book will find a way to get it. And people like me, who'd like to read it but have no interest in plunking down $125, will probably find a way to eventually read/buy it. And if I never get to read it -- I'll live.

Personally, I think this is a play for the market outside the direct market. For the person with the money to spend who's looking for the "creme de la creme" of what the comic book community has to offer -- this is the book. This, Watchmen, and Brubaker's Captain America. All in really expensive, sprawling, gorgeous volumes.

Believe me, the best thing that could happen for the indie comics community is to open up to these new customers and venues. This is the answer for the genius comic creator at MoCCA art Fest or SPX who painstakingly hand-prints their book on DIY papyrus. Get in with this market, this market that would no doubt purchase copies of Kramer's Ergot 7. How do you think the designer vinyl toy market stays afloat? 'Cause there are people who are willing to pay far more than $125 for a 30-inch rabbit with a pattern printed on it.

Which is not to say that Kramer's Ergot doesn't offer something more deep than a plastic rabbit. But I'm looking at this primarily from the position of, "is this a smart business move?"

Now, where the Direct Market might take a hit, on this book and just about any OGN or TPB offered by the comic companies, is in these steep Amazon.com discounts. But that's a topic for another day.

MoCCA Art Fest 2008: Introduction

Paping

Note: This is the first of several posts on MoCCA Art Fest and the Lulu Awards that I will be writing over the next few days.

MoCCA Art Fest 2008 began with an ambulance and ended with fire trucks; I don't position that as a criticism of the event, but as symptomatic of the intense energy an unique convention like this generates. And the f**king heat in NYC that weekend, let's not forget that.

The sheer number of wildly talented people at this function -- most unstamped by the Machine that can be mainstream comics production -- was absolutely staggering. At a regular comic book convention, you figure that a number of the tables are going to be comic book dealers, toy companies, movie promotions, etc. At MoCCA Art Fest, it's wall-to-wall talent.

My question: how do we sufficiently get the works from these talents into the hands of people who will appreciate them? In many cases this is not the audience who frequents mainstream comic book stores. Should these ultra-small press books -- many created by hand, stitched, block prints, etc -- even be distributed by Diamond? Is that the wrong model for this sort of work, anyway?


A lot of the DIY comics on display at MoCCA Art Fest should really be sold in gallery-type settings. We're talking one-of-a-kind and/or low print run. These are, for lack of a better term, "boutique" comics. Now, some artists might balk at that description because they think of their work as far more universal than that; I understand that. But, it's like saying oranges and bananas are both fruits. Yeah, they are. But they are not the same. Shifting gears from the mainstream event-of-the-week to a hand-stitched and -printed comic using an actual subway map as paper is quite a shift.

That said, there really needs to be mechanisms in place to focus on just these small-press books -- getting them properly distributed, helping some of these artists to promote and sell their work. But, that system also has to be set up so these artists get to keep as much as those profits as possible. These artists have to make a comfortable(ish) at least part-time living off their work so they can focus on producing more. We can't let these artists fall through the cracks and give up after putting out an issue or two because it's just too damn difficult to make ends meet, and that administrative 9-to-5 job behind the desk in Midtown Manhattan looks so alluring.

There has to be a bridge put in place for these people before they make it to Fantagraphics or Top Shelf or Vertigo or wherever -- so they can actually get there. And I know some of those bridges are already put in place, but there needs to be more.

I mean, my God -- it wasn't like there were a few diamonds-in-the-rough in a sea of self-published comics at this convention. Any talent-hunter, editor, etc would have their pick of at least 25-50 solid new talents minimum at MoCCA Art Fest.

***
Towards the end of the convention, a fire broke out in the basement of the building (something about the boiler). I of course found out about it on the seventh floor, as I was waiting in line to talk to Greg Pak, watching him sketch the Hulk. The MoCCA staff handled it really well, but it was still a bit worrisome. We picked up our bags, and the bags of friends we knew who weren't there at the moment, and evacuated the building.


A thought kept running through my head: a fire at a comic book convention would be most unfortunate and unlucky. Packed rooms full of paper.

Also -- here is our talent, a good portion of the future of comics, all in a building that's on fire.

***

I have to create something to help these artists market and promote their stuff.

Water Baby: Love and Rockets Drawn By Frank Quietly

Please don't take my assertion -- that the ambiguously romantic relationship between Brody & Louisa in the Minx graphic novel Water Baby resembles that of Maggie & Hopey from the acclaimed Love and Rockets -- to mean that the book is derivative. It's just that the dynamic between both sets of characters, a push-pull of freedom/possession and frustrated/fulfilled desire, is very similar.

The freak shark attack that deprives main character Brody of her leg arrives fairly early in the story, leaving the rest of the graphic novel to focus on the trifecta of Brody, her best friend/occasional girlfriend Louisa, and handsome deadbeat Jake. However, the shadow of the accident hovers over the entire proceedings, in a series of gruesome-but-poetic dream sequences.

Ross Campbell's art resembles very much that of a softer, more organic Frank Quietly, managing to make Brody's truncated leg and even her occasional nose-picking sensual.

Is it ok if I say that Ross Campbell's Water Baby transcends the Minx imprint and sort of stands on its own? Will it get lost in the various "nooks" each comic book retailer and book store carves out for this line, or will it get racked up among the other graphic novel current releases? If not the latter, go hunt it out when it hits stands July 2nd.

(Oh, and apparently Mario Van Peebles makes a cameo appearance at the end...)

Val Reviews BOTTOMLESS BELLYBUTTON

Dash Shaw's Bottomless Bellybutton (Fantagraphics Press, 2008) is an epic tale about an accumulation of seemly unepic events. The Looney family reunion starts with the 70+ year old matriarch announcing she is divorcing her husband. As can be expected, the news has an impact on rest of the family, all in different ways. As they struggle to understand why someone in presumably the tail-end of her life would decide now to make such a decision -- and presumably live and even die alone -- they all learn a little something about themselves.

Clocking in at 720 pages, Bottomless Bellybutton might seem a pretty hardcore reading assignment. But, the length merely means you get the actual equivalent of a novels-worth of story and detail. Its similarity to an actual novel in terms of scope and subject matter leads me to think this book might also be perfect for a non "fan" friend or family member who you would like to introduce comic book reading to.

I devoured this book in 2 1/2 days, by the way, a few hours every night after work. A pleasure, with a understated but moving ending that lingers with you long after the book is done.

Bottomless Bellybutton
By Dash Shaw
Published by Fantagraphics Press
Available at your better-stocked comic shops, larger book-selling chains, and a bunch of places online.

Indie Spotlight: Recommended

Hi All,

I thought I would clean out my "in box" a bit and recommend a few indie books I've read and enjoyed lately...


The Walking Away World by Kenneth Patchen is in some ways very much a prototype of some of the current crop of independent books -- I find a bit of his work in everything from Kevin Huizenga to Chris Ware. Patchen was a performing artist who in the late 1950s had to cut his work short following spinal surgery; the resulting back pain only allowed him to continue his art in the form of the "picture poems" in this book. Some powerful stuff; as Jim Woodring says in the introduction, his work is "not to be approached lightly."

"The Walking Away World" will be available from New Directions in July 08.



Injury #2 by Ted May, M. Jason Robards, and Jeff Wilson was a great anthology of stories that reminded me of Dan Clowes's work. I especially liked the first story, "Hair of the Dog," a tale about heavy metal gods & love sort of won and sort of lost. Would definitely pick up another issue.

Injury is put out by Buenaventura Press and can be purchased at your finer comic book stores or through here.



Ganges by Kevin Huizenga is always a pleasure to read; this magazine-sized series, part of Fantagraphics Press's Ignatz line, is a must-have. The latest issue focuses on how the employees at Kevin's old job became obsessed with a certain video game -- and how the drama of the game reflected what was going on at the company in real life.

Ganges can be purchased at finer comic book stores or here.



Soap Opera by Emily Blair is a haunting, David Lynch style one-shot rendered in a woodcut style. The plot focuses on the strained friendship of two women, and the soap opera character that mysteriously seems to be the connecting thread between the two of them. Emily Blair's work is quite a revelation.

Soap Opera can be purchased here.

Comic Snobs!

Heidi MacDonald's post about the "Best American Comics of 2007" anthology is a good one and it (and the 100+ comments that follow) deserves far more time and care in reading than my Monday-afternoon skim between gigs allows.

But in a nutshell what's she sorta saying is that the anthology, edited by Chris "Jimmy Corrigan" Ware, features a bunch of auto-biographical "angst" pieces and doesn't really touch upon alternate types of comic book material. For example, stories that are not auto-bio angst pieces. Stuff by Jeff Smith or Stan Sakai. Stories. Story stories.

And also, she suggests,

"...you wouldn’t catch any comics snob worth his or her salt saying they thought Jeff Smith was a great American cartoonist."

We're back, in a sense, to the "high art"/"low art"debate again.

If the piece of art -- say, a comic book, popular novel, or painting -- functions primarily as a narrative, it is "low art."

If the piece of art is a subjective abstract collection of feelings and sentiments done in a roundabout way -- it is "high art."


And as the comic book medium becomes more accepted in "high-brow" circles & academia, this debate will only get more heated.

I mean, in 50 years, what will be considered English class "required reading" in terms of graphic novels?

Chris Ware or Jack Kirby?

Will Jack Kirby be considered a great master of the medium? Or kitsch?

The whole thing tangentially reminds me of how I was a little girl and scoured my Encyclopedia Britannica for mention of my favorite book series, "Nancy Drew." I couldn't find it anywhere under "literature," so I had to enlist the help of my Mom in the search.

Finally, she found what she was sure was the citation. It didn't mention "Nancy Drew" by name. But it read something like:

"And in the post-war era we had these shit throwaway mystery and adventure books for teenagers that are not even worth mentioning by name here."

And now I'm also remembering visiting a bookstore in London with a school chum -- back in my academic days -- and picking up a copy of Stephen King's "The Shining" to buy and my friend saying "Don't buy that -- it's low-class."

I bought a book on literary criticism instead. I still haven't read that f**ker.

MoCCA 2007: Thoughts & Reactions

As I settle down to write this I've just received a call from Doug Bratton of the comic strip "Pop Culture Shock Therapy" that I've just won his raffle. This is good. I spent a long time debating whether or not to purchase one of his books at the Con, as $ was a little tight at Casa Del Superheroine this month. But now I've got all 3. I got good swag karma. Swag. I'm up to my ankles here, typing this, swag from MoCCA all over my floor.

The MoCCA Comics Festival (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) was a two-day event that featured the best of the independent comic scene. It was held the same weekend as The Big Apple Comic Con. I heard that a bus would shuttle people between both shows. I would think MoCCA would have cut in a bit on Big Apple's business. To be fair, Big Apple has professional wrestlers. But I've never been to MoCCA, so I decided to give it a try.

First thing I noticed, there were no people dressed as Captain America there. It was disorienting.

Then there were all the female comic book creators. I would say that the gender breakdown at the show was 50/50.

I wondered how many of these talented women had any inclination to work for mainstream comics at some point. There isn't that much of a place for them at the moment, outside of Minx/Vertigo & Marvel's assorted indie projects. But it seems that this is where all those female comic creators -- the ones that some blog pundits (me included?) sometimes complain there is not enough of. They do exist. In numbers. They were at this show.

There were two DC tables -- Minx & Vertigo. Chatted with Vertigo editor Bob Schreck. He has new stuff a-brewin' but nothing that can be announced before San Diego. With his experience at Oni, Comico, & Dark Horse, I would expect indie books that fit the general Vertigo framework but with a twist. I've enjoyed various Vertigo titles over the years but I think that twist would really spice up the line.

Next was pumping Vertigo assistant editor Brandon Montclare for news on the Minx line. I asked him about the ratio of female talent as opposed to male talent in the Minx line. He said that actually, women make up roughly half the talent working for the line -- which is apparently going full-speed ahead in terms of pub plans. A "Plain Janes" sequel in the works? Maybe. Some serialized, multi-volume works? A possibility.

This Minx book "Confessions of a Blabbermouth," about a female blogger, sounds interesting.

I chatted with Tim Leong, editor-of-chief of the new magazine Comic Foundry (debuting in September) -- which looks awesome. Gushed to Rick Veitch over his Vertigo book "Can't Get No" -- which I rarely do to any comic creator: "it's literature, man...it's $%*^$# literature. it moved me man..." Thankfully there was no one to witness said geekery. There was also Dean Trippe (who drew that awesome Supergirl piece I've ran in an earlier post), Tim Fish (from the webcomic/anthology "Young Bottoms in Love,"), artist/burlesque dancer Bonnie Voyage, Papercutz editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup, "Fishtown" creator Kevin Colden, Eisner-nominated "Onion Head Monster" Paul Friedrich, Christine Norrie ("Breaking Up"), "Soon I Will Be Invincible" author Austin Grossman, Pop Image co-editor-in-chief Ed Matthews, and Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf's "Essex County" series).

Bumped into The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, who hadn't seen me in at least three years. She looked really awesome, and she said I looked very awesome...I'm thinking that there is some link to blogging/looking awesome.

But the highlight of MoCCA?

Bacon-Man.