Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

Paying For It is trying to convince, but not convert, imo.

ha I am v curious to read Joe's next book whenever it finally comes out

This is never happening, the 13 sort-of-finished pages in D&Q25 are all he's done in a decade.

oh you cynic

I liked those 13 pages

I should hit you guys up to determine a couple must-buys when I stop by the D&Q store in a few months

post a list of everything they have in stock?

maybe I should restrict it to "things released on D&Q or within the last two years"

it's a pretty well-stocked store

but yeah, I will see if I can get one of everything

I'm not sure about the whole "sex work is fine but speaking about it is gross" idea. Why not? There's no pressure to agree.

no one said this.

chester is gross because he sees these women in a robotic inhuman sort of way. they are just there for him to fulfill his biological need, down to him not even drawing faces on them. how is that not gross?

down to him not even drawing faces on them

the rationale he provides for this (primarily wanting to protect their identities iirc) makes sense on the surface but is also kind of laughable. Like, he thinks portraying them as faceless automatons is preferable/more respectful/more honest or "accurate" than just drawing them with fictionalized features. I'm sure Chet would argue against their depiction as being "inhuman" but then (as Seth notes) we're dealing with someone who does not really seem entirely human himself.

Among D&Q books from the last few years, Michael DeForge's "Ant Colony," Jillian Tamaki's "Supermutant Magic Academy," Kerascoet and Fabien Vehlmann's "Beautiful Darkness," and John Porcellino's "Hospital Suite" stand out.
xxp

but yeah, I will see if I can get one of everything

this was my point, it's a bookshop! if you're only looking for D&Q-published stuff that's much easier to recommend on. But also, you could buy these at bookshops in your own country?

Chester sees everybody as weird automatons because he himself is a weird automaton - this is what makes the book so compelling. Hiding the women's faces out of safety concerns is one of the factors that gives the work its distinct tone - it tells us something about the author's processing of ideas, it's unsettling but oughtn't be read as hateful or wilfully reductive.

The book would be enormously worse if not for the developments near the end, and for Brown's seeking Seth's rebuttal. But both of those are part of the work, and provide essential context.

imo the idea of Chester being creepy or just a dude who seems automaton-like is a matter of how much social deviance you accept in your peers and in society at large. There are a large number of social roles where acting that way reads as quirky to others but not threatening, but also a number of spaces where people acting in that way are threatening due to the inability to tell the difference, in the viewer, between someone who has different boundaries and someone who does not respect boundaries.

my offhand travel purchases are usually a couple books that I can toss in my smaller bag that I carry around when traveling, and honestly I almost grabbed Paying for It the last time I was at D&Q! if it hasn't been read by then, it might make it in the bag.

you should read it!

Hiding the women's faces out of safety concerns is one of the factors that gives the work its distinct tone - it tells us something about the author's processing of ideas, it's unsettling but oughtn't be read as hateful or wilfully reductive.

Totally.

Sounds interesting, you guys have convinced me to give that book a try

it's def worth reading

i'll cosign the recommendation. it is strange + bizarre but also compelling (partially bc of how bizarre the author is).

Yeah, another recommendation here.

I wonder if it actually changed any ILX readers' minds in regards to sex work

just curious

idk if it changed my mind - i went in feeling pretty neutral on the topic but thinking that legalizing it would probably lead to better outcomes and came out the same way, just a bit more certain that legalization is the right decision. i think he does make some compelling arguments - but how many ilxors really believe that we should be legislating morality?

My reaction was p much the same as yours. But I was unconvinced by a lot of his ruminations on, say, the fallacy of romantic love, or how prostitution should be totally unregulated, untaxed etc.

He certainly made me think more about it than I ever had before. I mean generally it's just not something I think about or am all that concerned about.

Congrats to Vic Fluro for making a Ken Reid joke in the latest New Avengers.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f2/48/30/f24830b5c40773a4e446be710c6398c8.jpg

Zackly.

Has everybody read Rosalie Lightning?

no

Just the excerpt in Best American Comics, but it looked devastating.

it hasn't been published here

Guys go see the Gary PAnter zines show at Printed Matter if you are in the NYC area. It's wonderful and some/most of the editions on exhbit are for sale. Very reasonable ,too, for such rare stuff. i walked away with three beautiful old books -- and I met Charles Burns as well as GP!

rosalie lightning's excerpts ARE devastating

http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/28-756/Giganto-Maxia-TPB

There's a preview. Hope this is self contained.

I realize it is not from 2016 but "Weapons of Mass Diplomacy" is great stuff.

yeah, definitely a big fan of Blain's

the subject material hit close to home for about 200 reasons but most of all it was very nice to know that bureaucratic boiler rooms are basically the same everywhere

I felt really bad for the lady in charge of the MENA desk - whatever the french is for thrown under the bus, yeesh, and then (as is true IMLE) that character just kind of goes POOF

picked up a copy of beverly by nick drnaso yesterday after reading this endorsement by chris ware

Nick Drnaso’s Beverly captures such a recognizable, raw feeling of the “now” that if it was a film Drnaso would be heralded as a “stunning new directorial voice.” If it was a novel, he would be a “literary sensation.” But Beverly’s chilled windowpane views into the fogged American psyche are not cartoon copies of film or literature. They’re something completely new.

read a few pages this afternoon, pretty standard d&q style but quite good

http://56.media.tumblr.com/befa9a1439ab41c10c7c00dc9824f043/tumblr_o19dxap4NG1rpjckro4_1280.jpg

wow, i'm old enough now to see a generation influenced by ware, kinda scary.
i will wanna read that though.

I like some of their books and respect that they're one of the best publishers for creators but I've never liked the style of most of Drawn And Quarterly's stuff.

Re: that music thread about music you admire but don't love. There's hundreds of comic artists like that for me. Melinda Gebbie, Sue Coe, S Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb.

Really like some of Frank Quitely's work, but I wish the faces were a lot more expressive.

Used to be a big John Romita fan but now I just find his work quite pleasant. Romita Jr is quite solid too but never loved him.
My appreciation of Gil Kane's art has diminished too.

Makoto Kobayashi (What's Michael?, Club 9 has a really charming style but I've never given it a proper go.
Nell Brinkley has serious skills, really lovely stuff but I'm still a bit hesitant about something.
Toying with getting their books someday.

you can't love everything!

I've also never responded super strongly to the DQ 'house style'

The D&Q house style of Joe Matt, Julie Doucet, Tom Gauld, Rutu Modan, Michael DeForge, Lynda Barry and Lisa Hanawalt

wow, i'm old enough now to see a generation influenced by ware, kinda scary

Top Notch came out 18 years ago!

julie was always an exception

and in tom devlin era their aesthetic opened up a lot more, v true

(early '90s Seth and any period Maurice Vellekoop is the one case you can make for a house style, and Chet & Joe were influencing each other at that time - but the latter two had established voices already, and Julie's always in there rattying it up - and still, that's a quarter of a century ago)

xpost

actually '90s Oliveros does look like a mix of Chet, Joe, Seth, Maurice AND Julie!

it's taken me a while but I'm reading sic's response posts with a touch of humor instead of the pedantry I was attributing to them and it's much better

sorry for the long-term misreading of affect, sic!

D&Q is great, everything i've read that they've published was great and everything i haven't read seemed great. btw is there anywhere reliable to t0rr3nt alt-comix stuff? or am i just a horrible person for even asking that. i know there is a huge machine for superhero comics. i live around the corner from D+Q store and buy stuff p frequently but sometimes i wanna take stuff for a spin on my ipad first u know

They've definitely become more varied but in the decade that I bought Previews (about 98-08) there seemed a clear preference for simple clean flat stillness, which is fine because if I could publish anything I wanted it would definitely be narrow compared to Fantagraphics (most publishers are though).

I'm glad I don't like everything, I have incredibly narrow taste in comics these days but I'm not really bothered about it.

just stand in the store and read things until they kick you out xp

I generally appreciate Sic's pedantry, I like to think of him as Pedantus The Korrector!