Blog Archives
Davis, Vanessa – Spaniel Rage
Spaniel Rage #1
This was put out (I’m guessing here by the dates on the pages) around the end of June and it’s already in a second printing. One look through this and you can see why. The art looks kind of rushed in places, like it was done sitting around a coffee shop or late at night, but there are certain books where that can help the feel of the whole thing. This is basically a daily diary type of thing from May 11th of this year to June 15th. She captures wonderfully the ridiculous things that happen in the course of the average day, and she has the ability to trim people down to a sentence or two and still make you feel like you know them. Subjects in here include getting hit on, talking about her butt, meeting Juan Valdez, watching bad tv, sleeping, the subway, and concerts. Like I said, it looks sloppy at times and there’s a lot of open space on the pages, but for whatever reason that just adds to the sense of this being a representation of a life. This is one of the better things I’ve read from SPX this year, and I’m already more than halfway through the pile. Check it out if you enjoy diary comics, I’m guessing it’s 2 or 3 dollars. Send e-mail!
English, Austin – Windy Corner Magazine #3
Windy Corner Magazine #3 edited by Austin English Now available! $10
It’s good to be reminded on a regular basis of just how wrong I can be. I’ve been bitching lately about the lack of readable contents pages for anthologies and how I just want to know who did which strip. This issue starts with a remarkable series of images by Lille Carre and goes seamlessly into a table of contents drawn by Molly Colleen O’Connell. There are no page numbers, the actual information is strewn about the page… and I went away from the pages knowing exactly who did what and where. Kudos. Granted, once you get past those first few pages there are fewer contributors this time around to keep track of, but it’s nice work all the same. Austin gets most of the, um, page time in this issue, as well he should. First up is part 3 of the Francis story (and I am going to go back and review the first issue soon), which deals this time only with Francis’ mother and her life. After this Austin has a couple of short pieces dealing with Austin’s formative years drawing and a trip to the museum between a father and his daughter (mostly dealing with their relationship). Sakura Maku is up next with a series of vibrant pieces about a brassiere museum, dying and being turned into a tree and a guy who was briefly married to Janet Jackson. In other words, you’ll need to read it for yourself. Jason T. Miles then draws a letter to the magazine from Jesse McManus, which is mildly odd because Jesse could certainly draw it himself, but Jason has a unique way of interpreting it. Finally there are the text pieces, as Austin talks about Garth Williams (an illustrator who influenced him greatly growing up), Frank Santoro has a review of Garage Band by Gipi (reminding me once again that what I do here is a poor substitute for actual, in-depth reviews), and Vanessa Davis interviews Carol Tyler. I’d probably pick up #2 before #3 if I just had $10 to spend, but there’s plenty in both of these issues for all comics fans. Unless you just hate Austin English for some reason, but I don’t see how that would be possible. $10
