2024-04: We Shall Rest, We Shall Rest, We Shall Rest
Hi. It’s been a minute since we last spoke. I meant to send one of these a few weeks ago, but then some work stuff got in the way, then some personal stuff, then my country continued to be evil, everything kind of knocking the wind out of me.
But I’m here now, I guess.
A funny thing happened after the last newsletter I sent. As you may recall, I was due to go see a production of Waiting for Godot the day after my last newsletter; I’d had tickets for a different date some months ago, but my dog died that day so I was unable to go for obvious reasons, so I got an alternate ticket. Flash forward to July 15th, I got on the first bus, then the second, went to a nice-looking restaurant, found out that it cost way more than I usually pay for food but ate there anyway, had dessert at a different place, walked to the theater, opened up my tickets…
and found out that my tickets were for July 10th, not 15th. There wasn’t a show that day. The theater was closed.
I waited for Waiting for Godot twice, and I missed it twice.
This would’ve killed if I were an autobio cartoonist.
WHAT I’M WRITING
Comics
I have a new four-page comic out, with art by Justin LaGuff. Justin hit me up in July about making a comic together, and I’d been a big fan of his art already, so I was delighted; I’d happened to get the idea for the comic a few days prior, and when he messaged me it was like a bolt of inspiration because he really was the perfect fit. The comic is called “Mosquitoes,” and you can read it on Bluesky, Twitter, and Instagram. Here’s the first page:
We got to do some fun Dash Shaw-esque stuff with coloring and texture. It was fun.
I have a few more comics coming up before the end of the year; some I have art for, some are more tentatively in the works. It’s weird to be doing more than one short comic a year, but it feels good.
Criticism
For TCJ I wrote about the diary comic Froggie World by Allee Errico (published by Cram Books), How Long Have I Been Lying Here?, the collection of early shorts by Luke Pearson, published by Gosh! Comics, and Vera Bushwack by Sig Burwash (Drawn and Quarterly).
For SOLRAD, I wrote about the first issue of the new anthology Peep (eds. Sammy Harkham and Steven Weissman, Brain Dead Studios), Second Hand Love by Yamada Murasaki (tr. Ryan Holmberg, Drawn and Quarterly), and Ken Parker: The Breath and the Dream by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo (Epicenter Comcics).
Coming up next are pieces on:
Blurry by Dash Shaw
Safer Places by Kit Anderson
1949 by Dustin Weaver
The fiftieth issue of š!, the comics anthology published by kuš!
The interplay of art and artifice in the works of Charles Burns
Cutting Season by Bhanu Pratap
WHAT I’M READING
COMICS
Little Tommy Lost by Cole Closser (Koyama Press, 2017)
This was an interesting one. I’m incredibly fond of Closser’s previous book, Black Rat, which does a good job of emulating alternate modes of comics/para-comics, but that might be partly because I don’t recognize the exact movement it tries to evoke; Little Tommy Lost continues the same path, trying to play as an vintage drama/adventure newspaper strip, but for some reason it doesn’t quite come together. The cartooning is great, the story works, but I suspect the dialogue just tries too hard to sound old-timey, which ends up a distraction. It was fun, just a bit underwhelming, which is often the case with ‘artifact’ comics.
The Town of Pigs by Hino Hideshi (English ed. tr. Dan Luffey, Star Fruit Books, 2022)
I’m becoming increasingly fond of Hino Hideshi, and this book is some of the most fun horror manga I’ve read. It’s a b-horror rendering of the violence of recognition of self in hostile other that manages to be immensely entertaining without losing what I took to be a genuinely urgent and distressed urge. Hino’s inks are a feast, too — the same category of artist as early Charles Burns and the Spanish cartoonist Martí: artists who feel almost over-inked, whose work is clean but so drenched it feels filthy.
Blurry by Dash Shaw (New York Review Comics, 2024)
My review of it is already written, so I won’t say too much, but this was my first time reading Shaw’s longform stuff (I'd read a few of his anthology shorts) and I really loved it. Much more contained/constrained than a lot of his work, I’m given to understand, but nonetheless a pleasure. Since reading this I’ve ordered, I think, four more of Shaw’s books, so that’s its own bit of praise.
Dressing by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press, 2015)
This was the last collection of DeForge’s shorts that I had left to read, and it… might actually be the best one? It’s DeForge at his most formally playful, yet you never get a sense that he has anything but the utmost confidence. The man leaves me distressed every single time with how good he is. (I also read Birds of Maine, which is a gem of its own.)
Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future by Chris Ware (Eclipse, 1987)
My friend Tom Shapira bought me this one for my birthday, along with a set of Fantagraphics anthologies, and I was delighted by this. I’m endlessly compelled by Ware, and although I can see why he doesn’t like this one talked about (it reads nothing like his current work, for one) I found it to be a lot of fun.
War of Streets and Houses by Sophie Yanow (Uncivilized, 2014)
Sophie Yanow’s comics are a joy, in a way that is thematically focused but never repetitive. I’d read her The Contradictions before, which is a lot more polished and clean, so I was somewhat surprised by the pared-down aesthetic of this one, but it was fantastic: charmingly disjointed in a way that feels actively cogitant.
PROSE
I am the Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future by Michael Molcher (Rebellion, 2023)
This was very good. I have some quibbles with it—the focus is naturally on John Wagner, occasionally making it feel like Dredd ended at a certain point and/or that other writers did not contribute anything worthy of a mention within the specific thematic prism—but ultimately Molcher delivers a thoroughly researched and well-tied-together study of policing and pop culture. A worthy read, I would say.
Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux (Eng. tr. Alison Strayer, Seven Stories Press, 2022)
My third Ernaux, and my favorite yet. Obviously it helps that this is a diary, complete with shorthands and mental connections that are presented basically unedited, but I’ve never encountered such a raw presentation of longing and desperation. Really beautiful stuff.
WHAT I’M WATCHING
Existenz
Ahh, this was fun. The chief purpose of this movie seems to be for Cronenberg to grapple with the way an art-form foreign to him challenges his own preconceived narrative-structural notions of art, which is just really fun to watch. If that’s not enough, you get Ian Holm doing an Accent, which is always a good time.
Janet Planet
I’ve talked about Annie Baker here before, as she’s my favorite playwright, and so I was really excited to watch her filmmaking debut. It’s great, and I found it really interesting to see how she adapted to the new form. What defines her plays, to me, is the idea of the set space: you have one location with no changing setpieces, and a grouping of people that comes together around that place as the external world slowly falls away. In film, by contrast, she doesn’t limit herself to one set or to a fixed group of characters: people weave in and out of the life of Janet and Lacy’s life as Baker dives deeper into the circumstanciality, and impermanence, of both space and connection.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
John Cassavetes, man. This is my second Cassavetes joint, and it’s phenomenal: there’s a clear throughline between this and Uncut Gems, as Ben Gazzara desperately wants to be seen as the big-shot that he isn’t, to disastrous results. Meandering, uncomfortable, and just incredibly good.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
This year has been my year of getting really into the Beach Boys, and, surprising nobody, this really is one of the best albums of all time. I don’t have anything particularly observant to say, really, but I’m endlessly impressed by the decision to just casually open album on the single best pop song ever recorded then offer up several contenders. “You Still Believe in Me,” man, what a track.
SILLY LITTLE GUY
Today’s Silly Little Guy is Halva, the new puppy my downstairs neighbors adopted. She is an adorable little creature whose main functions are ‘wiggle’ and ‘lick.’ What more do you need?
CONCLUSION
That’s it from me, I think. There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t write about just because I find it too depressing or sad to talk about on this platform; I’m sick of living in an evil country, and I’m sick of being far away from my friends, and it pains me to see them, as some of them are right now, in pain. I don’t know what to say, really. I go on vacation in a month and a half, and it’s deeply needed, so we’ll see how that goes.
I do hope to speak with you again until then, but in the meantime feel free to reach out and whatnot.
That’s all, folks. Peace be with you.