Comix!
After finishing some contract work at the Diesel, ducked into MacIntyre & Moore to wait out the rain, and bought some comics they had lying around.
* A 1970s collection of Howard Cruse's "Barefootz". I had heard of this strip, but hadn't actually seen it on paper before. I know it more as a contemporary of other cartoons from the era that I adore. Indeed, these early examples aren't very good, and the art style's a little creepy. A newcomer probably won't realize that the main character is not supposed to be a little boy, though if you read far enough in from any given point this will become clear soon enough. Think "Peanuts" with T&A and occasional bouts of graphic sex.
* "God's Bosom", a collection of strips about the post-Columbian history of Texas, by Jack Jackson. Published in 1995 but reprinting a lot of stuff from the 1970s through the 1990s. This guy's work is new to me! He's got the scratchy-scratchy style that marks him as a member of the R. Crumb underground school, but more specifically reminds me a lot of John Severin's work (in "Cracked" and elsewhere). A bit heavy on multi-panel layouts of stomach-churning depictions of atrocities, though. Barf.
* "40 Hour Man", a hefty 2006 memoir written by Stephen Beaupre, with comics-style illustrations on on every page by Steve Lafler. I think I'll like it; it's a chronicle of every job the writer had, from a stockboy in the 1970s through his layoff at Lycos. Oddly, folded into the front cover (I only now notice!) is a letter that makes it clear this was a review copy sent to The Dig, a Boston-area indie weekly. That it ended up in a used bookshop with the letter still there makes me a little sad. If I end up writing a proper review here, I'll point the authors at it. Shrug.
* A 1970s collection of Howard Cruse's "Barefootz". I had heard of this strip, but hadn't actually seen it on paper before. I know it more as a contemporary of other cartoons from the era that I adore. Indeed, these early examples aren't very good, and the art style's a little creepy. A newcomer probably won't realize that the main character is not supposed to be a little boy, though if you read far enough in from any given point this will become clear soon enough. Think "Peanuts" with T&A and occasional bouts of graphic sex.
* "God's Bosom", a collection of strips about the post-Columbian history of Texas, by Jack Jackson. Published in 1995 but reprinting a lot of stuff from the 1970s through the 1990s. This guy's work is new to me! He's got the scratchy-scratchy style that marks him as a member of the R. Crumb underground school, but more specifically reminds me a lot of John Severin's work (in "Cracked" and elsewhere). A bit heavy on multi-panel layouts of stomach-churning depictions of atrocities, though. Barf.
* "40 Hour Man", a hefty 2006 memoir written by Stephen Beaupre, with comics-style illustrations on on every page by Steve Lafler. I think I'll like it; it's a chronicle of every job the writer had, from a stockboy in the 1970s through his layoff at Lycos. Oddly, folded into the front cover (I only now notice!) is a letter that makes it clear this was a review copy sent to The Dig, a Boston-area indie weekly. That it ended up in a used bookshop with the letter still there makes me a little sad. If I end up writing a proper review here, I'll point the authors at it. Shrug.