Time for another roundup of indie offerings from the Portland-based bunch of Sparkplug Comic Books. We have four very different books geared toward different ages, mind-sets and senses of humor.
“Eschew” means “to avoid,” but don’t you dare do that to Robert Sergel’s ESCHEW #2. This black-and-white anthology goes for the absurd, more often than not, starting with “Flying Squirrel,” in which a squirrel indeed flies, but unwittingly so. It’s wordless, save for one laugh-aloud line at the end. Two pages are devoted to people’s faces, under the heading “Sex Offenders Who Live Near Me.” In other pieces, the author recalls the history of “My Famous Grey Sweatshirt” and remembers a Super Nintendo-laden incident with a friend that ended with … well, you just have to see it. And you’re an asshole if you laugh. Like I did.
Aron Nels Steinke’s NEPTUNE is one of the most charming things I’ve read all year, regardless of medium. Steinke is an elementary school teacher-in-training, and from the looks of this, I suspect he’ll be very popular with his students. He has an uncanny perspective on the way kids think, and a clear grasp on how their minds shift from reality to fantasy as a coping mechanism. In a clean style that’s thick-lined and ink-heavy, he tells a book-length tale of siblings Erika and Patrick, who had to switch schools because of their super-powered stray dog, Neptune. At least that’s what she tells her new class. Although Erika’s words can’t be trusted, NEPTUNE rings with genuine emotions.
Rina Ayuyang presents an odds-and-ends collection of previously published stories — along with a few new ones — in the autobiographical WHIRLWIND WONDERLAND, several of which deal with her struggling growing up as a Filipino in suburban America. I love when indie-comics creators pull back the veil on their personal life, warts and all, and even though there are no skeletons in Ayuyang’s closet, the glimpse into her loving but perfunctory relationship with her father, not to mention the rituals of her culture, are refreshing. Less-serious entries include an extended dream sequence about dancing with Brad Pitt, and her obsession — seriously: obsession — with the Angela Lansbury series MURDER, SHE WROTE. Her drawing style strike me as a cut above Roz Chast.
DEPARTMENT OF ART #1 plays like a fever dream. Dunja Janković’s surreal drama plays out in the middle of a maze, as an unnamed protagonist is commanded to “do art. Go art, go.” He tries to concentrate, but is distracted by a slithering something that talks, leading him to escape to a break room filled with unfamiliar faces, then crawls through narrow ventholes, at the end of which — spoiler alert! — he finds a guy in goggles masturbating. Certainly this is an original work, not so much plotted as it is presented stream-of-consciousness, and drawn in an interesting manner, heightened by labyrinthian passageways and geometric shapes. It’s a bit expensive at $6, since it only takes three minutes to read. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars
- PREVIEW >> Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy
- The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland
