Blog Archives
Baylis, Jonathan (with Various Artists) – So Buttons #13
What’s this? Am I attempting to sneak in another Karl Christian Krumpholz book under a different name? No, you silly things, he just did the cover and a story for Jonathan’s comic. This time around the theme is (more or less) Hollywood, his time in it, and Harvey Pekar (and his time interacting with Harvey). Mostly, anyway, as he always has room for random stories. Topics in this one deal with him discovering Alan Moore as a young comics kid and how it shaped him (it also mentions that Alan drew a strip for Harvey Pekar in 1990, which I now have to locate) (art by Tony Wolf), his time working for the Sundance Channel and how it eventually ended up with him sitting directly behind Harvey Pekar for the premiere of Harvey’s movie (art by Joe Zabel), a solid choice for a midnight movie experience (art by Bernie Mireault), his time going to school with Eli Roth and his joy at watching him shoot Hitler in Inglorious Bastards (art by Gary Dumm), an entirely too detailed depiction of his having to get his Lasik eye surgery adjusted (art by Maria and Peter Hoey), his love of a good Ennio Morricone soundtrack (art by Rick Parker), a well-earned love letter to Tallulah Bankhead (art by Michael T. Gilbert), Nolan Ryan’s disgusting trick to toughen up his fingers to pitch a baseball (art by T. J. Kirsch), and of course the story with Karl Christian Krumpholz with the odd bit of synchronicity of them talking about The Friends of Eddie Coyle when I just watched that movie a few weeks ago. Coincidence? I mean, obviously. Still, it’s an obscure enough movie that I’m tickled by it being mentioned. Obviously there are few more stories I’m leaving as a total surprise for the reader (I mean, I didn’t even mention Whit Taylor’s piece), but even compared to his already solid body of work, this issue is a shining example of what Jonathan can do with a solid cast of artists and when everybody is firing on all cylinders. What does that mean exactly? Probably a car thing. Anyway, heck yeah you should check this one out. $10
Lacour, Kate – Vivisectionary
Long time readers of the website will know that I sometimes have little to nothing to say about a book. Often that’s not a knock on quality, it’s just that it’s better to let it wash over you without getting bogged down in jargon or me trying to explain every little thing about it. In fact, if I have an overarching philosophy when it comes to comics, it’s that: point out that a great thing exists, then get out of the way. Well, there is nothing like this book out there right now. Absolutely nothing. Whether it’s something that will enrich your life is up to you, but if you’re a fan of the odd and bizarre, this book deserves to be on your bookshelf. OK, here’s the part where I try to explain this coherently. The sample image gives you some idea what to expect, but there’s also not another image in the book that resembles the sample, so maybe it doesn’t. These are a series of images, each a progression of a thing that could occur in nature, if nature was magical and/or mythical. Or perhaps some of these things have occurred and we just don’t realize it in modern times. I know I’ll never unsee that image of the square pigs. Is that happening? In 2019, probably not. In a few more years, who knows? Other images deal with hummingbirds feeding off fingers, fetus as a temporary head, how those snakes got on Medusa’s head, the construction of a third eye, love and fear coming together, and knitting a brain. That’s maybe 1/10 of the images in here, and those are some of the ones I could sum up, meaning the real oddities are still to be discovered by the reader. Check out some of the images on her website if you need further convincing, but I’ll just say that this book is a unique thing in this world, and everybody who’s a fan of that sort of thing should give it a look. $25
