Cantankerous Mike--SPX Mini-Comic Reviews Part 2

Continuing on with the reviews I started yesterday, today I'll review two more of the comics I picked up at last weekends SPX.

I also want to make mention of some of the feedback I've been getting from people in regards to my reviews of not only the comics but the con. It's been gratifying to know i am not alone in my frustration with the way things are. To some I may come off a bit cranky about things, and I guess that may be true to a degree, and it's a crankiness brought on by a constant frustration I've had with not the medium of comics as much as the business of comics and the almost complete lack of co-heasion, co-operation, clear, forward-business-thinking and solidarity amongst the artist and writers who work in comics, the near rudderless and myopic, short term business practices of the big companies. Too many artists sit and wait, too many are not proactive enough in their careers, happy to just let the fates determine their careers. I have friends who are guilty of this too. And it's hard to do, but I don't see us as having any choice but to be more proactive and less reactive. And I'm not saying any of this is easy mind you.

I think we need more artists to be cranky, more artists to be mad and frustrated who then take some form of action. Too many artist in comics are complacent, too many are bad businessmen, too many are waiting for the good wind to come in and lift them out of the shallow dank waters of the babymen shops. The fact that there has never been a union or an organization of any sorts that has ever been successful in comics says a lot to me. The strip cartoonists have the National Cartoonist Society, the animators have the pretty shitty and toothless union, Local 839 that at least gives them insurance if they do 300 hours of work at a union studio. How many cartoonist have insurance? I myself don't right now as my union insurance lasped due to the fact i didn't do enough union work, so I am looking to join my local Chamber or Commerce, and get insurance through them. The failure of any positive movement to come out of the Pro-Cons, ( going back to the 70's when Neal Adams tried unsuccessfully to get a union going--partly torpedoed by Infantino's move to employ overseas talent) the lack of any real brotherhood amongst us comic book artists as a group of artists all working in the same medium, all seeking basically the same goals, readers=success=financial stability=the ability to continue to work is really pathetic. It seems you can't get more than 3 guys together to do anything.

I also see a real disconnect at times from our own history as medium. It seems a lot of lip service is given to this in a few circles, "Toth, yeah, Eisner, yeah...", but many younger cartoonist struggle in ignorance, unaware of our rich graphic history beyond the usual names mentioned, and I'll go even further out and say while they may know the name, they don't understand the art. Don't know the craft. Personally what I take from the very successful life of Will Eisner is that he was a successful businessman, conducted himself well, didn't have other businessmen dictating to him what he could do and his business was Will Eisner the artist. Joe Kubert also comes to mind as a successful businessman, who can still today do meaningful comic work and not have to turn to A.C.T.O.R. to buy a pair of support socks or a hot lunch.

I don't see enough sharing and passing down of business acumen as well as craft from one generation to the next. I see more divisions still. I tire of the dumb devisions between so-called mainstream and indy or alternative. In a pool this small I think that is really just childish, something that comics has at it's roots, and I wonder if the juvenile roots of the medium that appeal to us all, the kid inside who became excited and in love with the unique combination of words and pictures that can create these rich fantasies also retard, aid in helping some artists not mature into good businessmen? One might also say that the situation of men like Eisner or Kubert, growing up in tough times instilled in them a drive to overcome their station in life to become successful. We may not live in a depression like the 30's, but the medium, the direct market certainly isn't the healthiest, and everybody is suffering from the lack of real sustainable growth across the board.

Ok, now that I've tung lashed from the pulpit of my laptop, let's get on with the reviews!



First up is Love Is In The Air, ( 22 page + cover) published by De Plaattjesmaker and drawn by Gerrit De Jager. The book in is Finnish or Danish, so I can't understand the credits, but the book itself is another silent comic. By this I mean it has no word balloons of dialogue of any sort. This comic uses to great success the unique power of comics as it shows comedically what a man and a woman are thinking about at the same time while on a date. I love this type of strong clear cartooning! Jager's scrumbly ink line is clearly in the "La Ligne Claire" (The Clear Line) school of cartooning, often used by the Belgian and European cartoonists, most notably by Herge the Belgian artist who created Tintin. Jager's stylization of the human form is also great and it looks like he drew this comic in 2 hours. It reminds me of Shulz and even Ketchum at times.



Again that zip-zap kentic energy is conveyed from this pen to the readers eye and the speed at which he drew the panels also enhances the speed of the thoughts of the potential lovers indicated in thought balloons above their respective heads. If he had labored over this more, done a lot more detail I don't think the jokes would work, I think it would go from funny to PORN, like a Milo Manara comic, where you want to linger over each supple ass and perky boob for tittilation. I hope I am able to find more work by Jager in the future and this just goes to show how many good cartoonist are out there, overseas, in Europe, Japan, who knows where, that we in the states never see or rarely see. I picked this up at the Bries table at the con along with more comics I'll review in the coming days.

The last book I'll review today isn't a comic , it's a sketchbook, or a mini-sketchbook entitled Lunch Hour by artist Marc McMurray.

As much as I love finished art, I think my favorite thing is seeing other artist's sketches, doodles and their sketchbooks. Sketches reveal more about the artist thought process than the finished work. I love seeing the sketch that didn't make it, or was tossed in the trash. I love seeing the honesty in a sketch that is often missing in a finished work, the lessening of vitality as drawings are "purified" into a finished piece. I know that from the constant battle I have in that regard with my own work, I always love my sketch more than the finished piece. I picked up a few books from McMurray, all at 50¢, a real bargain. Lunch Hour contains sketches McMurray did at the M&M diner from 1991 to 2003 while on his lunch break. So you can see growth in McMurray's work from the beginning to the end of the book, something I think is really good. It reminds me of Wyeth's Helga series on a single subject over time, and Crumbs sketchbooks without the sexual overtones. McMurray's line is much more hesitant in the beginning, scrumbly, and more confident at the end, even sort of "Crumb like" in his rendering, favoring the odd, weird or ugly diner dweller. I share that affinity as well. Why is it so much fun to draw the off or ugly person? Must be the cartoonist in me. I'd love to see more sketchbooks by more artists of observed subjects instead of the usual "invented" subject.

On the spot drawing always improves ones skill in observation, execution/facility and empowers the made up or fantasy work with power ful doses of reality which hopefully will keep your work invigorated and not static, full of cliches. This is a handsome little sketchbook full of McMurray's honesty and love for his lunch spot, now gone from a fire. You can see more McMurray art at: www.marcmacmurray.de