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English, Austin – Windy Corner Magazine #3

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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

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English, Austin – Windy Corner Magazine #2

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Windy Corner Magazine #2 edited by Austin English Now Available! $10

Why on earth would you put out a magazine like this (as it contains brilliant and vibrant colors throughout) and give it a black and white cover?  Sorry, I just felt the urge to get my one tiny complaint about this issue out of the way early.  This is more of an anthology than a traditional magazine, if that makes any difference to any of you.  There are two pieces here that are full of text, one of which is Austin discussing the art of Lois Lenski at length and the other is an interview between Onsmith (interviewer) and John Hankiewicz (interviewee).  This interview is absolutely priceless, as who in the comics world would you want to see interviewed more than John?  OK, it’s possible that there are people you’d rather read about, but John’s work contains so much in every panel and every issue that it was greatly informative to see him break down what he’s doing (or trying to do, in some cases), how he manages to put that level of detail and crosshatching into every panel and how his creative process has evolved through the years.  Then, of course, there’s the comics.  This begins on the inside front cover with two short pieces by Mollie Goldstrom (contemplative pieces on the outdoors) and quickly moved to three stories by Austin.  There’s a trip to the Planetarium as a child and his innocent and wide-eyed reactions, the second part of a series called Francis (and I really should have read the first issue before this), and the memory of a trip to the movies with his parents as a child.  For anybody who complains about the price of these magazines, and they are a bit steep in these times, the fact that Austin’s work is able to be produced in color because of it is worth the price of admission.  That still leaves two comics: a piece by Fiona Logusch about the entanglements of relationships and how hard it is to get free and an autobiographical piece by Dylan Williams about his mail relationship with Alex Toth, what he learned from him and Dylan’s own progression as an artist through the years.  As a whole it’s damned near flawless, assuming you’re a fan of the people mentioned above, and why on earth wouldn’t you be?  Even if you’re not, picking this up and reading this will make you a fan.  Don’t take my word for it; a glance around this website will show you work from everybody in this issue, then you can make up your own mind.  $10

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English, Austin – Windy Corner Magazine #1

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Windy Corner Magazine #1 edited by Austin English Now Available! $10

For the curious: in this series I reviewed #2, then #3, and now finally #1.  I plan on reviewing future issues out of order as well (if I get more than one of them at a time) just for the hell of it.  Sure it’s a stupid way to go about it, especially as this issue details exactly what Austin hopes to get out of the artist interviews (he wants artists to interview artists about, um, artsy thing, which makes it especially impressive that all three of them have all been equally accessible to somebody like me, who is decidedly not an artist), and also has the beginning of the story of Francis.  Austin was also against using punctuation in most of these strips, which has the disquieting effect of making everything seem like a deeply relevant run-on sentence.  Anyway, stories in here include Francis parts 1-4 (involving losing the money for dinner, Francis finding a suspicious letter in his dad’s coat pocket (and showing it to his mother), buying toys and eking out a living, and Francis selling some of his art), Austin showing us a few of his earliest memories, some painting by Paula Salemme, Austin interviewing Andrice Arp (if the name doesn’t sound familiar, trust me, if you read small press comics you’ll recognize the art), a story of actually learning something in art school by Steve Lafler, and a wordless piece by Richard Hahn, who should really finish the next issue of Lumakick already.  Unless he’s just working on other stuff that I’ve missed, which is entirely possible.  I still think #2 is the best of the bunch, but that’s probably just because I’m so biased towards that Onsmith/John Hankiewicz interview.  Still, there’s not a bad issue here, I just hope the price tag doesn’t scare people off.  $10