Word: comix
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Finally, after nearly twenty years, Art Spiegelman has returned to comix, generating the same excitement among the comixcenti as Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's long-delayed final film brought to cinephiles. Though Spiegelman's name may not be as well known to the general public as Kubrick's, his 1986 Holocaust memoir Maus, featuring cats as Nazis and mice as Jews, remains the most recognized graphic novel ever published. In spite of this, Spiegelman became, as he says in the introduction to his new book, "like some farmer being paid not to grow wheat," writing essays and doing cover...
...abstract. Spiegelman laments what he sees as the co-opting of September 11 to justify further polarizing acts of war. "Why did those provincial American flags have to sprout out of the embers of Ground Zero? Why not a globe," asks the author. Unlike much 9/11-related art, including many comix (see carets above for TIME.comix coverage), No Towers takes exceptional interest in the political consequences of a political act that is often dumbed down to a mere "attack on freedom." It's a strong tonic to the otherwise sentimental tributes. Working through his anger, Spiegelman comes up with searing images...
...Loathsome" (NBM; 110 pages; $13.95), written by Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane and illustrated by Naifeh, also chronicles the tawdry poetry of modern urban life, but it in the form a graphic novel. At the same time it happens to be one of the most interesting gay-themed comix to come around in a long while. Set in San Francisco's trans-gendered, drug addict underground, its smart writing and stylish graphics move fluidly between grit and transcendence. Divided into four short stories rather than a single narrative, each chapter features Catherine Gore, a lanky, androgynous lesbian with a drug...
...shopping obscure the traditional two-page "splash" panel of the Death Ray socking a bad guy. But familiarity with the genre's motifs is not required to enjoy the book. With each new issue of "Eightball" Clowes gets more and more skilled at manipulating the formal elements of comix while keeping the narrative clear. Divided into short vignettes, many with a distinct coloring scheme or dramatic approach, the storytelling stays constantly fresh. Readers may not even notice some of the more radical elements like word balloons that get cut off by the panel borders. They'll be enjoying the playfulness...
...Using old ideas to build new ones, exploring new frontiers of the narrative and formal possibilities of comix while keeping his work readable and entertaining, "Eightball" #23 continues Dan Clowes' ascendancy as one of America's top comix artists. Even if you hate superheroes, this one will come to your rescue...