The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
Hey!
Welcome to our new Buttondown digs! I'm still getting used to the place, so apologies in advance for any technical blips. (And sorry to paid subscribers who got a Substack email saying that "you" had cancelled your subscription; I was just turning things off to avoid double-charging anyone. If you got double-charged anyway, please let me know!) I'm using the default formatting here, but anyone with design sense who thinks I should tweak or change anything, please let me know!
Since this week's edition of the magazine is the Cartoons & Puzzles issue, I figure it's only fair to have the Cartoon and Poem Supplement, which is usually for paid subscribers only, be free for everyone this week. I'll review just the cartoons and longer-form comics here; I may touch on the puzzles in the regular edition if I have anything in particular to add; otherwise, I'll just review the couple of articles, as usual.
As always, you can find the single-panel cartoons, with credits, at this link, while the longer strips will be linked through in their page numbers.
Poems:
"Eurydice" by Adrienne Su: Retells the myth from her perspective, using a frustrating format of painfully slant-rhymed couplets. Its jagged awkwardness is surely an intentional device, but to what end I can't tell. The final turn is very contemporary in its particular note of mundanity; the "tedious path of convention" is surely a modern invention. That grates; why even use the myth if you're giving it a meaning that neither affirms nor negates the original meaning, but just sidesteps and replaces it? I don't buy the transposition, or any of its emotion.
"Greetings, Friends!" by Ian Frazier: I will defend "Greetings, Friends" with my life, although Frazier's never had quite the tin-eared knack for it Roger Angell did. Chevy Chase as the first name here augurs poorly; the paucity of universally heroic public figures is always (and increasingly) an issue with these things, and Frazier compensates this time by featuring fewer people than ever, focusing mainly on labor-rights organizers, NYC sports stars, and a few non-human persons. Then he turns the second half into a Pixar-esque production babies scroll. Despite the lack of material, it's among his better recent efforts, with a good balance of sweetness and wonderfully terrible rhymes; the highlight is certainly "Gerwig (Greta)" and "bright poinsett'a."
Cartoons:
Cover: I love pretty much anything Ed Steed touches, and this is a delightful way of representing both puzzles and cartoons (at least that was my interpretation — the top looks like a crossword, while the bottom is comic wildness.) My favorite detail is the little fire-hydrant man whose feet break through the center line.
Pg. 11: Just "I wish we hadn't picked up that hitchhiker" is cleaner.
Pg. 13 (Sketchpad): Pretty basic expectation-subversion, but I still like it, mostly on account of Finck's wonderfully inexpert style.
Pg. 16: Confusing. I guess the gag is that fruitcake is heavy, but then why Santa? I'm probably missing something.
Pg. 22, Dumb Luck by Emily Flake: Can confirm, this is basically what it's like to live in [ed: near!!] New York – signs and omens everywhere, most of them essentially random. Well, random omens are the most meaningful ones. Best of the Week, long-format division.
Pg. 27, Happy Hour by Zoe Si: Really charming. Took me a long time to figure out what was going on in the wine-bar panel, and I'm still not sure if I'm right (is it that her shoes don't fit the country theme, or just that they aren't on trend?) but it's well-paced and reflects the truth that in times of need... a bodega will never let you down.
Pg. 29, Not Forever Ago by Roz Chast: When it comes to stories of the city, tourism tales are never quite as compelling as locals' stories; these anecdotes are recognizable but not hugely interesting. Chast's drawings are still nice, and any anti-car content gets bonus points.
Pg. 32, Sunday in Times Square by Ngozi Ukazu: I admire the ambition on display here, even as the strip doesn't gel for me. Maybe there are just too many competing ideas and tones, the goofy sarcastic humor of the first half segueing into an exploration of grief and expectations and intrusive thoughts and more. I do think some of the magic of Broadway comes from the variable expectations of the crowd; everyone is there for such different reasons, and Ukazu's exploration of that is more interesting than her personal narrative.
Pg. 36, Spent It With Lou by Leslie Stein: Oddly structured Gives away its own point in panel six and has nowhere else to go. I find celebrity anecdotes' charm exactly proportioned to how thrown-away they are; the charm recedes when their importance is over-emphasized (because it becomes about celebrity-worship instead of just celebrity-witnessing.) Nine panels is too much detail. Anyway, one time I was at a performance and Joan Jonas' assistant had me move over to make space for Joan (she was needlessly apologetic,) and then a number of other famous video/performance artists including Every Ocean Hughes and (I think) Morgan Bassichis walked over before the show to exuberantly praise Joan, basically grovelling at her feet, and as each one left the assistant would tell Joan who they were ("That was Every Ocean Hughes, they have a show on now at the Whitney.") See? Totally boring, but it's my story!
Pg. 40, Return to the City by Julia Wertz: I'm a big Wertz fan, and this is a wonderful display of her talents (although, to be honest, I think the NYC theme of these comics blunts their impact when read together – they're all exploring a pretty similar perspective on the city, and they're all structured in a similar sequence-of-gags-leading-to-heartfelt-realization style.) I enjoy how Wertz doesn't try to land punchlines constantly, she lets the humor rest in a more natural, personality-derived place. And the ending moment of insight is genuinely meaningful, and relevant to what's come before without feeling like the obvious conclusion to its setup. It's nothing I haven't considered before, but it's still charming.
Pg. 42 (Showcase): Good to know those newsbreaks have never been particularly funny.
Pg. 45: Good use of the extra space.
Pg. 46 (top): Not really a big enough dog for the line to land.
Pg. 46 (bottom): Clever. Best of the Week, single-panel division.
Pg. 47: I mean... most big cities have a natural-history museum, though.
Pg. 48: Don't really understand the context here, and this gains little from the full-page treatment.
Pg. 49 (top): Doesn't this caption work better if they're stuck in traffic on the BQE? A funnier image, too.
Pg. 49 (bottom): You really don't need the numbers above the kid's head, we get it.
Pg. 52: Almost makes sense, but really it should be "my pilings," as it makes the reference to parts of town more relevant than if it's literally a debate about the three-foot gap, which is merely nonsensical.
Pg. 59: File under "wouldn't even be that funny if someone said it in real life."
Pg. 60: Five isn't enough to make this really land.
Pg. 64, Vanishing Panels by Ali Fitzgerald: Quite a fascinating history, unknown to me, and Fitzgerald's illustrations are vivid and full of character. I'm not totally sure if I buy the ways the narrative (especially the final two pages) tries to make Highsmith's comics writing deeply important to her overall oeuvre – it might be just as interesting as a strange side path, one that wasn't as directly related to the rest of her life and work as Fitzgerald wants us to believe. Highsmith remains an oddly evasive character, and Fitzgerald can't quite pin her down, but this story is still well-told and worthwhile.
Pg. 74: I don't really know why this is meant to be funny.
Pg. 80: Thought-experiment humor may have nearly run its course, but this has slipped in under the deadline.
Letters:
Carpetblogger writes: "Thank you for articulating my dislike of Invader's art," covered by Lauren Collins last issue, and adds, "Damien Hirst plays himself."
What did you think of this week's issue? Sadly, I don't think Buttondown has a comments feature, but I'll keep running Letters as long as you keep sending them in! Just reply to this email directly.