Two Things

Not to be too much of a fanboy or anything, but I have two things to say...

First: If you're not reading Scott Pilgrim you're either irredeemably OLD, or you're missing out on some of the most wholeheartedly energetic and wildly inventive comics work today. I finally received my copy of Volume 3 and it continues the high quality of the first two volumes. More about it later.

Second: If you're not reading Bryan Lee O'Malley's Annotated Pilgrim (part 1, part 2, more to come) on Livejournal, you are not using your internet conenction to its full potential. Disconnect your service, sell of your computer, and move to Siberia with your head hung in shame. There is no excuse.

Thanks for your time.

Spiral Bound

Aaron Renier's Spiral Bound is a book that I'd had my eye on for a while, before I finally picked up a copy at APE earlier this year. I liked the art style on the cover, and the book was attractively designed, with a great attention to detail. It was made up to look like a hand decorated spiral bound notebook, as you can see from the image above. What you can't see from that image is how far that idea was taken: the spine has an image of metal spirals with a pencil tucked into them; the back cover is made to look like a typical cardboard backing, complete with faux price stickers; the page edges have half-toned rule lines like notebook paper, which are visible on the edges when the book is closed. It's a charming book, without even getting into the contents.

But the contents are where this book truly shines. Renier has created a rare thing here, a book with the superficial trappings of a children's story that is nevertheless emotionally complex, and moving without being manipulative.

The story takes place in Estabrook, a town of anthropomorphic animals of all species. The world of Estabrook is well thought out, although it works on it's own odd logic. The town has a small-town feel, where all the characters know each other and gossip spreads quickly, in part due to the underground newspaper, The Scoop. The events of Spiral Bound take place during a school vacation, when the younger children are enrolling in various camps. Our protagonist, a shy young elephant named Turnip, chooses sculpture camp, at the urging of his new friend, the exuberant dog Stucky. The sculpture camp will culminate with a sculpture garden event near the town pond. Thing is, the town pond is rumored to be the home of a large monster, and controversy erupts in the town when this plan comes to light.

It all takes place in a world where anything goes. A free public sculpture class taught by a whale? Why not? A haunted pond? Sure! A series of underground tunnels and secret passageways into seemingly every business in town, known only to the staff of the underground newspaper? Hell yes! A rock band with a giraffe drummer, rhinoceros turntablist, feline singer, and bear accordionist? You betcha! Renier's Estabrook is that sort of wildly imaginative place. And the characters who inhabit it are well-developed, with distinct personalities and flaws. There are no evil characters, but plenty of conflict arises out of their misunderstandings and differences of opinion, and this is a touch of realism that really helps sell the idea of Estabrook, and it's otherwise fantastic goings-on.

The story arcs of various characters loop around each other, until they all become intertwined around the question of what exactly is in that mysterious pond? While the staff of the Scoop, including new reporter Ana Rabbit, do some digging for answers, Stucky is working on his own plan to discover the truth, using the submarine he's building at sculpture camp. Meanwhile, Turnip struggles with his frustration with art and his unrequited crush on Viola the mouse, and inadvertently gets caught up in the intrigue.

One interesting creative choice Renier made is to keep a realistic sense of scale betweent he various animals of Estabrook. Ranging from the diminutive (Junebug, who runs the deli, Emily the bird, Viola the mouse) to the gargantuan (Turnip's father, an intimidatingly large and short-tempered bull elephant, Ms. Skrimshaw, whale who teaches sculpture from inside a huge rolling fishbowl), with all range of sizes in between. It's an interesting change from the typical anthropomorphic animals in many comics, who often seem to be generic human-proportioned bodies with animal heads. It's more reminiscent of the character designs in Walt Kelly's Pogo (a clear artistic influence here), but with a wider range of sizes. It's not just a stylistic conceit however, but is exploited for dramatic effect as well, like the terrifying moment when Turnip's father finds Ana Rabbit and Emily snooping in his bookshop.

It's become a cliche at this point to say that a book (or movie, etc.) is truly all ages, but Spiral Bound is certainly that. It's young protagonists' hijinks are straight out of the textbook on young adult adventure fiction, but it's their solidly depicted emotional arcs and growth that really drives the story and gives it a wide appeal. It's an amazing book on all levels, and excellent value, with 184 dense pages for only $15. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Knee Deep In Comic Goodness

I am sure it is obvious (and fairly annoying) how smitten we are with Seattle a mere six months or so into our hometown conversion. And I swear one day we will stop being so in love and move into that no-shaving, lounging on the couch in sweats, chewing with our mouth open phase. But until then I insist that Seattle is the hottest thing around, as it seems as though each week a new comic event pops up to remind us how nice it is to live here.

This week Seattle brings to our doorstep Alison Bechdel, who will be doing TWO events on her Fun Home tour:
Friday June 16
University Book Store, 7:00PM

Saturday June 17
Third Place Books, drop-by signing, 2:00 PM
Bailey Coy Books, 7:00 PM (This will take place at The Wild Rose Bar, 1021 E. Pike Street, Seattle 206.324.9210 )

Lucky us, right?!? Check out her tour page to see if she will be gracing your city as well.

If you need a refresher on how much I love Alison, check out the previous post I did about a few books in her Dykes to Watch Out For series. She's an awesome cartoonist and makes me a bit weak in the knees. Just like Seattle.

Scottaholism

Dear Comics Blogs:

I love Scott Pilgrim, as much, if not more than, you all do. And this makes me sad. Why? Because I haven't yet been able to read Volume 3, even though I've salivated over it's release for months and months, and have seen it sitting on the shelf at my local comics shop, taunting me. You see, I'm waiting for my signed copy to show up in the mail before I read it, and so far I've been able to resist buying an unsigned copy to read beforehand, like I did with Volume 2. But really, this is torture. I'm about to claw my eyes out in anticipation.

In other words, STOP FUCKING POSTING REVIEWS! It's too much! It's like you're all just trying to torment me while I wait...and wait...and wait...

But it'll be worth it. In a few more days, I'll be able to dig in, read and re-read it, savor the humour and drama and action and giddiness and squeal like a schoolgirl. And then, finally, I can find out what people have been saying about it for the past few weeks.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Marjane Satrapi in Seattle

Of all the amazing work being done in the comics medium today, very few books bubble up from the comics-reading audience into the mainstream of literary recognition. While books like Love & Rockets, or more commonly, Watchmen, might get name-checked in periodic "Blam! Pow! Comics Aren't for Kids Anymore!" articles, and books like Blankets sometimes show up on adventurous year-end lists, not many comics manage to grab a foothold in that mainstream. Even though we have work like Chester Brown's Louis Riel, and Joe Sacco's "comics journalism" in Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde, only Speigelman's Maus seems to have any enduring presence in the minds of the general populace.

In light of this, it was great to see a packed house at Seattle's Town Hall (also the site of a recent Harvey Pekar appearance) for Marjane Satrapi's appearance, the final event in Seattle Public Library's "Seattle Reads Persepolis" series.

After a brief introduction from one of the event organizers, Marjane took over the stage. She had a lot to say, and said it very quickly, in a seemingly unbroken stream of ideas delivered in a fluent, but heavily accented English, drawing frequent laughter and applause from the crowd. It was a wide ranging talk, beginning with her recently gained French citizenship, and how having a French passport has changed the way she's treated while traveling. Apparently, an Iranian passport will get you asked what kind of weapons you're carrying, while a French passport prompts questions about what kind of cheese you have with you.

She spoke a lot about why Persepolis, her memoir of childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, was created as a comic (because the universality of images helped her communicate her story to a wider audience, and because the process of writing seemed linked with the drawing to her), and also about some of her choices in the structure and style of the book. For example, her decision to make the story black and white was partly motivated out of a desire to keep the violent scenes more abstract, feeling that the use of red for blood in theses scenes would rob the victims of some human dignity, turning them into "a piece of meat" on the page.

She also discussed some of the reaction to her choice of medium, including a couple of witty moments, like comparing cartoonists to bisexuals (to paraphrase: "You're heterosexual? Fine, no one has a problem. Homosexual? OK. But if you can't choose between sexes, or between words and pictures, then people have a problem!"), and her response to people asking why she didn't just write a book (again, paraphrasing: "But I did! I just used pictures to write it. Nobody asks the filmmakers 'Why didn't you dance instead?' or asks writers why they didn't paint a picture").

There was a lot of talk devoted to Iran, touching briefly on it's history and it's impact on Marjane herself. She made it a point to tell us that, even though she had recently become a French citizen, she still considers herself Iranian, or at least considers Iran a part of her (I can't remember her exact phrasing, and I don't have a transcript of the event). It's easy to see why, as the events detailed in Persepolis show a young woman growing up with a political consciousness at an early age, with the realities of revolution and warfare forced on her and her family in unavoidable ways as a matter of daily routine. Another memorable statement: Iranis like her mother, who she didn't choose, but will always be there. Paris, her new home, is like her wife, who she chose and will probably cheat on.

Next up, after her sprawling, engrossing talk, was a moderated Q&A session. Questions included her artistic influences and favorites (the usual suspects, such as Spiegelman, Ware, Clowes, and Sacco). She was also asked about her feelings on feminism, a label she rejects in favor of humanism. Frankly, my memory is a little hazy on this portion. Maybe if Serene remembers something I don't', she'll edit this post to add it (wink wink).

A brief standing ovation and signing session (with a line stretching all the way around the room) concluded the evening. It was great to see a packed house of readers, not just comic readers, for this event, and I'm sure it helps that book is not only incredible, but timely as well. Persepolis and Persepolis 2 are still widely available in bookstores, and come highly recommended from a variety of sources, and the Seattle Public Library will soon have DVD's of this event available, for locals who missed out.

Fredo Kicks All Your Asses

I had seen this cover before. Many times before, in fact. I've picked it up everytime I encountered it, admired the artwork, thought about buying it, and put it down for some completely insane and stupid reason that is escaping me right now. Emo self-deprecation aside, I eventually did buy this issue (Shpilkes #0), along with it's follow-up Shpilkes #1. And goddamn, I'm glad I did.

Fredo's art has a weird, spooky, creepy, dreamy element to it, and is backed up with substantial short stories. His Xeric grant in 2000 lead to the publication of Shpilkes #0, and I can see why he caught the eye of the judges. He comes across as a confident artist with a twisted narrative. What's not to love?

But all this fangirling aside, what made me want to sing his praises publically was his mini that I picked up at the Olympia Comic Festival (see Dylan's post, if you haven't read it already).


B'NAU-5000 first caught my eye with it's cool screenprinted cover, but it kept my attention with a very cool all-ages story about a planet-wide race and clean, crisp art style.

So you lucky bastards going to MoCCA: do yourself a favor and check out this gem.

And for you fellow cool kids in Seattle: go to Marjane Satrapi's talk at Town Hall tonight, courtesy of the lovely folks at the Seattle Public Library. We'll be lost in the crowd of comic peeps, literary snobs, bored folks wanting to get out of the nasty rain we are having, and people who just like going to free events.

And for you sad bastards who don't fall into either of the categories, check out Fredo's sketch blog. It'll at least give you a cure-all from a boring and uneventful Friday night.