MEANWHILE FORM FOLLOWS DYSFUNCTION 741.5 NEW EXPERIMENTAL COMICS BY -HUIZENGA —WARE— HANSELMANN- NOVEMBER 2019 - NO. 35 PLUS...HILDA GOES HOLLYWOOD! Davis Lewis Trondheim Hubert Chevillard’s Travis Dandro Aimee de Jongh Dandro Sergio Toppi. The Comics & Graphic Novel Bulletin of Far away from the 3D blockbuster on funny animal comics stands out Galvan follows that pattern, but to emphasize the universality of mentality of commercial comics, a from the madding crowd. As usu- cools it down with geometric their stories as each make their new breed of cartoonists are ex- al, this issue of KE also runs mate- figures and a low-key approach to way through life in the Big City. In panding the means and meaning of rial from the past; this time, it’s narrative. Colors and shapes from contrast, Nickerson’s buildings the Ninth Art. Like its forebears Gasoline Alley Sunday pages and a Suprematist painting overlay a and backgrounds are very de- RAW and Blab!, the anthology Kra- Shary Flenniken’s sweet but sala- alien yet familiar world of dehu- tailed and life-like. That same mer’s Ergot provides a showcase of cious Trots & Bonnie strips from manized relationships defined by struggle between coherence and today’s most outrageous cartoon- the heyday of National Lampoon. hope and paranoia. In contrast to chaos is the central aspect of ists presenting comics that verge But most of this issue features Press Enter to Continue, Sylvia Tommi Masturi’s The Anthology of on avant garde art. The 10th issue work that comes on like W.S. Nickerson’s Creation is rendered Mind. A one-man Kramer’s Ergot, features such usual suspects as Burroughs’s “cut-up” approach in a muted array of ink washes, the strips in this compilation bend Noah Van Sciver, Johnny Ryan and applied to comics. Panels melt the pages easier to follow from and batter the rules of comics. As Ron Rege, Jr, along with up-n- into one another, full page draw- panel to panel. The weirdness the author says in the manifesto coming inkslingers like Lale ings give way to a panoply of im- comes via her decision to draw all against “style” ending the book, Westvind and Anouk Ricard, ages, all in an eye-burning mash of human characters as featureless “You must draw difficult things. whose endearingly childish take colors. Spanish illustrator Ana blobs, their lack of detail meant You must break something.” A week after completing his breakthrough opus, Explore a brave Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware began his next nov- el, Rusty Brown. Chapters have appeared in bits the lives of his soon-to-be-lifelong-chum Glenn Ganges in new world of and pieces, and not exactly in order. Glimpses Chalky White, Chalky’s teenage sister Alison, at the youth of the title character published Rusty’s teacher Joanne Cole, her colleague— The River At Night alongside looks at his future. But finally Panthe- and Rusty’s dad—Woody Brown, and Rusty’s by Kevin Huizenga experimental on has gathered it all, even the parts as yet chief bully, Jason Lint. It’s Lint’s tale that unseen. So sprawling is Rusty Brown, this 356 lives up to Ware’s stated intent to “find the (Drawn & Quarterly) comics that page book is just Volume One. Ware needs all good in every character...regardless of that paper to tell not just one story, but several. how...mean-spirited, terrible or cruel they might be.” Raised by TV, Lint’s life is present- Glenn Ganges makes a mistake. One many of us In V1, Rusty himself is but the point of entry into make every day. He has a cup of coffee before he stress and test ed in constantly shifting perspectives with goes to bed . And then...he can’t get to sleep. He overlapping memories (left). A writer raised tries to talk to his wife Wendy. But she falls the limits of in the mid-20th Century, Woody’s experienc- asleep in the middle of a conversation, leaving es—including a graphic adaptation of his Glenn to his own devices. What follows is a jour- most successful story— unfolds in a novelis- ney through Glenn’s life. His history with Wendy what comics tic fashion. Meanwhile, Ware’s art has as both spouse and artistic collaborator; his old reached a point of almost inhuman perfec- job at an internet start-up and the video game he are and what tion. The bulbous humanity of his players and his co-workers played; a trip to a family fu- shines through the architectural grid of their neral...all these roll through Glenn’s desperate world and the page on which it exists. The mind, along with discursions into hardcore epis- they can be by low-key pace and presentation belie the temology and the origins of the geologic scienc- work yet. This gorgeously designed tome from Drawn & impressive artistry behind Rusty Brown. You es, plus a visit from the cops and a conversation Quarterly is both a true-to-life story of a normal, if combus- reserving these can find a copy at Beaumont and Central. with Death about clearing out clutter. Like the tible, relationship and a formalist exploration of the many Rusty Brown river that gave him his name, Glenn Ganges flows ways comics conveys information. Huizenga draws people and places with the humorous but detailed line of a Billy (Volume One) on a roiling torrent of thought and memory. And intense items it’s a beautiful trip to take. Compiled from vari- DeBeck or Robert Crumb. But his approach to storytelling By Chris Ware combines conventional comics layouts with pages, panels, ous comics and anthologies, Glenn Ganges in (Pantheon) The River At Night is Kevin Huinzenga’s best even word balloons, going fractal, or dissolving off the at lex- bottom of the page, or morphing into tableaus of digital figures dancing and fighting in the void. And still The River At Night rolls along, Glenn trying to just go to sleep. But publib.org! you should keep your eyes open for this graphic delight! “That’s what you do as a reefer habit, Mogg is her cat, Since its debut in 2011, Luke troops and lonely giants. cozy writer. You just take little roommate and lover. Owl is Pearson’s Hildafolk series has corner shops and crazy house disparate chunks of sadness the straight man of the been one of the best comics gremlins. The latest graphic and grift them together.” So group, often clashing with the for children in an era chockful novel, Hilda and the Mountain says cartoonist Simon Han- degenerate Werewolf Jones. of same. The saga of the irre- King, brings to a climax the selmann in their interview in A regular on Vice.com and a pressible little girl with blue building struggle between Hil- the latest Comics Journal, NY Times best-seller, Megg & hair spans six graphic novels da’s hometown of Trolberg available at Beaumont and Mogg is the Moon Mullins of and now includes not only a and the trolls for which it’s Central. Hanselmann has be- today, a strip detailing the popular Netflix series, but two named. Switched with a troll come one of the leading fig- lurid lives of cast-offs and low new chapter books. All except baby, Hilda deals with life ures in the current alterna- -lifes. The latest book, the the TV show are available at among monsters. But who are tive scene due to their com- Oversize Bad Gateway, can be your favorite LPL location. Hil- the real monsters— the trolls ics starring Megg and Mogg. found at Central, Eastside da is a smart, kind, brave child or those who fear them? Find Megg is a witch with a bad and Tates Creek. It’s a trip! who lives in a world of scout out by getting a copy today! MEANWHILE effusive driver she meets in Washington DC, but it’s a bit more of a chore with the glum, mute hack in Los Angeles. But de Jongh finds com- mon ground with every driver, wheter it’s the taxi driver in Paris, a Muslim trying to get through Ramadan in a city “made of food! Ba- guettes, eclairs, croissants, madeleines, crepes...you can buy them on every corner!” or the driver in Jakarta who reads the paper as he’s driving in streets bursting with cars and scooters. Even the LA driver, who cuts off de Jongh’s every attempt at conversation, warms up during a discussion of the impact of Uber on the taxi business. Taxi! Is a lovely book drawn in a loose but detailed style that highlights the humanity of the characters while rendering their cities with inky verisimilitude. Taxi! can be found at Beaumont and Central. The myth of the American West has foundered in its homeland, undercut by growing discomfort with the hard facts of actual history. But the Wild West has enthralled European creators for decades. One “Fabiernne and Roland head off for a week at during difficult times. But both are tempted the beach, a chance to spend time together by others in their life, Hannah by her friend, and talk about their future. Roland paid for a queer naturalist and political radical, John- everything in advance, organizing their entire ny by the conspiracy buff prepper who’s itinerary in a notebook.” And within three helping him build the couple’s dream home. pages of this graphic novel, fate plays a hide- Both zealots turn out to be more right than ous prank that leaves Fabienne terribly wrong, leaving Hannah and Johnny to pick alone.