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QUIMBY THE MOUSE
by Chris Ware

(Fantagraphics Books)

Review by Sean McGurr

Chris Ware is a critic's darling. His graphic novel from a few years ago, Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth, was highly regarded and anointed one of the greatest works in the field. While I enjoyed Jimmy Corrigan (as much as you can enjoy a book about an outcast and his failed relationship with his father), I think I respect the work that Ware does more than I like it. His books are beautifully packaged and the detail he puts into the art and the design draw me in to a greater extent than the stories do.

This is especially true for Quimby the Mouse, a collection of Ware's early work from his time as a cartoonist at the University of Texas, including content from his Acme Novelty Library. The oversized book is designed as if it's a discard from the library. It includes discard and defaced stamps along with other unusual markings. Fake advertisements, essays, and tons of minutiae in fine print make this a book that almost overwhelms the reader.

The stories themselves continue Ware's attention to detail. Often each page will have dozens and dozens of stamp-sized panels. His style is similar to old-time animation. Minute changes in his characters from one panel to the next advance the plot (what little plot there is; Ware is more interested in conveying themes and emotion) most often with no narration or dialog. Frequently the stories consist merely of a cat or mouse being physically assaulted in some way. The better stories suggest a sense of loss and longing for a better time. Reading Ware's essay about the death of his grandmother makes clear where this is coming from, especially when we see a young man wandering through an empty house.

The entire package is one that you can pore over again and again constantly finding new details. More importantly, the difficult subject matter, presented in a sparse, simple style, encourages re-readings to understand what Ware is trying to communicate.

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< zines >



Low Hug
edited by Aj Michel

(44pp digest, $3.00 from Aj Michel / PMB 1057 / 112 Muir Ave. / Hazleton, PA / 18201 USA. Web: lowhug.blogspot.com)

Review by Jessica Bubblitz

Low Hug #10 is an exceptional compilation all about the ways technology has touched each writer's life. This is almost heartwarming with essays focused on Atari, CB radio, computers, dead tech, BBS, cable, the story behind the 8 noble truths of the 8-track mind, and an extensive study of online dating. The intro also touches on having trouble with the zine community that is very relatable and everything is rounded off with some fun reviews. Written by the authors of Xerography Debt, My Small Diary, 8-Track Mind, Fish with Legs, Thoughtworm, and more. Atractive cover and clean, professional layout. Looks great!

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PROTOONER Vol. 10, #2
edited by Joyce Miller

(For a sample, $6.00 US / $10.00 everywhere else from Protooner / PO Box 2270 / Daly City, CA / 94017-2270 USA. Web: protooner.lookscool.com)

Review by Rick Bradford

Protooner is a market mag for gag cartoonists that provides info on publications seeking cartoons (rates, contacts, etc.), columns, cartoonist profiles (Murray Mann, Ick, John Doyle), gag cartoons (of course), a helpful letters section, a couple of quick comics-related reviews and more. The most interesting thing is this issue is probably the column by, ahem, "Tom Foolery" in which he/she discusses pioneering markets that don't see many cartoons slanted to their audience and offers a few examples.

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WIDE AWAKE #4 & 5
by various

(Wide Awake Press / PO Box 14234 / Greenville, SC / 29610 USA. Web: www.wideawakepress.com)

Review by Rick Bradford

Wide Awake Press represents a group of Southern misfit artists based in South Carolina. A handful of their solo publications have been reviewed here recently so now let's take a look at their flagship anthology.

First of all, check out those covers. They both sport wraparound silkscreens that look great. I know if I was part of a region-centric zine I'd want to be represented that well. And the insides aren't too shabby either. In fact, considering that space is apparently limited to locals, the cream-to-crap ratio is much better than one might expect.

Number 5, the most recent issue, contains work by several people you may know of or soon will. Some of the stuff that stands out: Publisher/designer J. Chris Campbell contributes a couple of fun comics and an appreciation of Ernie Kovacs (with a great illo), among other things; Duane Ballenger's got a few of his "Sux Me Eggs" strips (goofy fun) and a ghost story/horror tv send-up called "The Old Dark House" that's pretty funny and done completely in pencil (this charms me for some reason); Josh Latta's strip about a lovelorn G.I. writing to his girl that's really punctuated by the tiny strip below it titled "I Think We Should Just Be Friends"; Jason Gammon fiddles with visual conventions in an amusing way; funny fake ads for Upstate Savings Bank, this issue's alleged sponsor; Ashley Holt's cartoons, several of which have "Southern" written all over them (not literally, you understand); and Andy Runton's "Owly and Wormy". Plus, the toenails on the cover are scratch 'n sniff (they smell good to me – is that wrong?) and there are toilet paper endpapers. What more would you want?

In addition to the stuff above there's plenty more fun between these two issues: a few Onion-style articles, impressive drawings (JP Eisenberg, Gary Goodfleish, Rob Patterson), Heavenly Friends (Andrew Davis), a really creepy photo by Amanda Wilson, Chris Harber's "Aliens in the Office" strip which shouldn't work but just does, and much more. Oh, and #4 also includes an envelope of goodies. Mine held the first version of Campbell's Travel mini-zine, a sticker, a couple of tiny video game console trading cards and one or two other bits.

The emphasis here seems to be on fun and with that these books succeed. As with any anthology it's not all ground-breaking, must-see work but there's enough here to recommend. I'm not sure what the price for these is but I suggest going to the website and having a look around.

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< comics/x >



QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES #1 & 2
by various

($2.99, Dreamchilde Press. Mature Readers)

Reviews by Steve Keeter

#1

The premier issue of Quantum: Rock of Ages presents us with a premise that has been used before: what if, on some other Earth in some parallel dimension, the Nazis won World War II, and they are even now ruling the world – and in particular the United States? The good news is that writer Philip Clark tells this tale in a refreshing new way and with a new twist: a mystical globe gives a young man from our Earth the ability to transport himself between dimensions and do battle with these evil forces. This first issue is an excellent introduction to the settings, and to the main protagonist Nick Vargas, and is scripted in a clear and understandable – and exciting – style. Clark never rushes the tale, never allows it to be bogged down with too much scientific gobbledygook or whatever, and as a result this is an enjoyable, well-paced read. The artwork perfectly matches the writing – penciller Ozzy Longoria and inker Supriya Kalay (aided by Mauricio Mandara) provide us with some really nice graphics, top notch use of screens and tones, and a very clean overall look with just the proper touch of dynamicism to enhance, and not detract from, a fine story. So this first issue triumphs in just about every way, and really stands out from the crowd in today's independent market, a very nice surprise.

#2

Nick Vargas teams up with the rebel Reich scientist Frederich Stoltz, and the two wind up on yet another strange alternate Earth – a world in which nuclear war has reduced the landmass of the United States to a fraction of what it once had. They befriend a deranged alcoholic homeless man, who just so happens to have accidentally acquired a fragment of the magical Quantum Sphere. Philip Clark continues to weave an engrossing fantasy sf adventure, and also presents us with believable characters who react matter-of-factly to unbelievable situations – for instance, the unfortunate derelict who uses his new teleportation powers to acquire alcohol and drugs from himself, and the renegade Nazi scientist who tries to coordinate their shared abilities to stop the mad schemes of Adolf Hitler's heir. The artwork is well presented, not overly detailed or cluttered, and the wraparound cover is a treat. This is a good, solid second issue in a comic series that definitely satisfies.

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< comics/x >



GONGWANADON
by Tom Herpich

(8½" x 11", 48 pages, $4.95, Alternative Comics, Thomas Herpich)

Review by Mike Hunter

I haven't been so dazzled by a comic since discovering the amazing talent of Jim Woodring. I'd seen an impressive bit of Tom Herpich's talent before: an excerpt of the cow-headed woman-and-minotaur dialogue –­ with lithely cartooned body language, and gruesomely accurate neurotic ramblings - featured in an anthology. But Gongwanadon is an astonishing blast of genius, a term much overused in this era of hyperbole, though clearly deserved here. Herpich's artwork is protean, assured and inventive throughout. Drawings of solidly realistic anatomy give way to cartooning ranging from cute to grotesque, fairly representational to highly expressionistic. The style reminds in places of Paul Pope (wonderfully fluid brushwork), Chester Brown, and David Mazzuchelli (his later, freer work, where powerfully primitive daubs of ink conjure faces and bodies), yet there's no obvious imitation involved. (...And he's only 24!!!)

Herpich can be a Very Sick Puppy indeed (see "Only two wishes left..." for a jaw-dropping example) and in other places his remarkable writing, superb as his visual artistry, convincingly conveys borderline-psychotic erotic reverie ("...why should I spoil this perfect anticipation?"), adolescent slacker attitudes (tale of a teen caught with pot, with an ironic twist ending), creates unsettling supernatural events (a hapless, dyspeptic deer is attacked by an old Army jacket lying on the forest floor, and undergoes a macabre transformation), or expresses the thoughts of a Medieval boy, a one-page piece deftly using the resources of the medium with a poetic inventiveness that makes most comics creators, as the phrase goes, "look like they've been asleep for the last 20 years."

For anyone bemoaning the creative stagnation of the artform, may I prescribe Gongwanadon #1. Not only is there formalistic inventiveness which avoids the pitfall of dry intellectuality, managing to be a tasty aesthetic feast indeed, but there is more approachable fare as well. Though the book jumps from one approach to another - a few pages just solid prose - the different flavors complement each other well, including a witty page by Jono Dunne, where clumps of dots shift and regroup in a series of panels: the movements of those at a party amusingly abstracted as Brownian motion.

This is Herpich's second comic: his first, Cusp, also from Alternative Comics, I'll be rushing to buy as soon as possible! Several sample pages from both may be viewed at his site (URL above).

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