My Comics Reading List: MOTHER NATURE

128. MOTHER NATURE (Hoopla app)

Tillie Walden's CLEMENTINE raised my patience levels considerably for alternative cartoonists adapting other people's intellectual properties. Tillie wrote CLEMENTINE, and Karl Stevens is adapting a screenplay by some other folks. The differences make each project appealing and worthwhile. There's some visceral horror moments in here, like CLEMENTINE, that I wish seemed less jarring to the overall plot when they appear (though one in particular was essential). However, other than that the other 99% holds together quite well through Karl Stevens' unique style. I always want to call Stevens art REALISTIC, but that word falls short of conveying what he brings to this project. The combination of intricate line work, varied character design (there's a big cast and they all stand out), subtle facial expressions, and that hand painted color which is perfect for the otherwordly feel this story begs for. What this book comes down to is the gift of over 170 pages of Karl Stevens art we might never have seen otherwise. Thanks to Jamie Lee Curtis and Russell Goldman for that. (Fun fact: All the major characters in the story are woman, and the interactions and motivations weaving through the narrative are a major part of the appeal of the story.)

My Comics Reading List: Canon #1

85. CANON: THE MAGAZINE FOR READERS OF FINE COMICS #1 (Colin Blanchette, 2023)

The trend I love to see most coming out of Comics Twitter and YouTube is the spread of the print zine centered on alternative comics. Despite my self-interest in being a contributor to this hefty volume, there's a lot I have to say about everything else in here.

This newest entrant could easily be subtitled: "The Home for Criminally Underappreciated Cartoonists". Karl Stevens is a cartoonist I personally dismissed on account of his old school drawing style for many years, after encountering him on twitter my opinion changed immediately. Jon Allen is someone I have become a huge fan of through Colin's championing his work over the years online. Tom Manning remained a mystery wrapped in an enigma until receiving this very zine. All are interviewed by editor Colin Blanchette, giving them a voice and a chance to champion their own work (not something a lot of cartoonists are comfortable doing).

Ryan Carey, the most prolific comics critic around, contributes a lengthy and extremely compelling essay on the graphic NOVELS of Tom Manning. If you don't want to order a Manning book before the end of this article, then you are dead to me.

I love the article by YouTube favorite Ray Carcases on very famous, but in some ways also underappreciated like the above artists, Barry Windsor-Smith. His STORYTELLER series was a staple of back issue bins of the turn of the century, iirc. A great analysis of what happened with BWS: STORYTELLER, typical of Ray's channel.

And also here (and also a YouTube favorite) is Terence Fuller not-fucking-around with a HANDWRITTEN analysis of some of the batshit craziest/genius B/W boom comics of the late 80s. Focusing on three titles from Canada, Mr. Fuller brings us a sharp picture of the neo-underground aspect hidden in some of these titles.

Art Director extraordinaire Alex Eklund evokes (for me personally) Comics Twitter legend Donald Rex with an appreciation of GORDO. (Donald Rex posted color GORDO Sunday pages every week for years on twitter before leaving the site).

However, my favorite article is on perpetually-neglected Gilbert Hernandez by Brad Curry (who, like almost everyone else contributing here is a mutual on twitter!). Not just pointing out the fact that Fantagraphics stopped reprinting Gilbert’s Palomar stories in magazine-sized trade paperbacks somewhere around the end of LOVE AND ROCKETS V2(!), but going farther into reasons that these newer Palomar stories might not be be in line to be collected anytime soon. Brad even quotes a Robert Stanley Martin review of SPEAK OF THE DEVIL I remember from way back when, because there's not a lot of writing out there on Gilbert’s work. Thanks, Brad! I hope to see more of your writing in the future.

One final note, if you like Terence Fuller's article you'll want to watch "Duelling Lone Stars" a double mycomicshop haul video between Terence and editor Colin Blanchette! Watch the video here, it's a classic. 

In closing, I was really impressed with this magazine and so excited to get to contribute alongside these other folks with a mutual love for the mostly unloved of comicdom.