Thinking About Anthologies Again
A consultation with Amazon's Advanced Search has revealed to me that Fantagraphics' anthology NOW is not quietly canceled after all, and there's another one in the offing, a couple years after the last installment. The price point keeps going up too, seemingly not the most successful project in Fantagraphics' lineup but since so much of their output these days is Disney/Marvel reprint material anything in the classic "alt comics" style is worth noting, or at least trying not to lose track of.
NOW exists in contrast to Fantagraphics' previous anthology MOME by shying away from serialized stories - MOME was a real product of the graphic novel era and featured a lot of longform work, which I guess produced disappointment in regular readers when stories didn't appear every issue. ZERO ZERO, from the nineties, also had a lot of serials in it. Something that strikes me, as I do my own bit of wishcasting of what an anthology I edited would be like, were I somehow given control of a budget to put such a thing together, is both the "short stories only" mindset and the "serializing longform graphic novels approach" are not actually how many cartoonists work. A lot of artists use recurring characters, telling self-contained stories with the cast who might then reoccur further down the line, or else telling stories that maybe take place in the same world, but nonetheless conclude their thoughts when a story ends. I would consider autobio comics artists to essentially be doing this.
What I'm saying is, while Fantagraphics' anthologies have traditionalyl been modeled after a literary journal - Mome most explicitly in its packaging, despite all the serials - a comics anthology could probably be thought of more usefully as like a chunk of time where one gets to watch TV, checking in with old friends - whether they be the cartoon characters of The Simpsons or the real-life figures of a game show like Jeopardy. You don't necessarily let down the audience, but can create a structure where any appearance of a familiar face is a delight.
I do believe that an anthology works best when it appears regularly, and something like what I'm thinking of as "preferable to NOW" would ideally be on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Truth be told, the model I most often think of is mid-nineties Dark Horse Presents, when edited by Bob Schreck and Jamie S. Rich before the founding of Oni Press, which would serialize the likes of Paul Pope alongside Renee French, or Dave Cooper next to Jason Lutes. I have gone from thinking of this as a more optimistic era's idea of what could be financially successful to thinking of it as probably a money-losing proposition of weird shit which is what led to new editors getting hired. I still think black and white is probably better than full-color printing, because the power of an anthology, on a flip-through, is the diversity of approaches and the contrast between them. I do think you want something thicker than a thirty-two page comic though, to allow for more substantial chunks of story. I'm thinking something in the 48-to-80-page range, as over 100 pages becomes exhausting in a way where things start to blur together.
My rules would have it there were only two longform. tightly serialized stories running at a time tops. I do not like the thing in DHP where a story would end and another would start in the same issue, thus prohibiting clear "jumping-on" points. Only two autobio stories per issue tops, and even that meaning one longer piece and one that's in the one-to-three page range. Only one gnarly horror thing per issue tops, only one weird experimental character-less thing per issue tops, as these are things that can overpower quickly.
And now, the obligatory list of people I would want to include in a theoretical black and white anthology published at traditional comic book dimensions. Many of these are people currently self-publishing series, or else seem off the radar at the moment in a way that suggests the power of encouragement: Max Burlingame and Angela Fanche's WWREC stories, or either of their solo work; Miles MacDiarmid's Key Change series; Lale Westvind's “Life And Limb” serial currently running in Void Packer; Chris Cilla's Blue Onion; Daria Tessler's Cagelessness or whatever else she wants to do, they're one of the few I'm listing who’ve been in NOW or been published by Fantagraphics; Matthew Thurber's Looking For The Cat would look much better in offset printing than the risograph approach currently found via Neoglyphic; Molly O’Connell's Shriekers stories; Marvin Yaxam's Qyleoth; Conor Stechschulte's Vacuum running in Crepusculine is not black and white but I also believe he has another serial he wants to start, although that also might not be black and white; Margot Ferrick is someone a publisher should really just be working with to put out everything they want to do in a solo anthology IMO, Rebecca Kirby has had pieces in Reptile House recently; Pris Genet's Cyanide Swamp contributions are a serial of sorts; Nick Bunch's Desert Rats; Audra Stang's assorted character dramas, CF's Causeway likely has something that could be in a recurring comic book. Dash Shaw's been publishing newspapers with original short stories in them, the new one is probably the best comic I've read so far this year. When I mentioned horror stuff, I'm thinking of the work Jemma Sharp runs in Fondant, and this person who releases work under the name Manual Hybrid who I met yesterday and immediately told Austin English to get in touch with so their work could be stocked in the Domino store, watch for it. When I'm talking weird experimental stuff, I'm thinking of Tim Ng Tvedt and Walker Tate. The autobio people I'm thinking about are Gabrielle Bell, Allee Errico, Daryl Seitchik, and Nate McDonough; all have wildly different approaches. As for people who actually make great short stories, that I wish were more accessible, I'm thinking of people like Anand, of the series Zoo; Clair Gunther, published in Bernadette and 2DCloud publications; Molly Lecko Herro, of the series Meatloaf Castle; and Connie Myers, whose comic published by Cram last year I think many await a follow-up to. Antoine Cosse, Patrick Kyle, Lala Albert, Eleanor Davis, and Connor Willumsen are all people I haven't seen published in a while but believe will always be greeted warmly by readers. James Collier might work best in color but while I'm listing cartoonists whose work is generally underseen I feel the need to include him.
