Word: comix
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Chester Brown doesn't need your love. His shifts in tone and subject have bucked many a reader. Part of the second generation of "underground" comix artists of the mid 1980s, Brown has gone from absurdist humor ("Ed the Happy Clown") to confessional autobiography ("I Never Liked You") to adapting the Gospels, to a fictional series with all-gibberish dialogue. His latest project, "Louis Riel," (Drawn and Quarterly; 24 pp; $2.95) the tenth and final issue of which has just arrived, was yet another radical shift in subject. Although choosing to do a biography of a 19th century mystic...
...having a child as its main character. Unlike the complex nuances of the story, the artistic details are minimal and shading is non-existent. Instead the artwork of "Persepolis" takes on a wood-cut look. Satrapi makes wonderful use of solid, high-contrast black shapes. Veteran readers of quality comix will immediately think of David B.'s masterful "Epileptic I" (see TIME.comix review) of last year. Both books are childhood memoirs done in similar styles, though David B. has the greater graphic skill. In fact both authors are part of the same French cartoonist collective, L'association. "Persepolis" first appeared...
...Both funny and touching, Michel Rabagliati's "Paul Has a Summer Job," has an authenticity sorely lacking in most forms of entertainment, not least of all comix. Exactly like a restorative trip to the woods, it reminds you of what you really enjoy literature for -- the chance to connect to others and what's real -- and get away from superficiality and irony. If only my summer camp had been like this...
...Growing up in Quebec (the book first appeared in French as "Paul a un travail d'été") Michel Rabagliati had more exposure to French comix than American ones. Consequently his style looks more like Tintin than the X-Men. Called "bandes dessinées," or the "clear line" style, he uses big, simple outlines with a minimum of chiaroscuro shading -- perfect for a bright, outdoorsy story. Rabagliati has a wonderful knack for caricature. Paul, for example, is distinguished mostly by thick brush strokes over each dot of an eye, and three vertical lines of "scruff" on his chin...
...After this first elimination round I was still left with quite a bit of reading. So I gathered an armful of books and, bearlike, climbed out of the chamber and squinted at the cloudless sky. Seating myself by the pool I began to read comix while, in a sad echo of my entire life, twenty or so frolicsome teenagers splashed about and engaged in healthy socializing and sexualized horseplay. Retiring to my less distracting room, I discovered several good books that had passed under my radar...