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...quixotic act of counter programming, Canadian comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly released Seth's defiantly low-key "Clyde Fans Book One," ($19.95; 156 pp.) Wednesday against the roaring hype of Sony Pictures' movie adaptation "Spider-Man 2." It was a marketing non-starter of epic proportions with "Spider-Man 2" setting an opening day record of over $40M, according to hollywoodreporter.com. Opening day sales figures for "Clyde Fans" were unavailable at press time, but it's safe to say it made less than $1M. Of course if success is measured in terms of humbleness, dignity and art, "Clyde Fans" trounces...
...idea of the comic as a thing of beauty. With just a little care they can combine art, design and language into an orgiastic menage-a-trois of beauty. Now, one of the most remarkable explorations of this potential has just been released. "McSweeney's Quarterly Concern" ($24; 264 pp.), a hi-class periodical that traditionally features eccentric forms of prosody, has dedicated its latest issue, number 13, to showcasing all - every single one it seems - of North America's most important living comic creators in a brilliant, gorgeous package...
...fish story you will never forget, try as you might, is Junji Ito's "Gyo" (Viz; 200 pp.; $12.95). Ito specializes in horror comix, a genre virtually wiped out in America since EC comics had to stop publishing "Tales from the Crypt" and its sister titles in the early 1950s. Ito's chilling stories have some of the oddest premises in the genre. "Uzumaki," published in the U.S. by Viz in 2002, featured a town visited by a plague of spirals. "Gyo" starts out with Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori on vacation at the coastal city of Okinawa...
James Kochalka's "Sketchbook Diaries, Volume 4," (Top Shelf Productions; 48 pp.; $7.95) continues the annual series of books that collect a year's-worth of Kochalka's daily online strip. More like haikus than indulgent chronicles of the author's day, each strip consists of just four, or less, panels showcasing a singular moment. These can be banal (June 27, 2002: "Uncomfortably tossing and turning till my legs get twisted in and bound by the sheets") or funny (June 6: "I gagged while brushing my teeth ? expelling red wine, venison, fillet mignon and hand made sausage?the color scheme...
Allison Cole's "Never Ending Summer" (Alternative Comics; 48 pp.; $11.95), just released, marks her graphic novel debut. As is the DIY style, the author focuses on her own life and relationships, putting it onto paper with a beguiling simplicity. Set during a summer between semesters in Providence, Rhode Island, Allison works at a comic store and collects LPs. Asher, her boyfriend, has left for a two-week trip. Suddenly she gets a phone call. He wants to go back to Australia for the rest of the summer - where his old girlfriend lives. Uh oh. The rest of the book...