Hidden Treasure

So how is it that one of the most amazing used book/record/magazine/comic book stores I've ever visited is quite literally about 4 blocks from my house, on a route I drive almost daily, and it took me 2 and a half mmonths to set foot inside? I'm talking about the imaginatively and accurately named Half Price Books on Belmont, in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, a repository of used (and presumably overstock) bookssold at half the publisher's original price. As if that wasn't cool enough, they also have a nice, neat little record (as in vinyl) section near the front of the store, used CDs, and most importantly, a treasure trove of comics in the basement!

Now, I won't say the selection is huge, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in diversity and, sometimes, rarity. Digging through their bins of back issues yielded a good selection of older Fantagraphics books (old Eightball and Hate and Artbabe issues were prominently represented); tons of Sarah Dyer's Action Girl series; piles of Love & Rockets (the original magazine sized series as well as newer issues and trade paperbacks); a fine selection of Oni Press titles; and lots of other little treasures. Of course, you have to dig through piles of old Image Comics and lots of undersold crap from other big superhero publishers to get to the good stuff, but it looks worth it. A couple of scores:

Acme Novelty Library #1 (Fantagraphics Books, $3.95)

Everybody's read Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan of course, but most people (myself included) have read it in book form, rather than in the serial form it was originally published in, and there's a little bit of material that was left out of the collected edition. A few early Jimmy Corrigan pieces are available in this book, from 1998. Most notable is the extended fantasy sequence involving a young Jimmy Corrigan shrinking, building a rocket, splitting himself in two, and regenerating body parts. Not exactly the morose, caustic realism we expect from this particular protagonist, but it certainly piles on the misery as we'd expect. Also included here are a few short strips featuring Ware regulars like Big Tex, God the superhero, and the cycloptic robot. Definitely worth a look for the Jimmy Corrigan fantasy piece alone, even if you've read the colelcted Jimmy Corrigan.

Different Beat Comics (Fantagraphics Books, $3.50)

This is a collection of short strips by various Fantagraphics cartoonists, including the Hernandez Bros., R. Crumb, Roberta Gregory, Joe Sacco, a collaboration between Dan Clowes (art) and Peter Bagge (story), and others. Pretty scattershot as far as subject matter is concerned, with everything from sci-fi (Jaime Hernandez's Cheetah Torpeda story), autobio/ranting (Joe Sacco's "Painfully Portland"), and bizarre fantasy (Jim Woodring's "Frank" strip). It's like a b-sides and outtakes collection from a hip indie records label, full of curiosities and hidden treasure.

On a previous trip to the aforementioned Confounded Books, I picked up another little gem:

Papercutter #1 (Tugboat Press, $3.00)

An anthology title by a trio of artists, Aaron Renier, JP Coovert, and Sean Aaberg. Renier's piece is the centerpiece and obvious standout story, a gorgeously drawn (true?) account of chance encounter and instant romantic connection set at a zine convention and a museum. The writing is casual but carries the mood perfectly, with a few amazingly illustrated sequences of magical realism (along similar lines as the beautiful cover pictured above). Is the Ben character based on Ben Snakepit perhaps? Hmm....maybe not. Coovert's piece is a brief but effective pantomime, a simply drawn slice-of-life moment that implies a lot, but needs little explanation. Aaberg's work I was less enthralled with; his idiosyncratic art style and jagged, stream-of-conciousness writing felt less developed than the two previous pieces, despite the obviously meticulous attention and skillful tone work that went into it. Chalk my dislike up to personal taste perhaps, or just being disappointed after the strength of the first two entries.

P.S.: By the time you read this, I will have added cover images to my previous post about The Mourning Star. Check 'em out, they're beeeeeeeautiful.