Introduction; or, "Oh, What the Hell is THIS?" -- This is me, realizing that three Monday features can and should all be presented as one, multi-segment Monday Briefing. I'm very fond of that title, and from here on out the MB will incorporate The Shipping Nooz and F is For...Floppy as well. Every week. Well, most weeks, anyway.
Chasing Northampton
No, not Alan Moore's Northampton, but rather the one in Massachusetts.
I've never really quite figured out how it is that other people manage to coordinate their jobs, finances and families into being able to take a week or two off to go to exotic places, do exotic things and eat raw seafood that very likely would kill me if I even spoke its name. My life seems to be constructed in such a way that I rarely take more than a few vacation days off at a time, and more than a day trip is a once-every-few-years thing. More often, a single day is devoted to short hops to neighbouring states like Vermont and Massachusetts. That's what we did on a Saturday morning two weeks ago. My mini-vacation both allowed me to spend more time with my family and derailed my writing schedule, so I apologize for not having a column here last week.
I always try to plan these trips to include activities that will make everyone in the family happy, but of course you know me well enough to know that if I am going to travel a couple of hundred miles or more, there's going to be a comics shop involved. In this case, I wanted very much to visit Northampton's Modern Myths, which opened almost a year ago in the same city where the Words and Pictures Museum used to be located. The museum was our destination the last time we had been to Northampton, but it's an online-only concern now, and I had been meaning to visit Modern Myths since it opened nearly a year ago.
The two-and-a-half hour trip to Northampton proved well worth it. Modern Myths owner Jim Crocker was on duty and told me how his experience working for a major bookstore chain influenced his approach to designing his comic book store. That was apparent in the deep inventory, the cleanliness of the store, the open, spacious interior, and the clear labels directing readers to whatever they're interested in, alphabetically by genre. This is purely anecdotal in nature, but it also looked like Modern Myths had more graphic novels by sheer volume than any other store I've ever been in.
My kids found a bunch of comics they wanted -- which was extremely easy for them to do, since the children's comics rack is right inside the front door, and is very well stocked with something for every young reader.
After we left Modern Myths we headed downtown to find some lunch, and found ourselves right in the middle of a city-wide sidewalk sale/street festival that was a nice reminder that some communities are living, breathing, healthy entities. Northampton's atmosphere Saturday was one of lively interaction, everyone awake and alive and enjoying a beautiful summer day. My brother lived in Northampton a few years ago and a couple of hours in its downtown had me envying his experience and wishing I could find a good excuse to move my family there. At the very least we'll be returning again in the near future.
Overall my entire family enjoyed our visit to Modern Myths very much, and I'd recommend it to anyone within a couple of hundred miles of Northampton. The variety, the design and the personality of the store more than make the trip worthwhile.
Collier's Vol. 2 #1-2
By David Collier
Published by Drawn and Quarterly
Collier is strongly -- powerfully influenced by Robert Crumb, but his concerns are so very different from Crumb's that it's easy to focus on the work rather than the surface similarities to one of the greatest masters of the artform.
Collier's #1-2 focus on friends of the cartoonist who have died. #1 is about Dennis Coté, an acerbic iconoclast who comes to life as a fully-realized human being under Collier's examination. #2 is about Brat X, a fellow cartoonist who taught Collier how to live in many ways.
These are definitely cautionary tales. As Collier told twohandedman.com, "This work relieves me from some of the guilt I feel from being alive, because my last comic and this one are both about friends of mind who died, trying to live as artists without compromise. At the time, in the 1980's, while they were living fast and burning out, I was the steady one. I always had the steady job. I knew their artistic strivings weren't going to pay their bills. So now here I am, living like they were, hoping that the telling of their lives will serve as some kind of talisman, and grant me an immunity from ending up the way they did." The work is still highly entertaining despite the pathos in the subject matter of these issues, a tribute to Collier's skill as a cartoonist.
Both issues are staggeringly good examples of comics -- Collier communicating to his readers directly with passion, humanity and a unique point of view. I defy anyone to read these issues and not be touched by the work they contain. Grade: 5/5
Hard-boiled super-spy action in fairly glorious black and white. This "prestige format" release introduces Brit, a government agent whose many years of service haven't earned him an exemption from possibly being dissected to learn the secret of his powers.
Kirkman and Moore don't spend a lot of time explaining how he got the way he is, but they make Brit fun to read about and the setting and characters are highly engaging -- once I started reading this I couldn't stop until I had read the entire thing. Artist Tony Moore's skillful depiction of Kirkman's script has a lot to do with that -- he makes some pretty fantastic events seem plausible. His work recalls Frank Quitely in its angles, pacing and tone, and should appeal to anyone looking for an action-packed story with a sense of humour.
It's not all yocks, though -- Brit provides a believable threat that comes to the lead character not from some supervillain or extinction-level event, but rather his own trusted colleagues. His response to the actions of his government is a key part of the story, demonstrating Kirkman's strengths with character and plot. Grade: 4/5
Nine high school students prepare reports on diversity and international relations after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
If that sounds like it could be dry and didactic, well, it is. Chin has a sincere desire to bring the world together (or something) after the tumult of the past couple (thousand) of years, but the visual and thematic dullness in 9 of 1 is unlikely to influence many readers.
There's a lot of worthwhile history both personal and global presented in the stories, but there's no spark of creativity evident on any page. Cartoonist Phoebe Gloeckner writes the introduction, making the dubious claim that she's enthused by the book. Her good intentions aside, it should be noted the book's author was Gloeckner's publicist for her last comics work, but her endorsement doesn't strike me as particularly convincing in any case.
As a primer on world events for elementary school students, there's useful information in here -- but unfortunately even they will recognize and be disengaged by the pedantic dispassion Chin brings to this overlong work. Maybe he should have bought the world a Coke, instead. Grade: 2/5
Not Floppy
Quimby the Mouse
By Chris Ware
Published by Fantagraphics Books
Quimby the mouse is a tiny little guy -- so tiny that even on this hardcover graphic novel's gigantic, generous pages his adventures often take up dozens of tiny little panels. It's a work that rewards close observation, not to say the use of a magnifying glass.
Ware, as you may know, is one of a handful of cartoonists who bring a singular brilliance to anything they create. Crumb, Clowes, Hornschemeier and Ware pretty much constitute a pantheon for me of creative minds that never disappoint and often challenge. With Quimby the Mouse, Ware challenges the reader on any number of levels. The sheer deluge of tiny text that greets the reader in the book's opening pages may be enough to, well, scare the shit out of you. "I have to read all that?" Yes, yes you do. You have to read all of it, or else!
Or else you'll miss the obsessive attention to detail, the hidden treasures in the miniscule blocks of text, it's like rooting around in the depths of Ware's consciousness trying to find the same thing he is -- the meaning of his life, the threads that hold it together, but only barely.
The book is mainly cartoons, though -- page after page of intricate, complex strips that create whole new worlds and shatter expectations again and again. My favourites are the ones that find Quimby visually executing his usual, freakish slapstick antics while Ware's text provides a human and shockingly touching counterpoint with recollections of pain and sadness and loss from his family history.
This massive slab of perfect comics will set you back the paltry sum of $25.00, and it more than pays for itself in the reading of any one page. You'll be stunned by the value and amazed at how much of himself Ware gives with every creative impulse he has no choice but to share. Gorgeously produced and criminally cheap to own, Quimby the Mouse is one of the most beautiful and most necessary graphic novel releases of the decade. Grade: 5/5