Hold Still, Sally Mann
Difficult Women, Roxane Gay
Monograph, Chris Ware
The Interview, Manuel Fiore
Blackbird Days, Manuel Fiore (I really didn’t like this one. 80% of the stories in here didn’t merit being reprinted. It felt like the criteria for including work was “we need enough pages to make a book.”)
Minor Leagues 6, Simon Moreton (Loved this. Highly recommended. Simon is doing a firmly different thing from Smoo at this point – although of course I love the Smoo period too.)
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I organized all my comics this month. It was getting unwieldy and I’d damaged one too many pamphlet by shoving it in a pile. So I bought some binders and some transparencies. Now everything is preserved and organized, at least for now. It’s nice, paging though this work and being reminded how much it means to me. Here are quick thoughts on a few books I rediscovered when going through my collection:
Underwater, Chester Brown – I’ve started collecting this for a few reasons. First, it’s fun to have a goal on the (rare) occasions when I’m digging through back issue bins and second, I know it’s not going to be collected. But most importantly, this is the work contemporary Chester Brown likes least, which makes me suspect it is the work I’ll like most.
Solopsist’s Doodles, Jason Overby & Resistance RI, MJ Robinson – These two books fit together in my mind because they’re perfect, quintessential examples of a certain kind of minicomic. Black and white, stapled and folded, a collection of thoughts that fit together in the author’s mind and through their craft come to fit together in the reader’s mind as well. I still desperately love the Overy collection The Being Being and I still desperately wish it had been printed larger.
Wallpaper, Whit Taylor – A perfect example of a slightly different kind of minicomic, the short story that feels carefully and controlled rather than loose and frenetic. One of my favorite stories by her, and while I think it’s been collected, it works really well as a short, hermetically sealed object.
Jonathan Bell Wolfe, various works – I’ve been a fan on Jonathan’s work for years but didn’t realize until putting everything together just how many comics he has accumulated over the years. A stunning range of material in terms of content, approach, and even book design. His short story ‘Clotted’ is one of my favorite comics ever. Right up with Warren Craghead on my list of people who need to have their work collected, and where I would gladly edit that collection for free.
Oh, and Yearly 2018 is still available! I keep forgetting to promote it because I like drawing better than being on the Internet!!