Hey, kids! Comics short takes!
Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost (First Second)
Vermont’s Center for Cartoon Studies offers this super fun book introducing budding young cartoonists — that is, kids — to the language of sequential art. It’s not a boring how-to, though — they wrap the instruction around a knight’s quest to save a princess from a candy-hoarding dragon. Along for the ride is his teacher, a magic elf, who offers the knight cartooning instruction solutions to getting himself out of pickles. Hilarious and informative!
Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death by Dave Malki (Dark Horse)
Utilizing vintage clip art as his visual weapon, cartoonist Dave Malki zooms past so many other cartoonists for sheer smarts and sharp dialog in this new collection of his “Wondermark” web comic. It would be easy to coast on the juxtaposition — Dickensian oafs talking about blogs is possibly funny without much effort — but Malki keeps injecting piss and vinegar intellect and observation in there. Someday, “Wondermark” will be used to sell Dolly Madison snack cakes.
Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Lemire’s acclaimed trilogy is collected in one book and begs the indulgence of anyone who missed it the first time around. Focusing on a rural 
Canadian community, the historical and emotional connections between a circle of current residents are examined through surrealism and psychology. It’s a jarring and haunting view of the hidden connections and a quiet work that benefits from the jagged visual imagery. Lauded outside of the comic book world and justifiably so, Lemire provides a bleak introspection that is related more to Ingmar Bergman than anything else in comics.
Long Time Gone #1 & 2 by George Cochrane (Mass MoCA)
It’s not often that an art museum puts out a comic book, but the Mass MoCA in North Adams breaks new ground with Long Time Gone, painter George Cochrane’s 24-issue epic foray. Capturing a day in the life via a netherworld where the conscious and subconscious collide, Cochrane references Homer and James Joyce as he pulls in the history of comics as his layout guide. For added layers, Cochrane collaborates with his seven year old daughter. I’ve never seen anything like it in comics — it’s one of the most visually rich creations in the form — and if copies of the actual comic disappear from the museum store, you can always read it page by page on the walls of the gallery.
Low Moon by Jason (Fantagraphics)
Dry and absurd as ever, Norwegian cartoonist Jason returns with an anthology featuring more of the verbally-spare cartoon animals that populate his surreal and depthful extended gag strips. The five stories within — on of which was serialized in the New York Times Sunday Magazine — offer up loss, despair, fear, mystery, rejection, humiliation and multiple other downers as played out by a bunch of lanky cats and dogs with stunned expression. The best stories include “Proto Film Noir,” in which lovers’ plot to kill the woman’s husband turns into some Sisyphusean cosmic joke, and “You Are Here,” an heartbreaking tale of irony that examines dysfunctional families by way of UFO abductions. There’s no other cartoonist with Jason’s somber deadpan and this serves as a great introduction to his work.
Marvin Monster by John Stanley (Drawn & Quarterly)
A great one one for the kiddies as well as the adults! The antidote to antiseptic childrens’ comics of the 1950s, but unlike EC horrors, this one meets the goody-two-shoes on their own level. The inspired creation of John Stanley, who otherwise found renown for his work on Little Lulu, Marvin Monster is a bit of dark tomfoolery with a smart edge about a young ghoul who doesn’t want to be bad. Unfortunately for monsters, bad is good — and his Mummy and Baddy want him to be very bad. Melvin mixes with the human world and contends with the absurd elements of the monster one in his quest get through life with as little gruesomeness as possible.
MOME Vol 15 (Fantagraphics)
The summer edition of this journal of intentionally obscure modern cartooning manages to be more pleasing than curious to those who might not be inclined toward the experimental — it’s a good introduction to short works from the other side. Particularly interesting are Ray Fenwick’s “How I Do It,” T. Edward Bask’s “Stellar” and Noah Van Scriver’s “True Tale of the Denver Spider-Man” all of which bring an edge of teetering and playful insanity to the anthology.
Second Thoughts by Niklas Asker (Top Shelf)
Pushing aside bombast and embracing quiet subtlety and emotional maturity, Niklas Asker takes the graphic novel into new territory, albeit an unassuming one. Like a small foreign film contained wthin a graphic novel, “Second Thoughts” follows parallel romances in turm
oil, juxtaposing two different relationships with one love bird each flying its respective coop. A brief meeting in the airport sets into motion these two intimate investigations of doubt and change in love, unfolding with understanding and delicacy from Asker.
Sgt Rock: The Lost Battalion# 1 - 6 (DC Comics)
Creator Billy Tucci weaves DC Comics characters like Sgt. Rock and the crew of the Haunted Tank into a real incident at the end of World War II. Rather than going for the existential quality of the classic DC war comics, Tucci brings the characters into a well-considered reality, filled with action, but also a hefty amount of characterization and analysis. It’s not quite Sgt. Rock as we’ve known him — he’s really only one character in a tapestry that reveals battle as a collaborative fury — but Tucci provides a solid war story of depth. A hardcover collection will be released in September.
Wednesday Comics #1 - 6 (DC Comics)
Armed with a clever marketing plan — a weekly newspaper tabloid format — and some first rate talent, DC ushers comics backwards and forwards at the same time. Boasting 15 one-page, serialized adventures, this is a delight from start to finish with several standouts — a Prince Valiant inspired take on Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth; Paul Pope’s primitive and exciting Adam Strange, a stylish Little Nemo style take on Wonder Woman, Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s old-fashioned Metamorpho, Kubert father and son tackling Sgt. Rock,and a dizzying split Flash strip — half superhero adventure, half dramatic romance comic as seen through the eyes of his wife. Are comics actually fun again?
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