Books Aloud: Book Reviews for the Illiterate
Issue 211 / July 2006 More from this Issue
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Beasts and Priests: A Collection of Portraiture by Jim Blanchard
Jim Blanchard
Fantagraphics Books
Street: May 2006
These portraits are not original. Some may be interesting, but not original. And although wavering between photorealistic and caricature is far from easy Beasts and Priests is more like a collection of pastime than a full conceptual monograph of an artist's body of work. What does his art look like? Well if Ray Johnson and Roy Lichtenstein were to birth a child and that child were to one day spend seven minutes in heaven with Daniel Clowes making Charles Burns throw a jealous fit, screaming, "but the bottle was obviously pointing at me!" he (the Lichtenstein/Johnson spawn) could then safely change his name to Jim Blanchard. Working directly from photograph, printing and inking famous (and a few not so famous) celebrities, and throwing in backgrounds that look like they were taken straight out of a 1987 high school yearbook, many of Blanchard's portraiture leaves a little to be desired. His best work, though a little frat-favorable in content (Shaft, Lee Marvin, etc.), would be his mixed media prints. I think a good use of advertising labels to create a makeshift zip-a-tone effect is quite commendable, especially when done this effectively. Mike Steffen Runaway Comic
Mark Martin
Fantagraphics Books
Street: March 2006
Mark Martin's Runaway Comic definitely has its highlights. Those "highlights" being the highlight of the Montgomery Wart strip. Bouncing between adorable and completely repulsive, Montgomery Wart is the anomaly I can only describe as Craig Thompson's Good-bye, Chunky Rice being crossed with Peter Bagge's Hate Comics. Some sort of underground jive that seems to roll well in Mark Martin's bulbous cartooning style. To put it crassly, imagine a litter of puppies playing in a pile of barf. Although I don't feel as strongly towards the other strips, a brief and moderately enjoyable narrative of a religious nutcase and an also brief and less enjoyable narrative about Martin and his better half (kind of a Julie Doucet/Joe Matt cross), there still is some momentum in this first installment. Whether or not that momentum will bud a promising run of Runaway Comic is a little questionable. It all depends, though, on whether or not Martins got it in him to keep up his game and, honestly, I think he does. Mike Steffen
Tweaked: A Crystal Meth Memoir
Patrick Moore
Kensington Publishing Corp
Street: June 2006
Like many drugs, I have never understood why anyone would even bother trying crystal meth. Maybe it's because I grew up with the DARE program...but I managed to discover the appeal of alcohol, pot and hallucinogens, so that couldn't be it. I thought that reading Tweaked might explain why in the hell anyone would ever want to do a drug that makes you age rapidly, develop creepy habits like plucking out all of our eyelashes or ripping off your fingernails and cause you some horrible burns if it happens to blow up in your face while cooking it in your mobile home in the middle of the desert. Needless to say, Moore's memoir didn't shine any light on why anyone would decide that it was a great idea to start snorting, smoking or shooting crystal meth. Even Moore's own transition to the dangerous drug is very unclear; in fact he just seems to naturally slip from drinking, getting high and dropping acid to snorting meth and catching STDs from random men whom he has sex with. Although the book didn't even begin to explain the appeal of the drug, it did explain the horrible effects it can cause and showed that even the craziest methhead can recover, and that the road there will feel like you've trekked through hell and back about 12 times. The story introduces you to quite the cast of characters, most of whom are homosexual and dealing the effects of their use of "Tina." There is Dino, Moore's lover who dies of AIDS, Judy, the ex-junkie dyke who runs the recovery house in LA and is quick to let the residents know that "no matter how much shit you got, nothin's ever going to fix your feelings," and Ding Dong, the meth addict dying of AIDS whose "arms are so impossibly thin that it looks as if the bones of his elbows and shoulders will tear through the papery, sallow skin." How lovely. The memoir also notes that no one seemed to care about the meth epidemic until it hit the straight housewife population of America. Moore takes you from the seedy sex clubs of New York to the meetings and down his long, winding road to recovery, complete with graphic sex scenes and a vivid description of a full blown meth lab, all sprinkled with an odd sense of humor. Yet I still fail to see the appeal of meth. Jeanette Moses
Jim Blanchard
Fantagraphics Books
Street: May 2006
These portraits are not original. Some may be interesting, but not original. And although wavering between photorealistic and caricature is far from easy Beasts and Priests is more like a collection of pastime than a full conceptual monograph of an artist's body of work. What does his art look like? Well if Ray Johnson and Roy Lichtenstein were to birth a child and that child were to one day spend seven minutes in heaven with Daniel Clowes making Charles Burns throw a jealous fit, screaming, "but the bottle was obviously pointing at me!" he (the Lichtenstein/Johnson spawn) could then safely change his name to Jim Blanchard. Working directly from photograph, printing and inking famous (and a few not so famous) celebrities, and throwing in backgrounds that look like they were taken straight out of a 1987 high school yearbook, many of Blanchard's portraiture leaves a little to be desired. His best work, though a little frat-favorable in content (Shaft, Lee Marvin, etc.), would be his mixed media prints. I think a good use of advertising labels to create a makeshift zip-a-tone effect is quite commendable, especially when done this effectively. Mike Steffen Runaway Comic
Mark Martin
Fantagraphics Books
Street: March 2006
Mark Martin's Runaway Comic definitely has its highlights. Those "highlights" being the highlight of the Montgomery Wart strip. Bouncing between adorable and completely repulsive, Montgomery Wart is the anomaly I can only describe as Craig Thompson's Good-bye, Chunky Rice being crossed with Peter Bagge's Hate Comics. Some sort of underground jive that seems to roll well in Mark Martin's bulbous cartooning style. To put it crassly, imagine a litter of puppies playing in a pile of barf. Although I don't feel as strongly towards the other strips, a brief and moderately enjoyable narrative of a religious nutcase and an also brief and less enjoyable narrative about Martin and his better half (kind of a Julie Doucet/Joe Matt cross), there still is some momentum in this first installment. Whether or not that momentum will bud a promising run of Runaway Comic is a little questionable. It all depends, though, on whether or not Martins got it in him to keep up his game and, honestly, I think he does. Mike Steffen
Tweaked: A Crystal Meth Memoir
Patrick Moore
Kensington Publishing Corp
Street: June 2006
Like many drugs, I have never understood why anyone would even bother trying crystal meth. Maybe it's because I grew up with the DARE program...but I managed to discover the appeal of alcohol, pot and hallucinogens, so that couldn't be it. I thought that reading Tweaked might explain why in the hell anyone would ever want to do a drug that makes you age rapidly, develop creepy habits like plucking out all of our eyelashes or ripping off your fingernails and cause you some horrible burns if it happens to blow up in your face while cooking it in your mobile home in the middle of the desert. Needless to say, Moore's memoir didn't shine any light on why anyone would decide that it was a great idea to start snorting, smoking or shooting crystal meth. Even Moore's own transition to the dangerous drug is very unclear; in fact he just seems to naturally slip from drinking, getting high and dropping acid to snorting meth and catching STDs from random men whom he has sex with. Although the book didn't even begin to explain the appeal of the drug, it did explain the horrible effects it can cause and showed that even the craziest methhead can recover, and that the road there will feel like you've trekked through hell and back about 12 times. The story introduces you to quite the cast of characters, most of whom are homosexual and dealing the effects of their use of "Tina." There is Dino, Moore's lover who dies of AIDS, Judy, the ex-junkie dyke who runs the recovery house in LA and is quick to let the residents know that "no matter how much shit you got, nothin's ever going to fix your feelings," and Ding Dong, the meth addict dying of AIDS whose "arms are so impossibly thin that it looks as if the bones of his elbows and shoulders will tear through the papery, sallow skin." How lovely. The memoir also notes that no one seemed to care about the meth epidemic until it hit the straight housewife population of America. Moore takes you from the seedy sex clubs of New York to the meetings and down his long, winding road to recovery, complete with graphic sex scenes and a vivid description of a full blown meth lab, all sprinkled with an odd sense of humor. Yet I still fail to see the appeal of meth. Jeanette Moses
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