Alt-Comix

Go forth and comic.

[altcomix]

I lived in Toronto for eight years, and was a comic maker while there. Of course I supported the scene. Let me know if these are of interest. I’ve written about them where I know something worth writing.

Out There by Alan Hunt. A contributor to Exclaim, and someone who wanted to be a comic maker until Drawn & Quarterly offered to publish him and he learned what they offered. He still shares illustrations on his Insta

Assorted Bumblenut books by Marc Ngui. I considered him the most technically skilled and hard-working artist of that time. Very prolific and very precise cartooning. Also on Insta

Shrimpy and Paul by Marc Bell, who has gone on to larger success

A book by prolific creator Lorenz Peter

A zine by Chris Hutsul, who was a cartoonist for Eye Weekly for a while. Last I heard he was in advertising, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had art shows going on occasionally too.

A book by Amanda Crawford

Stay As You Are by Brad Yung, a smart, social comic.

Spork by John Perlock. He went on to be a magazine illustrator, to the best of my knowledge

A comic by Patti Kim, who was a major zinester in the 90s. Her zines were an influence on me making zines myself during high school.

One-Way Glass by Ryan James. His book was mentioned in the letters pages of Peepshow, which gave him a solid profile

Books by Tim McGregor. He had a neat retro rockabilly sensibility

Don’t Touch Me, a comics zine by Dave Howard, who ran the Toronto Comic Jam, and still might

Random copies of the Comic Jam collections. Al Bunce was a star, and still posts on Insta

My own book, Square. Ultimately I made 20 issues, but only four while in Toronto, and a decade between issues 4 and 5

And a bonus pic, Joe Matt’s Sketch Jam Book, chock full of famous 90s alt cartoonist he roped into contributing.

Comics for Life

[michael-d-kennedy]

Yoshiharu Tsuge, quite possibly the greatest cartoonist ever, has passed away.

This tribute to him is the first comic strip I'll be making and posting to tumblr.

[arecomicsevengood]

An Addendum To A Eulogy

I got perhaps disproportionately angry at a social media from a mainstream comics artist in the wake of Sam Kieth's death. "Why do we only talk about artists after they die? Let's celebrate artists while they're alive. I'll start: I love Tradd Moore," is my paraphrase of the basic gist. This seemed ill-timed to me, in terms of its appearance in the first 24 hours after the announcement of Kieth's death, but that's not the issue for me really. The pseudo-positivity ignores basic reality: We did talk about Sam Kieth when he was alive, and people talk about Tradd Moore too. People do talk about living artists, and share their enthusiasm regularly. What bothered me is the false equivalence. People were talking about Sam Kieth not just because he was a maker of cool images who had died recently. People were moved by the death of Sam Kieth because Sam Kieth made personal work. He's not just the guy who drew a cool Wolverine comic and some cool Batman covers. Those pieces present a certain energy, a promise of comics' potential that he articulated elsewhere in personal work that connected with people and touched them. That is his true legacy, and contemporary mainstream comics artists like Tradd Moore and the guy I'm mad at but am not going to name because I'm embarrassed at my anger would do well to follow this example.

To a certain extent, I can believe that we attract the books to us that we need, that will help us in our quest to become ourselves. This is obviously aided by economics of distribution channels, which decide what the public is allowed to access. Reflecting on the continued public demand for The Maxx, as opposed to the almost-immediately-forgotten genre comics which flood the shelves, from the time of that comic's release to the present, I am left to think that maybe people don't care about that work because it would never be necessary to someone in the same way. It doesn't risk enough, or offer enough of itself, for anyone to care, instead choosing to operate in the shallow waters of one of CBS' procedural dramas. Meanwhile, a work like Twin Peaks continues to move people. 

This is not to say I want work that is necessarily inspired by Twin Peaks, or The Maxx, or that I think everyone toiling in mainstream genre work could have a hit if they got weird with it. Kieth and Lynch are particularly strong artists. Who knows how many are as capable of saying something about the human experience beyond just regurgitating the movies they've seen? Many attempt to do something different and lapse into floundering incoherence.

But it's hard not to see equating Kieth with Tradd Moore (who's good at drawing, and I'm not mad at, even if his comics to date are all disappointing, falling somewhere on the spectrum of poorly-written to actively unreadable) without thinking of someone saying "We should talk about Denis Villeneuve too" when Lynch died, because they both made a Dune movie. It would point to the speaker's thinking the highest aspiration in the field of cinema is to make a movie like Sicario. (I like some Villeneuve movies fine.) It is like being so afraid of even thinking about death you never contemplate the idea that art can be a bid for immortality. Immortality's impossible, of course, but to be remembered fondly as work is revisited outside the cycle of hype and consumption, growing in one's estimation as one grows older, looks much the same from a mortal vantage.

[altcomix]

I made a video about Yoshihiro Tatsumi

[squarecomix]

The Blossoming City's first pages. I wasn't going to offer online sales, but I was able to ship one over the border recently, and feel fairly confident it's safe for single issues. 24 pages, full color. $10 shipping from Japan included. Payable through PayPal. Contact me if you're interested.

A lovely review was done here if you want to see inside. https://youtu.be/Ce_JOhgfW3o?si=HQ_ncfvgTLoiqCmH

[squarecomix]

Flower Sisters 5, from the Blossoming City

[screentonetv]

My new zine is Shorts Folio #1. It’s a 52 page book risograph printed in Japan. This one is roughly “normal comic book size” at 7x10.” It has a sewn binding with a translucent cover sheet.

You can buy it at my web shop screentone.tv.

S.F. Shorts Folio #1 is a personal science fiction anthology about strangers and families, sons and fathers, and, errr, ya know just, like, spaceships and fun! This zine collects three big stories and a couple small ones.

"The Strange Force" is about the discovery of 12 perfect worlds in space, and how or why anyone could or would save them from destruction.

"Songs of the Field" is about a lizard man in space with strong morals, who unfortunately meets some humans.

"Working in the Future" is about the last human mail carrier in the galaxy and the robots who help her serve the public.

"S.F." is a science fiction series I've drawn for many years. You can consider this zine a selection or folder of various "supplementary files" (side stories) in a wider universe. You don't have to have read any other S.F. comics to enjoy these stories.

[squarecomix]

The Flower Sisters 6, from The Blossoming City

[squarecomix]

Flower Sisters 5, from the Blossoming City

[copcomco]

Face Meat by Bonten Taro

The latest work of horror manga from Living the Line's Smudge imprint has arrived.  Translated once again by Ryan Holmberg, who co-edited the book with Kunisawa Hiroshi, Face Meat presents the first English language collection of the work of "outlaw polymath", Bonten Taro.  Combining raunch with horror, and mixing sex with gore, the fourteen tales presented in this 240 page softcover were all originally published between 1967 and 1969 in Japanese "men's" magazines (i.e., smut).  

This volume includes a sixteen-page, illustrated essay by Kunisawa, "The Nine Lives of Outlaw Artist Bonten Taro."

Now available HERE.

[squarecomix]

Pages from the Blossoming City, my work in progress. It's a solar punk, good vibes book about making space in the city for people to enjoy.

Should be finished by winter 2025.

[squarecomix]

My analysis of the eighth chapter from Tokyo Higoro, the most recent Taiyo Matsumoto book

[altcomix]

My very occasional hobby, breaking down comics in a slightly academic way. Here, one of Dan Clowes finest stories, Like A Weed, Joe

[altcomix]

Cat-Eyed Boy vol. 1, by Kazuo Umezz

Let me preface this by saying, I’m not a Junji Ito fan. I was promised he was sick and twisted, and I’ve read four books, and I found them goofy more than anything. So I’m not a horror guy in general. That said, the guy that Ito puts on a pedestal (I’ve read) is Umezz.

I dig Umezz’s work a lot. I’ve read most of the Drifting Classroom (a modern day elementary school is sent to the post-apocalypse!), the first book of My Name is Shingo (a sentient robot!) and all of Orochi. Orochi was an anthology book about a woman who travels town to town witnessing suspense and horror stories, not unlike 50s EC books with the Cryptkeeper and the like, mashed with that 60s TV genre where a hero finds a new town each week. She lightly interacts with the characters in the stories.

I thought that’s what this was. For the first two stories, that’s what it is. The Cat-Eyed Boy hides in the attic watching stories from afar and commenting on them. Then in the third of the five stories, he becomes a protagonist and remains one for the next two. He is a Cat-Eyed Boy, he just has cat eyes and people hate him as a monster because of it. The stories are baffling, much like 50s and 60s American comics can be. People take logic leaps that probably would have been weird when it was written in the 60s, they state their feelings and fears to spell things out. I.e. a politician tells his friends that now that he’s been elected, he no longer has to pretend to care about the cost of living; he will soon die of course.

The book is also layered in yokai concepts. Yokai has been in tons of Japanese media, I won’t explain that here, but Wikipedia should have a good yokai explanation if you’re unfamiliar with it. Things that are incredibly abnormal are treated as obviously normal. I found the whole thing delightfully surreal. A standout was a fight with a shadow-self that you can’t run away from.

I won’t pretend this is a riveting narrative. There’s something a little disposable about the stories. But the book is so playful in how it does them, there were a lot of pages that put a smile on my face. It creates this bubble of space where everything is high drama, and karma is in effect. It’s not a must-have book, but at this point, I’m always welcoming more Umezz on my bookshelf. It’s a breath of fresh air.

[altcomix]

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together, Maurice Vellekoop, 2024. Random House Canada

I’ve loved Maurice Vellekoop’s work since I first saw it in Drawn & Quarterly, and I loved his first collection, Vellevision, when I got it in the 90s. The reason I loved it was that it felt happy. So many indie books were depressing and cynical, but Vellekoop’s work was light and pleasant. I wanted more. He wasn’t really a comic artist though, he was an employed illustrator doing comics on the side out of passion. I waited patiently for his next comic book, and that’s taken about 30 years.

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together is his memoir. It’s incredible. At a certain point, we can’t keep ranking books, but this is instantly part of the great comics canon. It’s not leaving my library.

The book has four parts:

childhood

university

unhappy adulthood

healing into a happy adult

I don’t know if that’s a spoiler, that the book is about his journey into being a happy person. That’s not how the book was publicized. And it was one of the most cathartic things I’ve ever read. I think most people can relate. If you were happy out of the gate after school, either you won the emotional lottery, or you’re delusional. I think most people struggle to become the people they wish to be, and we all have our journey. This is his.

Vellekoop gets into his neuroses; as a child, as a teen, as an adult. And he bares a lot of difficult truths about himself. I considered his comics in the 90s ‘happy comics’, and he portrays himself as a frustrated, uncomfortable person during that period, even while having good friends and social networks. It’s personally revealing along the lines of D&Q stablemate Joe Matt, but without making comedy of it. I imagine some parts were enormously difficult to put to paper.

But, the book never once feels like homework, which “serious” books often become. Because his creative instincts always have a touch of Disney in them, the book feels light until the emotional hooks sink in. It’s very smooth storytelling. Not every ‘great’ book has to be a chore to read.

He uses a sort of id and ego cartoon motif throughout, and it seemed quaint enough early on, but by the end, it has become an important part of the narrative. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think it’s one of the cleverer narrative devices I’ve seen in comics. I’ll just say that rarely has a design change inspired so much of a statement on inner change.

I really worry that this book will be brushed off as a ‘gay book’, because that’s how books featuring gay people can get labeled. I hope the comic world has mostly moved beyond the concept that a gay main character means the book is intended for a gay audience. This is a book about a gay person, but it’s a human story. A very human story. I related to this book at a very core level. I also contorted myself to fit what I thought others expected me to be, to the detriment of myself, something I’m still dealing with, to be honest, though I think I’m over the hump. His journey and how he tells it is worth reading.

Such themes sound weighty, and they certainly are, but Vellekoop’s deft hand makes them so easy to take in. This is a good book.

[altcomix]

The Dancing Plague, Gareth Brookes, 2021, Published by SelfMadeHero 

I was stunned with how good this book is: a historical fiction set in the 16th Century, told in a style reminiscent of 16th century illustration. Brookes writes a narrative about a woman named Mary, who is touched by God and is labeled possessed by the Devil. She inspires a Dancing Plague at many points in her life. This is based on historical records of the time. 

None of it is explained, it works as a sort of Christian magical realism.

Brookes uses pyrography (burning the paper) throughout the book, and embroidery to help illustrate the visions and magical aspects. 

As a reading experience, it is challenging. We aren’t used to comics that read this way, and for the first third I was not sure exactly what I was following. He also shifts back and forth between 1508 and 1518 or so, which was disorienting. If a book has a chapter set in 1918, then the next in 1908, yeah, those are ten years apart, and very different years. But the difference between 1518 and 1508 seems like ten minutes, from the perspective of a reader in the 21st century. Once I got adjusted to his rhythm, I was all with it though. 

Often when I read something recreating a past era or even a foreign culture, it puts your own understandings into relief. You recognize some things as being very human experiences, and other things as being very arbitrary evolutions of a society. I’ve been living in a foreign country for twenty years, so maybe I’m more sensitive to the experience than others. Here, he writes of how an area dealt with a plague beyond their comprehension. We lived through one of those too, in 2020. People didn't take it well. These folk don't take it well in very different ways.

All in all, this is great example of comics as art rather than comics as product. The major difference? Brookes’ ambition. He’s not producing this for likes on Instagram or to expand his base. Maybe he is, I don’t know the guy. But this is a good book, not like anything I’ve ever read. 

[arecomicsevengood]

Best of the Year

The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors - The Comics Journal

What were the best comics of this past year? No idea, but here's some stuff our contributors really liked.

Wrote a list for The Comics Journal's year-end wrap-up, and it's a big bowl of Oops! All Fellas! naming of obvious stuff other people included on their lists, with only one deep cut. Obviously lots of minis and stuff I enjoyed, and I might as well name that stuff now, for the Tumblr faithful who would've missed my casual documentation on Bluesky: Void Packer 2 by Lale Westvind, Pebbles 3 by Molly Colleen O'Connell, WWREC 2 by Angela Fanche and Max Burlingame, Desert Rats 1 and 2 by Nick Bunch, Allee Errico's work (not just the Froggie World collection from Cram, but also her mini Sardine and strips for The Comics Journal and Smoke Signal), Looking For The Cat 2-4 by Matthew Thurber, Zoo 4 by Anand, The Devil's Grin 5 and 6 by Alex Graham (getting collected by Fantagraphics next year), God's Sod House by Cedar Von Tassell, Crepusculine 1 by Conor Stechschulte, Tales of Qyleoth/Full Moon Funnies by Marvin Yaxam, Welcome To The Butterfly Effect by Jade Mar, Oboy Comix 7 by Shaheen Beardsley. The next few books that didn't quite make my list were Lilly Wave by Brian Blomerth and The Scrapbook Of Life And Death by J. Webster Sharp. A best-of list that's too long becomes unfocused and unhelpful, as you will surely experience making your way through all thr TCJ contributor lists, so that is why my list there is relatively concise. Check it out!

And as ever, if you made a comic I didn't read but that you think I would like, get in touch!

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate, and pleasant times to you throughout this season if you don't.