I couldn’t sleep, so I drifted towards this damn book.

Gallery of Charles Burns’ covers to the original issues of his twisted, scarring Black Hole.

See it after the cut.

Never read a graphic novel before? Haven’t read a comic book in years?

Here’s some brand new stuff that came out the week of September 30 that I think is worth a look-see for someone with little to no history with comics. That means you should be able to pick any of these up cold without having read anything else. So take a look and see if something doesn’t grab your fancy. If so, follow the publisher links or Amazon.com links to buy yourself a copy. Or, head to your local friendly comic book shop.

Disclaimer: For the most part, I have not read these yet, so I can’t vouch for their quality. But, from what I’ve heard and seen, odds are good they just might appeal to you.

Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness – $17.95
By Reinhard Kleist
224 pages; published by Abrams ComicArts; available at Amazon.com

The first and only illustrated biography of “The Man in Black”, Johnny Cash, the most famous country singer of all time.

Cash was a 17-time Grammy winner who sold more than 90 million albums in his lifetime and became an icon of American music in the 20th century. Graphic novelist Reinhard Kleist depicts Johnny Cash’s eventful life from his early sessions with Elvis Presley (1956), through the concert in Folsom Prison (1968), his spectacular comeback in the 1990s, and the final years before his death on September 12, 2003.

The author’s site has a preview (although the final lettering is missing). I love that image of Cash in the recording studio.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth – $22.95
By Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou & Alecos Papadatos
352 pages; published by Bloomsbury; available at Amazon.com

The innovative, dramatic graphic novel based on the life of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.

This brilliantly illustrated tale of reason, insanity, love and truth recounts the story of Bertrand Russell’s life. Raised by his paternal grandparents, young Russell was never told the whereabouts of his parents. Driven by a desire for knowledge of his own history, he attempted to force the world to yield to his yearnings: for truth, clarity and resolve.

As he grew older, and increasingly sophisticated as a philosopher and mathematician, Russell strove to create an objective language with which to describe the world – one free of the biases and slippages of the written word. At the same time, he began courting his first wife, teasing her with riddles and leaning on her during the darker days, when his quest was bogged down by paradoxes, frustrations and the ghosts of his family’s secrets. Ultimately, he found considerable success – but his career was stalled when he was outmatched by an intellectual rival: his young, strident, brilliantly original student, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

An insightful and complexly layered narrative, Logicomix reveals both Russell’s inner struggle and the quest for the foundations of logic. Narration by an older, wiser Russell, as well as asides from the author himself, make sense of the story’s heady and powerful ideas. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between pure reason and the persistent flaws of reality, a narrative populated by great and august thinkers, young lovers, ghosts and insanity.

The Amazon.com link above has previews and the Bloomsbury link above has three-part making-of video series on YouTube, but there’s also an excellent website at Logicomix.com with behind-the-scenes info, a preview trailer and lots of other info. This debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and is getting excellent reviews.

Mickey Mouse & Friends #296 – $2.99
By Stefano Ambrosio & Lorenzo Pastrovicchio
32 pages; published by Boom! Kids

First BOOM! Kids issue! One of the longest-lived, most-successful comic book series in the industry’s history comes to BOOM! and brings a little magic — presenting Wizards of Mickey! Student of the great wizard Grandalf, Mickey Mouse hails from the humble village of Miceland. Allying himself with Donald Duck (who has a pet dragon named Fafnir) and team mate Goofy, Mickey’s come to the great tournament to get his revenge on Peg Leg Pete, who has stolen the Rain Crystal from Miceland! Join Mickey Mouse and his friends on an epic tale of magic and wonder! Join BOOM! Kids for a whole new epoch in Disney publishing!

Disney comic books have been missing from the market place for about a year now. This is an imported story, which has been a pretty standard practice for previous publishers of Disney comics. It was originally done in Italy but from the looks of this preview, the translation holds up pretty nicely.

High Moon Vol. 1 – $14.99
By David Gallaher & Steve Ellis
192 pages; published by DC Comics’ Zuda Comics; available at Amazon.com

The first winner of Zuda Comics’ monthly online competition, HIGH MOON is a horror adventure of cowboys and werewolves in the Old West. HIGH MOON begins with a gruff bounty hunter, Matthew Macgregor, investigating a series of strange happenings in the dusty town of Blest, Texas. While Macgregor seeks to uncover the town’s dark secrets, he tries desperately to keep his own hidden. 

The horrors of Blest ripple out to the mountainous town of Ragged Rock, Oklahoma, where another detective investigates a series of murders following a bizarre train robbery. Uncovering an age-old vendetta, this mysterious lawman is forced to do battle with a steam-driven monstrosity.

Macgregor’s tale concludes as a young woman’s dire call for assistance leads him through the Black Hills of South Dakota and into devastating battle between two warring factions. Macgregor must face down the United States government – only to discover a secret ritual that spells the destruction of the American frontier.

It’s such a relief when someone you personally know releases something, and you can be genuinely complimentary of what they’ve produced. While David Gallaher and I have “virtually” known each other for years, I’m happy to say that his web-comic holds up nicely as a thrilling horror/western mash-up. You can read it for yourself right here. And then there’s this production blog for good behind-the-scenes goodies.

Power & Glory – $19.99
By Howard Chaykin
128 pages; published by Dynamite Entertainment; available at Amazon.com

A crime fighter is genetically engineered to be a super-hero – but when the test goes awry and he doesn’t have the super-hero qualities needed, he has to be teamed up with a former CIA agent who is the brains behind the duo. One gets all the glory while one has all the power.

I’ve always thought that it was a bit weird that every super-hero just instantly has what it takes, mentally and emotionally, to actually be a superhero. I guess I’m not alone. Probably not one for the kiddies.

The Dynamite link above has a 9-page preview so you have a better idea of just what you’re getting into by entering one of Howard Chaykin’s worlds.

Prison Pit: Book One – $12.99
By Johnny Ryan
120 pages; published by Fantagraphics Books; available at Amazon.com

Prison Pit is an original graphic novel from the pen of Johnny Ryan, best known for his humor comic, Angry Youth Comix. Prison Pit represents a marked departure from AYC or his Blecky Yuckerella weekly comic strip, combining his love for WWE wrestling, Gary Panter’s “Jimbo” comics, and Kentaro Miura’s “Berserk” Manga into a brutal showcase of violence, survival and revenge. Imagine a blend of old-fashioned role playing fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons crossed with contemporary adult video games like Grand Theft Auto, filtered through Ryan’s sense of humor.

The book begins with C.F. (his full-name would be too horrifying to reveal here) being thrown into the Prison Pit, a barren negative-zone populated by intergalactic, violent monster criminals. In this first volume, C.F. gets into a bloody slorge war (a slorge is a giant slug that excretes a steroid-like drug called “fecid” that all the monster men are addicted to) with ultraprisoner Rottweiler Herpes and his henchmen Rabies Bloodbath and Assrat. The ensuing bloodbath is an over-the-top, hyperviolent yet hilarious farce worthy of Ryan’s inspiration, Kentaro Miura.

If Howard Chaykin is too much for you, you’ll never be able to handle Johnny Ryan, who is maniacally funny in the absurdly over-the-top violence. Here’s a PDF file preview.

Ball Peen Hammer – $17.99
By Adam Rapp & George O’Connor
144 pages; published by First Second Books; available at Amazon.com

The world is dying.  After most of the city succumbed to the plague, Welton’s staying inside — permanently.  But hiding in his claustrophobic basement room — the only place he knows is safe — exacts a gruesome price, and he becomes part of a collective that’s killing children.  Infected with the plague himself, with no way to find the woman he loves, Welton takes refuge in apathy — until someone knocks on his door.

Ball Peen Hammer gives us a window into life in a half-deserted apartment building in a time of raw love, sacrifice, fear, and death.

This one is a bit more serious but also not for the weak at heart. Here’s a 13-page preview.

Refresh, Refresh – $17.99
By James Ponsoldt, Danica Novgorodoff & Benjamin Percy
144 pages; published by First Second Books; available at Amazon.com

Fathers, sons, and the war that comes between them.

There’s nothing Josh, Cody, and Gordon want more than their fathers home safely from the war in Iraq — unless it’s to get out of their dead-end town.  Refresh, Refresh is the story of three teenagers on the cusp of high school graduation and their struggle to make hard decisions with no role models to follow; to discover the possibilities for the future when all the doors are slamming in their faces; and to believe their fathers will come home alive so they can be boys again.

The above says enough to get me hooked. But for more, here’s an 11-page preview.

Trotsky: A Graphic Biography – $16.95
By Rick Geary
112 pages; published by Hill & Wang; available at Amazon.com

Trotsky was a hero to some, a ruthless demon to others. To Stalin, he was such a threat that he warranted murder by pickax. This polarizing figure set up a world conflict that lasted through the twentieth century, and in Trotsky: A Graphic Biography, the renowned comic artist Rick Geary uses his distinct style to depict the stark reality of the man and his times. Trotsky’s life becomes a guide to the creation of the Soviet Union, the horrors of World War I, and the establishment of international communism as he, Lenin, and their fellow Bolsheviks rise from persecution and a life underground to the height of political power. Ranging from his boyhood in the Ukraine to his fallout with Stalin and his moonlight romance with Frida Kahlo, Trotsky is a stunning look at one of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers and the far-reaching political trends that he launched.

Rick Geary does excellent work. Unfortunately I can’t find a preview but just imagine looking at something really impressive that compels you to buy it.

The Best American Comics 2009 – $22.00
Edited by Charles Burns
352 pages; published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; available at Amazon.com

Now in its fourth year, Best American Comics showcases the work of both established and up-and-coming contributers. Editor Charles Burns—cartoonist, illustrator, and official cover artist of the Believer—has culled the best stories from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the web to create this cutting-edge collection. Featuring the work of such luminaries as Chris Ware, KAZ, and Robert Crumb, this volume is “a genuine salute to comics” (Houston Chronicle).

This is a highly acclaimed yearly anthology that provides a great sampling of the depth and art of comics. Here’s the book’s official site which has more information.

The Book of Genesis – $24.95
By R. Crumb
published by W.W. Norton; available at Amazon.com

From Creation to the death of Joseph, here are all 50 chapters of the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before.

Envisioning the first book of the bible like no one before him, R. Crumb, the legendary illustrator, reveals here the story of Genesis in a profoundly honest and deeply moving way. Originally thinking that we would do a take off of Adam and Eve, Crumb became so fascinated by the Bible’s language, “a text so great and so strange that it lends itself readily to graphic depictions,” that he decided instead to do a literal interpretation using the text word for word in a version primarily assembled from the translations of Robert Alter and the King James bible.

Now, readers of every persuasion—Crumb fans, comic book lovers, and believers—can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, tragic, and even juicy stories. Crumb’s Book of Genesis reintroduces us to the bountiful tree lined garden of Adam and Eve, the massive ark of Noah with beasts of every kind, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by brimstone and fire that rained from the heavens, and the Egypt of the Pharaoh, where Joseph’s embalmed body is carried in a coffin, in a scene as elegiac as any in Genesis. Using clues from the text and peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretation that have often obscured the Bible’s most dramatic stories, Crumb fleshes out a parade of Biblical originals: from the serpent in Eden, the humanoid reptile appearing like an alien out of a science fiction movie, to Jacob, a “kind’ve depressed guy who doesn’t strike you as physically courageous,” and his bother, Esau, “a rough and kick ass guy,” to Abraham’s wife Sarah, more fetching than most woman at 90, to God himself, “a standard Charlton Heston-like figure with long white hair and a flowing beard.”

As Crumb writes in his introduction, “the stories of these people, the Hebrews, were something more than just stories. They were the foundation, the source, in writing of religious and political power, handed down by God himself.” Crumb’s Book of Genesis, the culmination of 5 years of painstaking work, is a tapestry of masterly detail and storytelling which celebrates the astonishing diversity of the one of our greatest artistic geniuses.

A surprisingly reverential and straight adaptation from one of comics’ most influential humorists. Here’s a preview of chapter 19.

Pretty big week for comics. Lots of good stuff to check out.

Agujero negro (Black Hole) es, quizá, y junto a Mort Cinder y tal vez alguno más, mi cómic favorito. No diré más. Viendo lo que sigue, no hace falta.

La trilogía de Nueva York de Paul Auster por Art Spiegelman

Jungle de Upton Sinclair por Charles Burns

Ethan Frome de Edith Wharton por Jeffrey Brown

Cuentos fantásticos de Hans Christian Andersen por Anders Nilsen

Mujercitas de Louisa May Alcott por Julie Doucett

Moby -Dick de Herman Melville por Tony Millionaire

El amante de Lady Chatterley de D. H. Lawrence por Chester Brown

Cándido de Voltaire por Chris Ware

Via: FLOG

]]> http://looseleafbound.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/black-hole-review/ Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:28:58 +0000 charlieblizz http://looseleafbound.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/black-hole-review/

The world of the graphic novel is a land that I have traversed only slightly. Very slightly. Like only Maus I and II slightly along with the handful of things i have picked up and leafed through while loafing around Borders or Barnes&Noble. But it’s also been something that I have always been curious about, just without the requisite money to jump into. So praise be the local library for allowing me to get into this.

The story is pretty straight forward. It’s 1970s Seattle and there’s an STD called “the bug” or the “teen plague” that results in physical mutations to whoever contracts it. The comparison to teen adolescence and the needs to fit in while also finding a personal identity are fairly clear and, in my opinion, don’t really need to be looked into too deeply. It’s a good story about kids struggling to become adults in a world where teasing someone because they’re fat or “nerdy” or whatever else is taken to the extreme of “youve got a third arm!”

Oddly enough, I think Black Hole may actually bear quite a bit in common with old slasher films from the 1980s. These were the films where you always knew that among the first to die horrible machete inflicted deaths would be whoever has had the most (and only) sex in the first thirty minutes. A fair rule  is that if you’ve seen her boobs, she’s going to die. And so will whoever else in the movie has seen her (or anyone’s) boobs.  In Black Hole, if someone has sex, you know they’re going to get “the bug” and suffer something akin to death from their social circle.

Perhaps it then isn’t surprising to read in Black Hole’s Wiki that the “look of the comic is meant to evoke the feel and atmosphere of classic 70s teen horror films like The Last House on the Left, Carrie and Halloween.” All are movies where sex and death came together to share a dance of some form and they seem to have bled into more than just the appearance of the Charles Burns’ novel.

Still, if you have the opportunity to sit down and read Black Hole, it’s an opportunity worth taking. The art work is very well done, the plot is solid and you don’t have to worry about getting bogged down and not wanting to turn the page – the thing is certainly a page turner.

Black Hole at Amazon

The Comics Reporter ofrece el índice de contenidos de la próxima antología The Best American Comics correspondiente al  2009, dirigida este año por, ni más ni menos que, Charles Burns.

Via: The Comics Reporter

I enjoy exploring the curious intersections of art and sexuality, so I had a delightful treat recently reading Charles Burns’ graphic novel Black Hole (Pantheon Books, 2005). The plot is fairly simple: “suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s,” as the jacket informs us, where in addition to the ordinary trials of high school – an unrequited crush on the “total fox” in biology, or dealing with parents and social rejection – a number of teenagers must also cope with a sexually-transmitted disease (referred to only as “the bug”) that causes physical mutations – some major (e.g., a barely human facial appearance) and some minor (tadpole-like appendages forming around your waist).

© Charles Burns

But despite this premise, which smacks of horror right out of John Carpenter or David Cronenberg, the difficulties that follow are mostly based on other people’s reactions to just having the bug, or the altered self-images that result. I kept waiting for the worsening mutations, the degeneration, where the human characters turn into monstrous abominations, but it never happens – Burns keeps the status of “monster” completely determined by the victims and their peers. For the most part, the bug is regarded as casually as, say, acne or pregnancy, as it becomes a cause of stigmatization, but doesn’t seem to provoke any reactions from the adult world (indeed, authority figures in Black Hole remain virtually unseen, outside of very brief interactions with the main characters’ parents). Just as in Peanuts, where you always ask, “Where are their parents?” and the only sounds adults make seems to be “mwa-mwa-mwa,” here the teenagers are seen as totally disconnected from the rest of the world – emotionally, geographically (much of the action takes place in the woods and a nearby house whose owners are on vacation), and with time, biologically.

So the bug is primarily used as a metaphor, but it creates this very vivid backdrop of horror against which the relationships between characters are set. This fits right in with Burns’ distinctive style, which you may well have seen before: very ink-heavy, sometimes almost looking like a negative image, with razor-like lines separating the dark and light. His human beings, and the world around them, look very realistic, yet there’s a strong vein of surrealism underlying everything, as tree branches easily metamorphose into reptilian tendrils, or match sticks become flimsy and begin to resemble sperm. It’s possible that this continuity between hard and soft, plant and animal, could be viewed as a guide for the way that reality eases its way into dark fantasy, or one body transforms into another. (Burns frequently lines up panels using a sort of shot/reverse shot technique, causing halves of separate faces to merge, like the two women at the climax of Bergman’s Persona.) I’m reminded of the woodcuts of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher, and how simply one thing turns into another.

And after all, what is adolescence if not a period of metamorphosis, a human cocoon to endure the transition from larva to butterfly, from child to adult. Chris Rhodes, one of the two characters whose viewpoint dominates the book, starts shedding her skin like a snake (serpents are a frequent motif, which suits the loss-of-sexual-innocence theme); she also keeps wanting to go back, undo the poor decisions that led to her getting the bug, return to her parents’ house, to her childhood – one of the last lines of the book is, “No. Not yet. I’m not ready yet,” and this desperation describes both an unprepared teenager and a mutated outsider struggling with the question of whether to re-enter society, or stay forever on the outskirts.

Ultimately, the plot of Black Hole is like a controlled experiment in epidemiology, subjecting a group of teenagers to a disease and seeing both how it spreads and what it does to their lives. The main character, more or less, is Keith Pearson, who lusts after Chris and enjoys smoking pot with his friends in a place called “Planet Xeno,” not far from where the bug-infected kids have their cook outs. (Xeno means “strange,” and as another place outside of adult control, it shows how the characters are aliens even before being mutated.) As sexual desire and fulfillment proliferate, the bug spreads over the course of the book, just like in Tom Lehrer’s hilarious VD ditty “I Got It From Agnes“.

It’s exacerbated by the presence of Eliza, dubbed “the Lizard Queen” by her housemates, a perpetually stoned artist. Her paintings come right out of the nightmare imagery (including, most significantly, a human figure tied between two trees, a hand over its genitalia) that crowd characters’ brief visions, as well as the margins of the book. In real life, these visions are manifested as ghoulish little sculptures hung throughout the woods, made of dissected dolls and gnawed-on chicken bones, and altogether these bizarre, recurring images reinforce how everything normal (the characters’ bodies and lives) is being subtly changed into something alien and dysfunctional. Instead of relying on the physical changes to carry the book into darker territory, though, Burns lets the resulting emotional changes (dissatisfaction with home life, high school, and each other) pick up where the physical leaves off, spiraling (like the repeated corkscrews and serpents) into a watery abyss, possibly even the black hole of the title.

In its narrative and visuals, Black Hole is a very tightly structured book that gives few obvious answers. One of its clearest ideas, though, comes in a flashback toward the end:

We had to watch these lame movies about human reproduction… [they] were always so safe and clean… Everything simplified down to diagrams and animated cartoons… Microscopic pictures of sperm cells swarming around a giant egg… The weird part about those movies was that they never showed you the real thing… The actual sex part. Fucking.

In the end, the characters have to deal with the disparity between the sterile, body-less picture of sex they’re taught in bio 101 (or else learn from things like this) and the gruesome realities they experience. So, more or less, they have to endure the same as every teenager. Except they get mutations.

As should be obvious, I highly recommend Black Hole; check it out if you can find a copy!

6 erineva animatsioonitehniku koostööst sündinud 4 mustvalget õõvalugu. Kohtumine hirmudega keset päeva pole väga hirmus, aga põnevust tekitav kindlasti. Võibolla kohati, kui visuaalselt vaid geomeetriliste kujundite taustal, sulle filosoofilist tausta tekstiliselt laotakse, võtab film veidi tuure maha. Lõpuks tekib kerge väsimus ja mõtled, et miks need lugusid sissejuhatavad koerad juba otsa ei saa või vähemalt peremeest neljaks ei rebi ning siis saabubki viimane lugu, tõeline kirss. Mees murrab sisse majja, aga nagu arvata võib, siis valguseta ruumides ootab meid valge ja musta fantaasia. Veidike valgust, valget animatsiooni ja jubedused formuleerivad end meie ajus ise.

Lillelises kostüümis geishakarakter, keda näidatakse vaid selja tagant – viib meie mõtted Jasoni ema radadele, aga see pole Reede 13. See on vaid näiliselt tühi tavaline maja keset mittekusagit, kus peategelane end oma mustade mõtete küüsi langetab. Iga heli, iga objekt on potentsiaalselt kõige õudsama kvintessents. Mu lemmik stseeniks jääb mehe astumine läbi põranda, millest tekkinud augu kaudu anti vaatajale aimu, et all on tume vesi, kuhu tema käsi ei ulatu. Võib ainult juurde mõelda, kui pimedaks ja hirmvesiseks nutujoruks oleks ta elu muutunud, kui ta korruse allapoole oma teel oleks astunud. Vaatamata kenasti ellu viidud õõvatekitajatele, oli see lugu samas väga muhe ja koomiline, vastuoluline kooslus mida tavaliselt suudetakse tekitada vaid animatsioonitehnikaid kasutades. Põnev on, kuhu viib filmitegijate tee siit – kas täispika mängufilmi või edasiste katsetuste teele leida meist ja meile lõputult uusi hirme.

IMDB

This list is in no particular order but here are 10 amazing comic books that everyone should read. Deep, thoughtful, and amazingly good reads. Check out our interview with The Secret Headquarters Comic Book Store Here.

1. Black Hole- Charles Burns

About 1970s Seatle Teens and a mysterious outbreak that seems to be effecting all the teenagers in the area. Very haunting and dark read. It will create a black hole in you! I promise that.

2. Optic Nerve or anything Adrian Tomine really

Tomine really touches you with his meloncholy tales of the city. Great to read on a park bench under a tree.

3. Asterios Polyp – David Mazzucchelli

Hard to explain why this is so good. Visually it is amazing, and the writing is great.

4. AKIRA- Katushiro Otomo

There are a lot of great Manga series out there but as a self contained book Akira is one of the most densely packed. Action, excitement, and post apoloclyptic philosophy… and motorcycle gangs!

5. Y The Last Man – Brian Vaughan

What if you were the Last Man on earth and hunted down by masses of women around every corner. Sounds like everyman’s fantasy… Not here.

6. Batman- The Dark Night Returns – Frank Miller

Enough has been said about this book. Batman redefined.

7. Bone- Jeff Smith

If you don’t know much about these characters you have to check it out. Very fun Series.

8. All Star Superman – Grant Morrison

( personal favorite of mine, check out his take on the X men which is amazing)

I love all of Morrison’s work, I especially love it when he takes a stab at re-working your favorite superheros in ways you would never expect but are totally in line with what the comics are about.

9. Maus – Art Spiegelman

A powerful account of the holocaust told with the richeness of a novel.

10. Ghost World – Daniel Clowes

“I can’t relate to 99% of humanity. ” -Seymour

Del 28 al 30 de Agosto el pueblo francés de Sollies-Ville celebra su 21 festival del Cómic con la presencia de Charles Berberian, Enki Bilal, Charles Burns, Jacques Loustal, Lorenzo Mattotti, Art Spiegelman, Lewis Tronndheim y Chris Ware, entre otros.

Via: Web del Festival

Peter Birkemoe, dueño de una de las mejores librerías de Norteamérica (The Beguiling, Ontario), recomienda en este video la última obra de Seth, George Sprott. Otra gente tiene ideas diferentes al respecto. En cualquier caso su lista de novelas gráficas favoritas la completan I Never Liked You de Chester Brown, Black Hole de Charles Burns, Skibber Bee Bye de Ron Rege, Curses de Kevin Huizenga, Frank de Jim Woodring, Acme Novelty #19 de Chris Ware, Breakdowns de Art Spiegelman, What It Is! de Lynda Barry, Abandon The Old In Tokyo de Yoshihiro Tatsumi y Red Colored Elegy de Seiichi Hayashi. La lista completa comentada, aquí. De artie, fartsie.

Via: Journalista!

Youth is an obsession. As the ultimate in unattainable prize, youth is often idealized to the point where it loses any connection to the truth. Lets face it – growing up is scary and adolescence amounts to little more than a period of profound awkwardness, insecurity and pain. Behind every unwrinkled pubescent face staring out at us from glossy magazine pages is a fumbling hormonal teen brimming with uncontrollable emotion. Everyone can remember the nagging sense of apprehension that comes with that age but few artist have addressed as successfully as Charles Burns. It is the under-explored yet constant feeling of fear that is the primary focus of Burns’ seminal comic, Black Hole.

Focusing on the aftermath of an STD that mutates the teenage denizens of a Seattle suburb, the story is wholly original. While comic fans are used to grotesque plot twists like peeled off skin and mouths that sprout onto necks, outsiders can be drawn in simply by the impressive visual style. Burns’ high contrast black and white drawings speak volumes – particularly the before and after images that begin each volume. The 70s yearbook quality of these first pictures juxtaposed against the startling after shots lends a feeling of normalcy to the entire story. The change isn’t a aberration, its a rite of passage. The parallels between the disease adulthood continue throughout but these shots convey the message with a particular poignancy. Reading through the story I couldn’t help but be reminded of the frankness and sardonic wit of Raymond Pettibon’s work though I Burns’ outlook is infinitely more optimistic. For anyone who enjoys the comic style (or just a plain ol’ good story) this is a must read.

…

Dans une petite ville américaine des années 60, une étrange maladie fait son apparition. Ce mal affecte exclusivement la population adolescente. Les symptômes, aussi variés qu’imprévisibles, provoquent parfois d’ignobles mutations. Rapidement, les pestiférés s’isolent dans les bois environnants et tentent de vivre avec cette maladie venue de nulle part.

Le dessin noir et blanc de Charles Burns est sombre. Sur certaines planches, le choix de l’éclairage et les ombres qu’il génére rende un visage anodin en visage monstrueux. Charles Burns ne cède jamais à la facilité du gore et use de détails troublants ou d’anomalies physique pour occasionner le trouble chez le lecteur.

L’ambiance elle-même est inquiétante : les ados pourtant cibles de cette étrange maladie sexuelle, ne la craignent pas, ne s’en préservent même pas. Ils ne font qu’en constater les dégats sur leur corps.

En savoir plus

> biographie de Charles Burns

Nos, ha ez előző bejegyzés alanyáról azt írtam, hogy ismeretlen, akkor nem tudom, erről a képregényről mit írhatnék: mondjuk az olyan szép, magyar közhelyek megfelelnének, hogy “a kutya se ismeri”. Én is csak a Wizard képregény-magazin remek összeállításában olvastam róla először.

Egyből megragadott a történet: egy amerikai kisvárosban rejtélyes nemi betegség terjed: mindig más alakban jelentkezik és csak tinédzsereket fertőz meg. A város nem tud mit kezdeni a helyzettel; azok, akiken szembetűnő nyomot hagyott a vírus, a közeli erdőben próbálnak életben maradni. És akkor elkezdenek furcsa dolgok történni. Aki azonban durva horrort vár, az csalódik. A Black Hole sokkal inkább lélektani dráma, szerelmi történet, vagy thriller, mint horror, hiszen a központban nem a szörnyűségek állnak, hanem a szereplők lelkiállapota, vívódásai, megfelelni akarása; szóval azok a dolgok, amiket mindannyian átéltünk(-élünk) kamaszkorunkban, csak persze titokzatos nemi betegség nélkül, jobb esetben. Azonban ez nem minden: a mű annyira furcsa hangulatot áraszt, amit még sehol sem éreztem; talán egy Lynch-mozi lenne a legjobb analógia. Teljesen szürreális hatást kapnak olyan egyszerű részletek is, mint egy házibuli, egy szeretkezés, egy hétköznapi tévéműsor, és ezt csak fokozzák a részletes, reális-de-mégsem rajzok — ezt nem lehet írásban átadni – ez is mutatja, mennyire nagyszerű.

A másik lényeges elem a különböző tripek leírása-lefestése – minden füzetben tolnak valami drogot, van, hogy többször is. Ezek a legbetegebb részek, képileg-szövegileg; képzeljétek el a Félelem és rettegés drogos jeleneteit (persze milyen más jelenetek vannak még?), és szorozzátok meg őket öttel.

Szóval akit érdekel az ilyesmi (tinihorror-thriller nagyon másképp) vagy csak egyszerűen szereti a fura dolgokat, mindenképp tegyen vele egy próbát még a David Fincher által rendezett filmadaptáció előtt, aminek végül sajnos mégsem Neil Gaiman rendez.

10/10

The other night I had the weirdest dream. In it, I was walking around in some old 1960s Italian film, lots of heavy imagery floating around. But actually, there was none: It was pitch black, tone-less. I was strolling through an absolutely dark playground at what I would have to assume was night. I could only hear the sound of my expensive leather shoes as they moved along the pavement.

from here.

How did I know it was a playground since it was so dark, since I could see so little? I don’t know. The feeling of it, I guess. The sound of rusty chains as the wind gently blew the swings back and forth. The absence of laughter. Just a feeling.

But then I could hear the steps another. I stopped and looked around. I could see nothing, of course. And his footsteps stopped too. For too long of a moment, there was absolute silence.

from here.

And when I started walking again, so did he. His footsteps matching mine perfectly. I stopped again after a moment and so did he. I waited. Then just a few feet away from me, his face was illuminated by a lighter as he lit a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“I didn’t see you there,” I said, or something equally stupid.

“No shit,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said, ignoring it. “Dark out tonight, huh?”

“That’s because all the stars were eaten out of the sky,” he told me. He said it so slowly, rhythmically, nonchalantly, like it was this normal thing. Or worse: that this horrible thing had happened years and years earlier and he accepted it. Like there was no more words to be wasted on this. I wanted to question him about it but then I woke up.

from here.

The world felt weird to me then. I saw everything in half light wherever I went, and viewed everything from a weird angle, which put a sinister lean on just about wherever I went. It reminded me of the implied post-nuclear imagery in Antonioni’s L’Eclisse:

Obviously the dream kind of hung with me a good portion of the next day, just lingering over me. Not so much like a rainy cloud like you would see in a cartoon or anything like that, but more like an unanswered question. But there was no question there, so certainly there could be no answer, right?

The why’s behind how I blog are like that, in a way. It’s how my mind works: Constantly looking for connections between different things that probably should not be connected. It doesn’t always – or usually – make sense to others, but then again, I don’t ask it too. I just ask that it makes sense to me, somehow (even if I do secretly worry about others getting it too).

Let’s just say that I was so thankful when the idea of synchronicity came into my world. It made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t crazy.

Later that day, the day after the dream, I ran into my good friend Conrad Noir. He had this half excited, half puzzled look on his face. “Hey,” he said when he saw me. “I brought back that book you let me borrow. I just read it. I…”

“What book?” I asked. And he showed it to me:

Black Hole by Charles Burns. “Oh,” I said and smiled. He asked me why I was smiling but I didn’t answer.

Yesterday at work, Conrad and I were bullshitting through our day with one of our co-workers. The co-worker had just watched the trailer to the new Michael Jai White film, Black Dynamite. If you haven’t seen it, just know that it’s pure wonderful ridiculous, and I highly recommend you watch it. Go do so now. I’ll be here when you get back.

We were sitting around, talking about it like stupid little fanboys, just like we are, and laughing about how a movie like this excites more than a hundred million Tarantino projects like Inglorious Basterds.

“Some day,” Conrad said to us, “I really want to make a blaxpoitation movie. Like the blackest, meanest blaxpoitation movie ever. I just don’t know what I’d call it.”

I’ve got a great title for you, I told him. On my face I wore the same smile that I had on when he brought me the book the day before. “What?” he asked. My smile grew larger, produced teeth, and I said, “The Black Blackness.”

from here.

We had a good laugh about that, ha ha ha, and joked about how perhaps BizarrObama could make an appearance in there somewhere. Ha ha ha. But when the laughter died down a little, I was left there thinking to myself about things…

But that’s a story for another time. I don’t want to bore you with philosophical pondering into the abyss and useless questions like…

…nah, that’s not for me. Not right now, at least. Instead, I have thinking to do. Maybe posting this is the answer, but maybe it isn’t. Just like… maybe I should sit here reading about dark stars and looking at pictures of black holes online or maybe I should go put some extra dreamy shoegaze on my headphones and go outside to wait for the stars to come out?

Either way, you should go read Black Hole by Charles Burns. Eventually it’ll be made into a movie, which at one point was going to be directed by either the French guy who gave us Haute Tension or by David Fincher with a script by Neil Gaiman. But you want to read it now, trust me. Just imagine how great their film would’ve been had it not fallen into a black hole of it’s own.

Perhaps it’s a perspective thing. Perhaps I was half right before?

Perhaps not everything has to make sense.

Per la prima volta in vita mia ho visto Bologna, Dotta, Grassa e Turrita città. Dopo aver girovagato per ore nel centro storico e aver assaggiato ogni sorta di manicaretto, ho pensato di nutrire anche un po’ la mente con una visita alla Pinacoteca Nazionale, che racconta la pittura nel bolognese dal ‘300 al ‘600. Dopo Giotto e Raffello, al piano inferiore della pinacoteca c’è una piacevole sorpresa. Il museo ospita infatti una mostra temporanea monografica dedicata a Charles Burns, fumettista e illustratore statunitense, classe 1955, che a metà degli anni ottanta passò da Bologna entrando a far parte del gruppo Valvoline fondato dal collega Lorenzo Mattotti.

I disegni di Charles Burns sono piuttosto inquietanti. Erede di un’estetica pop- horror-giallo-erotico-fantascentifica, Charles Burns ha dato vita a numerosi personaggi, con un tratto spesso e deciso. La sua poetica, chiara fin dai primi bozzetti infantili, segue un percorso che oggi l’ha condotto a lavorare a un lungometraggio in francese: Peur[s] du noir. Nella mostra, intitolata “Sotto pelle” è possibile vedere alcune clip in anteprima, davvero fantastiche, ma anche il making off di come sono stati animati i disegni per il grande schermo. L’atmosfera è assolutamente noir, la trama promette bene, e spero prima o poi di riuscire a vedere il risultato finale, magari nella saletta buia di un cinema di periferia.

Black Hole, de Charles Burns, pela Conrad

A sensação de estar caindo em um buraco negro é recorrente durante a adolescência. O mundo está mudando, o corpo está mudando e nem sempre se consegue acompanhar essa mudança. A graphic novel Black Hole – Introdução à Biologia, de Charles Burns, desperta esta impressão no leitor, mas de modo potencializado. A história mostra adolescentes descobrindo as drogas e o sexo na Seattle dos anos 1970. Estas primeiras experiências se tornam terríveis quando uma doença que se dissemina pelo contato sexual assola a cidade, gerando as mais variadas mutações.

Durante uma festa, Chris conhece Rob. Decidem sair da festa para conversar melhor. A garota leva uma garrafa de vinho. Bebem o vinho, beijam-se, deitam-se no chão e transam. Chris resolve beijar o pescoço de Rob. Quando ela puxa a gola da camisa do rapaz para baixo, enxerga uma segunda boca em seu pescoço, fazendo sons guturais. E tudo fica frio como a certeza de que estava com a doença.

Que tal beijar uma boca no pescoço?

É fácil perceber que a graphic novel de Burns traça um paralelo com os primeiros anos da conscientização do perigo da AIDS e de como a doença reprimiu as pessoas que uma década antes haviam se libertado sexualmente. Burns mostra que o sentimento de deslocamento é tão presente nos infectados quanto nos sãos, e insinua que a praga sexualmente transmissível não é o único problema entre os personagens, mas a própria adolescência e o despreparo em lidar com o embate entre perigo e prazer que ocorre em suas cabeças. O autor se aproveita deste conflito para desenvolver cenas surreais, em que pessoas têm o corpo de serpentes marinhas, um cigarro se torna uma espécie de ser vegetal, imagens que surgem em sonhos ou em alucinações geradas pelo consumo de LSD. O que torna tudo ainda mais alarmante é perceber que estas visões se concretizam em Seattle, com escalpos encontrados na margem de um lago ou criaturas deformadas habitando a mata fechada, todos resultados da praga.

Os efeitos da moléstia podem ir de pequenas manchas e rasgos na pele a deformações extremas no rosto como calombos e pústulas. “Gosto de pensar na adolescência como uma doença que aflige as pessoas e que as afeta de modos diferentes”, justifica o autor. “Naquele tempo eu me sentia como uma criatura alienígena”.Há uma passagem na história em que Keith encontra uma garota de costas e nua da cintura para baixo. O rapaz fica atraído e também apavorado: a garota tinha um rabo, um pedaço de pele que se mexia sobre sua bunda. Ela era um deles, os infectados.

Uma garota com um charme a mais.

Se Black Hole fosse um filme poderia ser dirigido por David Cronemberg, cineasta conhecido por desenvolver películas que aproximam o físico do psicológico de uma maneira bastante explícita (A Mosca, Crash – Estranhos Prazeres). Assim como Cronemberg, Charles Burns não se furta em mostrar ferimentos abertos, órgãos sexuais, consumo de drogas e outros detalhes que algumas obras deixam de retratar sob o pretexto de ofender alguém. Em sua filmografia, Cronemberg tentou mostrar que seus filmes devem ser assistidos através do ponto de vista da doença. Da mesma forma que Black Hole encara a adolescência e suas transformações de uma forma mais radical, doença e desastre, na obra de Cronemberg, são encarados mais como agentes de transformação pessoal do que problemas a serem superados.

A arte do quadrinista reforça o sentimento de aprisionamento e deixa as passagens inquietantes ainda mais terríveis e sombrias. Burns se utiliza de um traço pesado, porém extremamente detalhista. Os quadros são todos completos, com cenários bem desenvolvidos e, por vezes, na história é possível sentir até claustrofobia. O suspense se mostra eficiente em uma história em quadrinhos que utiliza um contraste tão intenso entre luz e sombras, resultado de xilogravura numa técnica chamada scratch board, de uma maneira que leva a crer que o perigo está presente a todo tempo, espreitando sob uma extensa área de nanquim.

Linhas sinuosas, o uso de chiroscuro e o deslocamento dão o clima da história

Apesar de lidar com temas de ficção científica todos os personagens de Black Hole são reais, com motivações e preocupações que qualquer um de nós teria durante a adolescência. Keith, Rob e Chris poderiam ser qualquer um de nossos colegas e também nós mesmos. A realidade dos personagens é tão incerta, que Chris tenta deixar de lado suas inquietações beijando a boca no pescoço de Rob, o único amparo que lhe restava. Por sua vez, a garota com rabo é uma das personagens mais carismáticas da HQ, talvez por ser esse misto de sensações e sentimentos, que a fazem parecer ao mesmo tempo sensual e abominável. Em Black Hole – Introdução à Biologia, o surreal torna-se verossímil.

Beijo na boca

Originalmente, a história foi publicada em doze edições e levou dez anos para ficar pronta (1995-2005). Black Hole é derivada da série Teen Plague (Praga Adolescente), publicada por Burns na revista Raw, nos anos 80. A revista Raw era editada por um dos grandes nomes do quadrinho underground americano, Art Spiegelman, autor de Maus e ganhador do Pulitzer por este trabalho. Já Black Hole ganhou o Eisner Award (espécie de Oscar dos quadrinhos americanos) de melhor álbum em 2006 e 9 Harvey Awards. Charles Burns foi responsável pela autoria de boa parte das capas dos primeiros discos do selo Sub Pop que, entre outros, descobriu o Nirvana. A segunda parte da história foi prometida pela Conrad Editora para este ano.

Um filme adaptado da graphic novel está sendo preparado, com roteiro de Neil Gaiman (Sandman) e Roger Avery (Pulp Fiction – Tempo de Violência), dupla responsável pelo roteiro de A Lenda de Beowulf. As últimas notícias dão conta que David Fincher (Zodíaco, Clube da Luta) dirigirá a película.

A fixação de Burns pela adolescência se revela também no visual dos personagens, baseados em amigos e colegas de escola daquele período de sua vida. “Nunca superei esta fase”, o autor chegou a afirmar. Black Hole – Introdução à Biologia é aquela graphic novel ideal para se ler de uma vez só durante uma madrugada chuvosa e é indicada para quem gosta de história de horror, mas também para aqueles que se deleitam com seqüências delirantes e gostam que o inusitado os espere a cada virada de página.

________

Publicado originalmente em ThingsMag #2

Karin Dreijer Andersson (she being one half of the Swedish electronic pair, The Knife) released her debut solo album under the banner of Fever Ray last month to a fanfare of critical applause. This was seen as quite a strange move for someone who has gone to such lengths to stay out of the limelight and generally remain as anonymous as possible. Afterall, a solo sidestep from a band usually offers a more personal take on all things.

So, gone are the signature beats of her electronic roots, instead replaced by drones and synthetic ambient sounds. An undercurrent of menace pervades from start to finish that’s genuinely unsettling at times. The opening track, “If I Had A Heart” sets the scene beautifully as it hums and warbles along to lyrics disguised by deep, hollow voice-manipulations. Words slosh in and out of the mix of ambience, accent and vocal gymnastics. Pieces of images appearing out of the dense fog of the eerie, atmospheric soundscapes. There’s also something so very claustrophobic about this album. This claustrophobia never lets up throughout it’s 48 minute lifespan, wherein the pacing remains even and pretty steadfast: without the ‘fast’. What we have here is slow, opaque and strangely calming at times. Less dancey than The Knife and lot more synthy 80’s, like The Cure or Echo and The Bunnymen.

On a side note: The coverart (seen above) looks to be created by Charles Burns. If you havent read Black Hole, I suggest you do. David Fincher is adapting it into a moving picture.

Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart:

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up:

Fever Ray Linkety Links: Wikipedia / MySpace

Just saw these today at Angus and Robertson – another great chunk of art from the Fairey man (I’m sure his favourite moniker). $22.95 was steep, but I do love me some anti-communist/anti-dictorial/grumpy old man rants.

This led to a whole new world of amazing Penguin-cover-finding for me, including the My Penguin blank book cover project. I want in!!

This is Beck’s design for the The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Alain-Fournier, who I have never heard of. But now I want to.

Then there’s the amazingly sexy Penguin Classics Deluxe Series with covers by Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Joe Sacco…

The latest post on Berk’s blog about Charles Burns reminded me of this wonderful magazine called The Believer. there are generally review on literature but they also publish issues that focus on especially on music, film and art.

cover art by Charles Burns.

Hace tiempo que está a la venta, y a la descarga, Peaur(s) du noir, la película  francesa de animación coordinada por Etienne Robial que presenta varios cortos realizados por: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre di Sciullo, Jerry Kramsky, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire, Michel Pirus y Romain Slocombe. En la red están disponibles algunos de los cortos, de los que hemos creado una lista de reproducción en youtube.

TRAILER

BURNS (1)

BURNS (2)

MAKING OFF BURNS (2)

MAKING OFF BURNS (3)

MATTOTTI (1)

MATTOTTI (2)

McGUIRE (1)

McGUIRE (2)

BLUTCH (fragmento)