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Here's a quick run down of what is coming out this springy summer season from your humble Comic servants:
Peter Bagge is on with a new series from DARK HORSE called RESET (clickety click here & check out some preview pages!), a 2nd of 4 issue has just come out on the 16th. Looks like a romp!
DRAWN AND QUARTERLY has the complete selection of their ambitious Yoshihiro Tatsumi short story collection out as handy soft covers, along with the NEWly published FALLEN WORDS that just came out this month: GO GO Go check out his complete catalog here! Watch out though, his work is poetic and beautiful, but mercilessly disturbing.
For more wig-out Japanese avant-guarde action, check out SHIGERU MIZUKI's first ever english translation of ghost storie's in NONNONBA (Click the fat word!) and Imiri Sakabashira's exceptional BOX MAN.*
Speaking of disturbingly surreal/real tales of the human spirit, D&Q is also bringing out a collection of CHESTER BROWNS ED THE HAPPY CLOWN. This surrealist classic made Chester realize what he was wanting for in his work - and what a ride he took to get there!
*Needless to say, these books all are milestones in their own right and should give you a good overview of what the wild Japanese comics literature is, looking beyond all the crazy Sci-Fi trash (sic!) kids TV is floored with right now. Previews of all books should be availible on the site! Thanks for reading!
All pictures and work owned by the artists and/or respective owners.
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COMICS WATCH #1 + DORKY intro:
So I was jus' wantin' to let ya know what a steamin' hot cool load of books came out from FANTAGRAPHICS this April, you know the splendid folks that brought you the likes of EIGHTBALL, LOVE AND ROCKETs and BLACK HOLE. Click on the fat titles to get linked to FANTA SITE where you can read real info (as opposed to my clutters) and best of all preview the books either via video or .pdf. Now, ain't that some sweet providin'??? AWright, here is the run down:
#1 WALLY GROPIOUS by Tim Hensley
FIRST OFF, I want to shine a light on a book that's near and dear to my cringed little heart: The Wally Gropious Collection by Tim Hensley. It's a whipcrack of sweet cartoon sounds, strips bathed in the molten sauce of their own history and crafted to perferction ba the marvelous hands of Mr. Hensley. WALLY is what undedicated mainstream readers would decline as ABSTRACT, but really it's the source of classical cartooning brought up to modern hights, by way of keeping all of the profoundly whack standards intact that make it so great. It's quick, it's sharp, it's terrifying but with all the sweetness you can think off. Kind of like GARAGEPUNK, it's so rough, it will cast off most, but those who dig it, are most likely to stay forever in this rich and wondrous world.
#2 Sand & Fury: A Scream Queen Adventure by Ho Che Anderson
Ho Che Anderson in Black an' White! The awesome painted cover and the broad Horror and B-Movie refferences (don't take it from me kids - see for yourself!) in this one make it a jump into your-kind-of-temprature water and will most likely please your garagerockin' eyzzzzz. Nuff said!
#3 Classic Pin-up Art of Jack Cole
In line with our nod #1 to sweet Cahmics and their background, Jack Coles Cartoons (yes, it says classic!) bring back the grandour of a time when you could still read the papers and find something else but Garfield and your local syndicated Flinstones rip off strip. If ya dig yerself some 50's raunch from the likes of the covers of the "Mens Adventure" mags and pulps, this is the cartoon stuff that would fill the space inbetween those crazy ass stories! Also of PLAYBOY fame.
#4 It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi
Tardi is another Noir Classic, this time around from the other side of the nightpan called the Atlantic. His Books and stories around odd looking detectives and their just as odd opponents and lovers inherit low life cult status and are a thing to themselves. It's crime in black and white and just as you know that things are going to go sour for your PI/Cop character, it's likely that the story is going to be bedded in a big knockover unitl the end swings around to finally blow out the stars swirling over ones head.
#5 BLAZING COMBAT by Archie Goodwin and Various Artists
To take a flight back to 'merica in the mid 60's, here is what Comics were when they were Comics, errrrm, you know: Classic stuff, Adventure, Horror, Romance, Pulps and of course: War Comics. Just a genre as all genres back then, but with a knack and regraded with highest praise when it comes to artists that would fill the pages: ALEX TOTH, WALLY WOOD, FRANK FRAZETTA, you name 'em they are in this book. Now I am a Punk and I couldn't give less of a damn about all this warrin' business. Neither could the authors it seems, so this is more about the gruesome effects of the warmachine and the losses connected to it. Brought to you in stark Black an' White artwork, straight from the genepool of Comics. So I'm takin' my dive into that one.
#6 THE CULTURE CORNER by BASIL WOLVERTON
"This book is funny, doh!" I really need not say more, as I just know good ol' Basil has a bunch of interested readers around the corners of the GARAGEPUNK network. But just for the sake of it: IT'S WOLVERTON DOING STRIPS! YAY!
#7 HATE ANNUAL #8 by Peter Bagge
Some new BUDDY stuff, some compiled stories from varied sources from over the year. Hell, you just gotta know that this years HATE Annual is out and you don't need to scorn thru every single magazine that the stuff in it was published in, but can read it all in a handy volume. Perfect for school when you need to hide it behind your CHEMISTRY books and do something REALLY useful. What?!?! You actually liked school? Get outta here!
#8 ABANDONED CARS (Softcover!) by TIM LANE
Ok, I plead to end this summeration with a SLAMMER! Granted? OK: Just check out the fabulous covers on this one please, it's TIM LANE, man with a plan when it comes to his Comics. Fat as lard artwork, smooth as chevy seat leather writing. Again all in Black and White, wrapping his tales of urban confusion into one hell of sandwich.
Now it's stuuuuuupid in my op to say "this is good because it looks like that", but Tim is a living testament of the Awesomness (Capital!) of the modern Underground-gone-art-novel style Comics of CRUMB, BURNS and CLOWES and slammin' that to the table with his own finesse. He is the latest in their DNA string. But see for yourself and be petrified!
Here for the stir
