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Friday, March 05, 2004
< comics/x >
NAKEDFELLA COMICS #8
($4.00 AUS from David Blumenstein / PO Box 2229 / Caulfield Junction / Victoria, 3161 / AUSTRALIA. Web: www.nakedfella.com)
There's some pretty amusing work in this David Blumenstein production but my favorite is a 16-page "24-hour comic" drawn entirely in pencil. There's just something about uninked pencils I like a lot. They usually seem much more lively, more organic, pleasing. It's not that the inks throughout the rest of the book aren't good, but I think pieces like this make a good case for abandoning ink pens – at least occasionally.
The second-longest strip (10 pages) is a sarcastic look at a trio of ineffectual (well, mostly) culture jammers that has a few good jokes. I'm not completely certain whether the jab is aimed at culture jammers in general or just the lame ones, but this is based on a short film, Culture Jamming, which you can view at his site. I wanted to watch it but got tired of waiting for my crappy computer to load it.
Other strips deal with his unruly Jewboy hair ("Jew & 'Fro" – har!), John Wayne, exactly why one should strive for great wealth ($500 porn) and bar-hopping. It's fun stuff. Oh, and although the not-so-great scan of the cover above is in black and white, I'm pretty sure the copy you pay for will sport a color face.
[ Link to this review ]
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Wednesday, March 03, 2004
< zine:words >
CLIP TART #1
(Susan Boren / PO Box 66512 / Austin, TX / 78766 USA)
Review by Randy Osborne
With the bright, striking, Oz-in-color cover, Susan Boren’s ClipTart is the creation of a woman behind the curtain: She wants you to pay little or no attention to her, but to the gifts she has mined from books, magazines, newspapers and – in one case – an online clearinghouse for press releases (PR Newswire). Boren herself appears only in the introduction, and then just long enough to explain her modus operandi: She “stares into the writing like a fortune teller, trying to uncover the author’s essential message,” then distills findings by way of various excerpts intended to “encourage and entertain” as well as provide “raw material for your own projects.”
It works.
You get something of the overall idea … I mean, of what Boren herself might be like … when you know she takes pieces from the writings of Adorno, Marx, Sartre, and Guy Debord, among others. Her choices may make you want to revisit books you thought you’d left behind in college, or in the days when you planned to burn everything down. Offerings also investigate hypnotism; the hypnotism of everyday life (and the need to break out of it); cubism; cubism and its triumph over three-dimensional reality; and fourth-dimensional reality, of which our world might be a shadow. All interspersed with scissor-made collages. Read from start to finish, the 35 segments cohere in an unexpected way, like stones melted together by lightning, re-routing synapses and probably altering your brain chemicals.
[ Link to this review ]
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Tuesday, March 02, 2004
< comics/x >
NOT MY SMALL DIARY #11
($4.00 for the set from Delaine Derry Green / 1204 Cresthill Rd. / Birmingham, AL / 35213 USA. Web: www.mysmallwebpage.com/nmsd11)
Once again Delaine has outdone herself. For those who don't know, Not My Small Diary is an autobio anthology, the name of which references Delaine's own solo project, My Small Diary. This issue collects stories from 47 artists about their childhood and there are some real gems. Some of the real standouts for me are Ian Carney (a piece about his son's first pair of glasses; beautifully illustrated by Andi Watson), a telling (?) story by Dave Kiersh, Fredo's Beatles obsession, the Misun Oh/John Porcellino double-threat, Jesse Reklaw's cat troubles, Jerry Sims (eerie), Ben Steckler's potty-training, Dave Roman, Dan Moynihan, MariNaomi Schaal, Raina Telgemeier and Trevor Alixopulos (those final five being such great examples of what childhood is like). But, man, there's a lot of fun and/or insightful work in here. Other contributors include Patty Leidy, Clutch McBastard, Joel Orff, Thomas Sciolino, Jim Siergey, Ben White, Donna Barr, Mark Campos, Peter Conrad, Tatiana Gill and – well, the list just goes on. And, as with previous issues, the production on this two-volume set is quite nice. Check out that binding! Recommended. Oh, and if you're a cheap bastard check out the website for a special offer.
[ Link to this review ]
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