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STRIPBURGER #37
by various
(
Strip Core; distributed by
Top Shelf and
others)
Review by Chris Polkki
The concept of the latest
Stripburger #37 seems promising enough - an issue emphasizing Russian comics - but unfortunately, the results are only mildly successful.
Things don't bode well when the issue's apparent "showcase" artist, Peter Kuper, comes off relatively poorly. His four-page satire, which likens the President to Richie Rich, is well-drawn, but its grating anti-Bush humor quickly wears out its welcome (when are cartoonists going to stop preaching to the converted - it's the easy way out - and start finding meatier, more provocative targets?).
Kuper's contribution might not have seemed so disappointing if at least some of the other artists had chosen to rise to the occasion. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this does not happen. One piece, Xixyc's "Nihon Stories", could have been an interesting juxtaposition of Russian and Japanese sensibilities, if not for the unappealing
Simpsons-like caricatures. Another, "Oporoka", by Tomas Lavric, seems lovingly drawn and beautifully composed, but the damn thing is untranslated. [
Actually, although it can be easy to miss, each issue does come with a translation sheet for those few stories not lettered in English. –ed.] Even a collaboration between two established artists, Max Andersson and Lars Sjunnesson, comes off as leaden and overly talky.
Nonetheless, as a survey of a geo-cultural moment,
Stripburger #37 serves a useful purpose: cultural anthropologists interested in a global perspective
of contemporary comics may very well enjoy reading it. The rest of us, meanwhile, might prefer something with a little more meat on the bone.
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