In naming the collection of her work IMPORTANT COMICS, Dina L. Kelberman isn’t setting herself up for failure. Rather, she’s being self-mocking, knowing full well her cartoons aren’t “important” at all. By their very nature of being drawn — often in pencil — on the back of discarded receipts, tickets and notebook paper, they’re disposable flights of fancy.
But that doesn’t mean they lack value. They smirk, they please, they entertain. They also respect one’s time in this crazed-schedule world, able to be digested in a single sitting. So simple is it to read, I immediately read it again. Hey, catch me on a good day and I’m nice like that.
It’s almost impossible to describe the contents of IMPORTANT COMICS without seeing an example for yourself, so here goes, at right …
See? Kelberman’s comics are like anti-comics: Titles are tenuous at best; the stories aren’t stories at all; concepts veer toward the abstract; the nondescript figures look like milk cartons, mailboxes or beans. Take, for example, “Holy Shit.” Why’s it called “Holy Shit”? Why not? Across its mere two panels, what looks like a hot dog with a few wisps of hair mutters to himself (herself?), “I can’t wait to start doing chin-ups! I wonder how many I’ll actually do.” The end.
One of my favorites in the 52-pager is actually a photo — presumably torn from a Sears catalog from long ago — of a toolbox with its many drawers opened. On its opened top, Kelberman has drawn two eyes and a mouth; the toolbox says, “Feast upon my flesh,” because, well, for no other reason than it made her smile. And that makes me smile.
It’s kinda like if Andy Kaufman had worked his peculiar, polarizing brand of comedy not on the stage, but the funny pages. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- King-Cat Classix: The Best of King-Cat Comics and Stories
- The Best American Comics 2007
- The Best American Comics 2006
- Estrus Comics #7
- Virgin Comics #0
