Tag Archives: independent

Inkweed

24 Apr

Copyright Chris Wright

During an excellent interview about his debut book, Inkweed, author Chris Wright poses the question, “Is restraint a virtue?” Though the quote refers to one story from the collection in particular, that same questioning can be applied to all of Wright’s ambitious work. With his bizarre visual style, philosophical themes, and literary dialogue, his work shows a bold inventiveness and an overriding desire to elevate the medium of comics to an unprecedented level, even at the risk of alienating some readers.

Inkweed is a collection of short works produced between 2002 and 2007, yet the book feels more like a unified whole than a hodge-podge of unrelated stories. The works range from 15-20 page stories to single-page drawings, but the same high level of quality is consistent. Themes like an obsession with art, the nature of existence, despair, and futility recur throughout the book and simultaneously tie the works together and give us a glimpse into Wright’s mind and his own artistic goals.

The first thing a new reader will notice about Wright’s work is his distinctive drawing style; his characters are mostly humanoid but with distorted figures and features, their bodies often distorted to match their personalities, and the distortions are more extreme in the shorter pieces. Just as intriguing is the fact that his female characters lack all this distortion; aside from some slight stylization, they appear almost human.

Many of the stories in Inkweed feature characters at the end of their lives, reflecting on what’s come before and what’s left for them. The characters are well-written and very convincing, and this is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Wright was in college and his early 20s when he drew these stories.

Inkweed isn’t for everyone, there’s no doubt about that. But if this sounds like something you’d like, I guarantee that it’s something you’ll love. This book has really changed the way I think about comics, and art in general, and I’d say this is essential reading for anyone interested in creating. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Blacklung, Wright’s first full-length book, which is finally being published after years of difficulty with publishers, and which received a particularly glowing advance review. (I’m pre-ordering a copy)

Happy reading,

-Nate

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Misc. Monday – SPX wrap-up

12 Sep

Well, SPX was pretty outstanding. The main exhibition floor was in a large ballroom in a hotel convention center, so it had a real ritzy feel to it, but given the number of exhibitors and attendees (shouldn’t it be “attenders?” The convention is the “attendee”) it got pretty packed. That said, everybody there made the best of the limited space and nobody I encountered was rude. The big names at the convention (Craig Thompson, Kate Beaton, and others) had designated signing times, which is understandable, but we ended up missing the Thompson signing because we a) didn’t know there were designated times until we got there, and b) they had already capped the line by the time we got in. Se la vie.

Aside from the huge lines for the big names, there were almost no lines to meet the artists and writers, giving the twofold benefit of not having to wait and not feeling rushed while talking to the exhibitors. All the exhibitors I spoke with were really kind and gracious, no prima donnas like at bigger cons. Some of the artists I met were Evan Dahm (Rice Boy), Aaron Diaz (Dresden Codak), KC Green (Gunshow), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), and Nate Powell. Plus there were a ton of great, lesser-known artists showing their work at the Expo, and it was great to walk around and take it all in, plus find some cool stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Based on when we got to the show, when we had to leave, and the day’s panels, we ended up only going to one, a Q&A with the outstanding Craig Thompson. The questions were mainly about his upcoming book Habibi, which was fine because the pages he previewed for us looked astounding, and the discussion was interesting as well. I’m planning on picking up a copy asap, and you can expect a review of it here soon.

I spent more money at the show than I intended to, and I’m still reading through all of it, but I wanted to give a few highlights out of what I picked up, in the hopes that you’ll check it out and support these great artists. So without further ado:

  • Midnite Surprise, by KC Green- An absolutely hilarious collection of random comics and drawings from his blog of the same name. If you like Gunshow, or if you’ve never read Gunshow but like random, sometimes crude humor, definitely check out the blog. This one really surprised me.
  • Pang the Wandering Shaolin Monk, by Ben Costa- This is a great series about (you guessed it) a traveling Shaolin monk in 16th century China. Costa has really done his research, and the book is filled with footnotes explaining various plot points and historical references. His drawings have a really distinctive look as well, a somewhat-cartoony style that brings to mind Asian ink paintings. Add to all this the fact that he self-publishes the book with a grant from the prestigious Xeric Foundation (one of the last, now that the foundation is ending its grants). The whole comic is online to read for free, but the first printed volume is really well-done, and if you like the comic I’d recommend picking up a copy.
  • The Blot, by Tom Neely– I discovered Tom Neely by just browsing through the SPX guest list in the weeks before the show, and was really blown away by what was on his website. The Blot is a mostly wordless, semi-abstract tale that blends an innocent-looking visual style with some dark psychological themes, and is very, very impressive. I really wanted to pick up Neely’s new book The Wolf as well, which is even more abstract (and disturbing, by the looks of it), but I just didn’t have the cash. Based on The Blot though, I’ll be ordering a copy once my wallet has had a chance to recover.

I wish I could tell you about everything I saw there, but I just don’t have the time or space, and is a great reason why you should go next year! The atmosphere at the show is one of support and a shared love of comics, and seeing so many people who have self-published their work, in most cases for nothing more than a passion for comics, is really inspiring. The Con continues to grow, so I’m sure next year will be even better, and it’ll be one you won’t want to miss.

Happy reading,

-Nate

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And so it begins…

30 Aug

Like a lot of people my age, I grew up watching the various superhero cartoons that were on in the early 90’s, like Batman, X-Men and Spiderman. My fascination with these heroes led to an early interest in comics, which has held true up to today. One thing I noticed over time, though, was that I hadn’t read very many comics featuring the characters I grew up on. After exploring a bit with some of their comics, I noticed that I liked the idea of these characters better than the comics themselves (with a few notable exceptions). Eventually I reached a point where the idea of reading about the same characters doing essentially the same things again and again just wasn’t appealing anymore. This was also around the same time that I started reading series that weren’t published by Marvel or DC, and which had fresh ideas, by writers and artists who took risks. I haven’t looked back.

Early on, the process of discovering new series to read was pretty much a dart toss, and I judged a lot of books by their covers. Since books put out by smaller publishers (let alone those self-published by artists) don’t get much publicity, it’s still somewhat difficult to find good new books to read. I decided that I wanted to help other people in a similar situation find some good reads, and maybe get some of the superhero faithful to try something different. So this blog will be dedicated to reviewing alternative/independent/underground/whatever comics; so we don’t get too caught up in definitions, it’ll basically be anything not a) published by Marvel or DC and b) anything focused on superheroes. I’ll try to feature a mix of classics and some lesser-known titles, so hopefully newcomers and connoisseurs alike will find something of interest here. Feel free to leave me a comment with any suggestions you might have, or what sort of stuff you’d like me to write about.

One last note on the blog’s content. For a lot of reasons, but mainly for the fact that there are way too many comics worth your time to waste space reviewing those that aren’t, you’ll only find positive reviews here. That, of course, does not mean that I like everything I read; you just won’t find those books here.

I’ll have the first review up tomorrow, and I plan to stick to a regular update schedule after that, probably a MWF schedule.

Thanks for reading!

-Nate

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