Like the couple on the cover, I’m speechless. In Yale University Press’ weighty AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS AND TRUE STORIES: VOL. 2, editor Ivan Brunetti has demonstrated near-impeccable taste in assembling a stellar lineup of indie comics. Thought the first volume from 2006 was excellent? Well, it was, but this sequel manages to surpass it.
Brunetti — no small talent at the pen in his own right — writes in his introduction that if “the first volume viewed comics as a developing human being, then this volume treats them as an extended family.” And if that’s the case, it’s filled with relatives you won’t mind crashing at your place over the holiday weekend.
Chris Ware is represented by a bunch of short pieces early on and an extended excerpt about a one-legged au pair later. The works couldn’t be more diverse (silly vs. serious), but I love his style, which demands attention to teeny-tiny panels, and often says so much by saying so little.
Michael Kupperman has a page of four non-sequitur strips that are so wonderful, I not only wished there were more, but ordered a book of his past works (SNAKE ‘N’ BACON’S CARTOON CABARET) to ensure that I would have just that. R. Sikoryak rather brilliantly marries Superman to Albert Camus in a spread of ACTION CAMUS covers.
An excerpt from Charles Burns’ hallucinogenic, horrific masterpiece BLACK HOLE (I cannot stress this enough: Buy. That. One. Now.) is here, as is a complete story of Fletcher Hanks’ square-jawed superhero Stardust, straight from the incredible I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS! project. (I cannot stress this enough: Buy. That. One. Now. Too.)
Ron Regé Jr. provides a loose comic adaptation of Simon Singh’s nonfiction math mystery FERMAT’S ENIGMA in “We Must Know, We Will Know,” while Joe Matt doles out TMI tales of his real-life, hand-in-hand (pun intentional) addictions to pornography and masturbation. Speaking of addiction, Harvey Pekar (with Robert Crumb illustrating) recalls kicking his expensive habit: obscure jazz LPs he never listened to.
Continuing the autobiographical elements, James McShane made a day-long diary by sketching out what he did every 10 minutes; Jeffrey Brown recalls the sad time of losing his virginity; and KING-CAT’s John Porcellino provides a moving portrait of the life and death of his childhood dog.
Phoebe Gloeckner’s “Minnie’s 3rd Love” is a depressing, very adult story of girls who are perpetually strung out on drugs … and the things they’ll do to score their next fix. Cover boy Daniel Clowes’ “Blue Italian Shit” revisits a near-nightmarish string of socially inept roommates, and another Dan — Zettwoch, to be exact — injects levity with a behind-the-scenes look at a church’s preparations for a haunted house.
Other well-chosen selections concern Satan falling in love with a hooker, a woman shipwrecked on an isle of naked nuns, and stories of rocker chicks, big-city blizzards, scary grandmothers and homicidal frogs. The stable of known talents is impressive, including Drew Friedman, Kim Deitch, Richard Sala, Bill Griffith, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco, Gary Panter, Ben Katchor, Adrian Tomine and the one-named Kaz and Seth. One highlight comes courtesy of an anonymous artist who sketched out a “tail” about one dog hiring another to kill his wife (“Something to the tune of five thousand dollars. That’s eating Science Diet for years to come”).
The influence of Harvey Kurtzman is evident on so many of the contributors, it’s only fair that the master be the subject of his own tribute section. Rare, one-page gags from ’40s and ’50s titles like JOHN WAYNE ADVENTURE COMICS are reprinted alongside Basil Wolverton’s original cover of the first issue of the Kurtzman-created MAD. Plus, Crumb and Art Spiegelman contribute loving pieces of their own relationships of the pioneer.
Brunetti’s scope is wide enough to include aged, yellow examples from the infancy of newspaper comics from the likes of Winsor McCay and Milt Gross. Only in about a dozen pages out of 400 would I deem his picks questionable: Paper Rad’s piece looks like the work on a 8-year-old on drugs; C.F.’s like a schizophrenic who forgot to take his meds; Elinore Norflus’ like a homeless woman in need of intervention; and Brian Chippendales’ like, well, a sick rocker who’d tool around in a project called Black Pus … which he does.
Those minor exceptions aside, AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS AND TRUE STORIES: VOL. 2 stands for quality — in storytelling, in drawing, in presentation and in championing and forwarding a movement too often marginalized and maligned by mainstream popular culture. Do your part to fight the good fight by purchasing this incredible collection. Trust me, you’ll be far happier than whoever gets your $28. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES:
• AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS, & TRUE STORIES edited by Ivan Brunetti
