Dietch, Kim – All Waldo Comics

Website (at Fantagraphics)

All Waldo Comics

This is somebody who should have been one of the first people on my page. He’s one of the originals, one of the guys that you call “underground” instead of “alternative” or “independent” because they’ve been around so long. Christ, Art Spiegelman worships the man, and everybody who reads comics these days worships Art Spiegelman, so how good do you think that makes him? His Waldo comics are slightly similar to the Frank comics of Jim Woodring in that they both have a cat-like protagonist wandering around and getting into trouble, but that’s where the similarities stop. Except for the fact that they’re both extremely visual and at least slightly insane, that is. I don’t know how much convincing anybody would need to try one of his books. If you’re interested in the history of comics, you’ve probably already seen it and have made up your mind about it. If you’re completely new to comics, this isn’t the first thing that you’re likely to get. It’s amazing, groundbreaking stuff (you can see his influence all over the place), but nobody hopping onto the tiny comics bandwagon would start with one of the underground guys. Well, you should at least go back to him and check out a couple of his books. This one is a good one to start with because they’re all about Waldo. It’s cheap at $7.95 and has enough stories in it to give you a pretty good idea of what this guy’s all about. He absolutely packs the panels of his earlier stories full of stuff, you’d have to read them a few times just to get everything out of them. The later ones are a lot more business-like, more condensed and easier to get. The result of less drugs, maybe? Not that I want to say that all the great visuals came from the drugs, because he still did incredible work after the panels got simpler. Anyway, the man has a cheap library of stuff available. Sadly, it’s the kind of stuff that you can usually find in bargain boxes at comic stores, so do some hunting if you don’t feel like paying full price. I know there’s a store in Carbondale IL that has plenty of his comics…

Posted on April 27, 2010, in Reviews and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Dietch, Kim – All Waldo Comics.

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