Comic Book Reviews
Issue 212 / August 2006 More from this Issue
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Lost Girls
Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 08.2006
Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) and Melinda Gebbie have quite a treasure on their hands. Fifteen years of work and Lost Girls is set for publication by Top Shelf. Set in Austria in the early 1900s, Lost Girls takes an explicit exploratory approach into the inner belly (wink wink, nudge, under-the-table-shin-kick) of sex and culture. Keep in mind this is before the Charleston and Flappers. Yes, this is before the infamous Tijuana Bibles sprung into an unspoken comic circle as well. To say the least, this taboo subject in cartooning has come a long way from Popeye knocking down a door with a four-foot cock. In this case we follow a trio of women from a trio of culturally opposing backgrounds through a tell-all yet maturely approached narrative of sexual rebirth. Will Alan and Melinda be getting in contact with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund soon? Hopefully not, but taking history into account, they probably shouldn't throw away the phone number. Normally, one would advise a reader to stay away from this trilogy if they don't digest sexually explicit material too well, but in this case, don't be scared. This well-crafted and beautiful narrative was written for you in the first place. Michael SteffenLove & Rockets 15-16
Los Bros Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books
Street: Winter 2005 Spring 2006
Anyone holding there breath for Adrian Tomine's next installment of Optic Nerve needs to dust off the old time machine. If you were to go back to the good ol' 80s and pick up the first installment of Los Bros Hernandez Love & Rockets you would notice one thing immediately. The majority of independent comics writers and artists in circulation now (2006 [time travel can be confusing]) are ripping these guys off. Los Bros Hernandez write stories about normal people, the majority of their protagonists are women and they write these characters like actual women (no spandex here). Although there was an extended hiatus in the series it is officially back and the Locas and Palomar character's stories continue. Should you buy them yet? No, because you still need to buy the Locas and Palomar collections. So forget about the next installment of Optic Nerve because you have catching up to do in other places. Michael Steffen
The Ticking
Rene French
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 05.2006
The odds of you already witnessing a handful of artists who have stolen from Rene French's twisted aesthetic are overwhelming. Maybe you had an experience similar to mine in which you thumbed through a Juxtapose Magazine (god knows why) and noticed a handful of artists who actually painted the same characters from her early work in the Expo 2000 anthology. The bottom line is this: Everyone wants to be Rene French. And why not? Her new book The Ticking is phenomenal and her older collection of short stories, Marbles in My Underpants, is also phenomenal. So what makes her work so great? Take the warm comfort of soft-lined pencil drawings, make those drawings of characters from an early 80s David Lynch film, and format your results in a Chester Brown-esque minimal composition. Enough said. Pick up this book, read the story of the deformed Edison Steelhead, marvel at his little drawings, and when you've finished, read it again. After all, it's culturally rewarding to be familiar with the original source material constantly stolen by young and pretentious art hipsters. Michael Steffen
Tales of Woodsman Pete
Lilli Carr
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 06.2006
Previously, I had never heard of Lilli Carr. After reading her book Tales of Woodsman Pete I won't be forgetting her name anytime soon. This book is priceless ($7.00) and the thought of how susceptible it would be to gloss over it on a shelf is disconcerting. Remember the title: Tales of Woodsman Pete. Do not continue browsing for new comics until this one is in your hands. Stripped down to its most basic components the plot is relatively simple. Woodsman Pete sits around and muses over his past with his friend Philippe, a bearskin rug. Take Marcel Proust and fuse him with Jack London, Craig Thompson, and Sammy Harkham. Then minimize Proust and London's work, making them more pleasurable to read, and you'll probably have a close but somewhat absurd comparison to Woodsman Pete. Honestly, I'll probably spend my whole life being jealous of Lilli Carr. She's an incredible writer, a talented artist, and how she was able to compile a collection of vignettes loaded with so much profound subtle wisdom by age 23, I will never understand. Michael Steffen
Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 08.2006
Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) and Melinda Gebbie have quite a treasure on their hands. Fifteen years of work and Lost Girls is set for publication by Top Shelf. Set in Austria in the early 1900s, Lost Girls takes an explicit exploratory approach into the inner belly (wink wink, nudge, under-the-table-shin-kick) of sex and culture. Keep in mind this is before the Charleston and Flappers. Yes, this is before the infamous Tijuana Bibles sprung into an unspoken comic circle as well. To say the least, this taboo subject in cartooning has come a long way from Popeye knocking down a door with a four-foot cock. In this case we follow a trio of women from a trio of culturally opposing backgrounds through a tell-all yet maturely approached narrative of sexual rebirth. Will Alan and Melinda be getting in contact with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund soon? Hopefully not, but taking history into account, they probably shouldn't throw away the phone number. Normally, one would advise a reader to stay away from this trilogy if they don't digest sexually explicit material too well, but in this case, don't be scared. This well-crafted and beautiful narrative was written for you in the first place. Michael SteffenLove & Rockets 15-16
Los Bros Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books
Street: Winter 2005 Spring 2006
Anyone holding there breath for Adrian Tomine's next installment of Optic Nerve needs to dust off the old time machine. If you were to go back to the good ol' 80s and pick up the first installment of Los Bros Hernandez Love & Rockets you would notice one thing immediately. The majority of independent comics writers and artists in circulation now (2006 [time travel can be confusing]) are ripping these guys off. Los Bros Hernandez write stories about normal people, the majority of their protagonists are women and they write these characters like actual women (no spandex here). Although there was an extended hiatus in the series it is officially back and the Locas and Palomar character's stories continue. Should you buy them yet? No, because you still need to buy the Locas and Palomar collections. So forget about the next installment of Optic Nerve because you have catching up to do in other places. Michael Steffen
The Ticking
Rene French
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 05.2006
The odds of you already witnessing a handful of artists who have stolen from Rene French's twisted aesthetic are overwhelming. Maybe you had an experience similar to mine in which you thumbed through a Juxtapose Magazine (god knows why) and noticed a handful of artists who actually painted the same characters from her early work in the Expo 2000 anthology. The bottom line is this: Everyone wants to be Rene French. And why not? Her new book The Ticking is phenomenal and her older collection of short stories, Marbles in My Underpants, is also phenomenal. So what makes her work so great? Take the warm comfort of soft-lined pencil drawings, make those drawings of characters from an early 80s David Lynch film, and format your results in a Chester Brown-esque minimal composition. Enough said. Pick up this book, read the story of the deformed Edison Steelhead, marvel at his little drawings, and when you've finished, read it again. After all, it's culturally rewarding to be familiar with the original source material constantly stolen by young and pretentious art hipsters. Michael Steffen
Tales of Woodsman Pete
Lilli Carr
Top Shelf Productions
Street: 06.2006
Previously, I had never heard of Lilli Carr. After reading her book Tales of Woodsman Pete I won't be forgetting her name anytime soon. This book is priceless ($7.00) and the thought of how susceptible it would be to gloss over it on a shelf is disconcerting. Remember the title: Tales of Woodsman Pete. Do not continue browsing for new comics until this one is in your hands. Stripped down to its most basic components the plot is relatively simple. Woodsman Pete sits around and muses over his past with his friend Philippe, a bearskin rug. Take Marcel Proust and fuse him with Jack London, Craig Thompson, and Sammy Harkham. Then minimize Proust and London's work, making them more pleasurable to read, and you'll probably have a close but somewhat absurd comparison to Woodsman Pete. Honestly, I'll probably spend my whole life being jealous of Lilli Carr. She's an incredible writer, a talented artist, and how she was able to compile a collection of vignettes loaded with so much profound subtle wisdom by age 23, I will never understand. Michael Steffen
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