Word: porcellino
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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Besides having a child-like charm, this style means also to be instantly absorbable. It turns comix images into their most basic signifiers. After all, how much visual information do we need to know we are seeing a horse or car? And in Porcellino's case, it perfectly reflects the almost Zen quality of his writing. At the end of "Mountain Song" a muskrat (scarcely more than an oval with a line at the back) slips into a pond. Wordlessly, Porcellino then draws several panels of vaguely abstract images that could be either details of the pond or even increasingly...
...Perfect Example" primarily contains four longer, connected stories that tell of one summer during Porcellino's adolescence. Young John, living in an Illinois suburb, tries to figure out how relationships work and where he fits into the world while struggling with what must be the beginnings of chronic depression. That Porcellino manages to create an actual story arc out of life's random events should be cause for awe, but to also do it with such emotional insight and honesty seems frighteningly talented...
...Simplicity best describes everything about Porcellino's work, including the drawings. Along several other "comix brut" artists like Tom Hart, Jon Lewis, and James Kochalka, Porcellino eschews finely shaded, meticulously detailed, or even accurate drawings in favor of a raw, "unprofessional" look. One panel of "King-Cat Collection" shows a woman stroking the top of a blob. A little flag points to it and reads, "a horse." Cars have only two wheels and look squashed flat. He draws only the outlines of things, and as little as he can get away with to identify the who and where...
...first page of John Porcellino's 'Late Bus,' from 'King-Cat Collection...
...Sadly, both "Perfect Example" and "King-Cat Collection" will be hard to find in comicbook stores or otherwise. But you can order "Perfect Example" from the publisher, Highwater Books, and Amazon.com. For individual issues of "King-Cat Comics and Stories" write to John Porcellino...