Tag Archives: Reviews

Oji Suzuki’s “A Single Match”

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A Single Match is an anthology of short stories by Oji Suzuki published by Drawn and Quarterly. This is a review of the title story. The pages read from left to right.

“I had just seen, standing a little way back from the hog’s-back road long which we were traveling, three trees which probably marked the entry to a covered driveway and formed a pattern which I was not seeing for the first time…Where had I looked at them before? …Was I to suppose, then, that they came from years already so remote in my life that the landscape which surrounded them had been entirely obliterated from my memory…?…Were they not rather to be numbered among those dream landscapes, always the same, at least for me in whom their strange aspect was only the objectivation in my sleeping mind of the effort I made while awake either to penetrate the mystery of a place beneath the outward appearance of which I was dimly conscious of there being something more…Or were they merely an image freshly extracted from a dream of the night before, but already so worn, so faded that it seemed to me to come from somewhere far more distant?”

 

In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust

 

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Review: Brecht Evens’ The Wrong Place

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The revelers which fill the stairwell of Brecht Evens’ cover painting seem like a code for the contents of his book, ever striving for the space which occupies the right topmost corner of that image. They are dressed as for a masque: a conga line of harlequins, butterflies, angels, fairies, gauchos, ballerinas and Greek gods; ancient bacchants holding fiddles and rattles, sitting astride tandem bicycles and hobby horses; leaching on to the front and end papers of the book design, an account of the history of gaiety and debauchery.

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Best Online Comics Criticism 2010: The Final List

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For an introduction to this voting exercise, please see the article posted yesterday. The jurors were Derik Badman, Melinda Beasi, Johanna Draper Carlson, Shaenon K. Garrity, Tim Hodler, Chris Mautner and Bill Randall. They have been encouraged to post their personal choices (with accompanying remarks) on their own websites.

SIX VOTES

(1) Jason Thompson: The Other Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name (and other articles)

The jurors agreed to consolidate their votes into a single article. Other articles by Thompson which received interest were his pieces on Morality in Action Comics, Ceres: Celestial Legend and Happy Mania. His articles appear regularly at Anime News Network where his column “House of 1000 Manga” is published weekly. At least one of the jurors considers him the best writer on manga today. Voice your assent (or dissent for that matter) here.

FIVE VOTES

(1)  Katherine Dacey on Ayako

Dacey is a mainstay of the manga blogosphere. Once again, the jurors decided to consolidate their votes into a single piece. The other article which received favorable attention was Dacey’s review of  Sexy Voice and Robo & Harriet the Spy. Let her know which one you prefer.

(2)  Joe McCulloch: Essay on Thought Balloons (The Problem with American Vampires is that Just Don’t Think”)

This is Jog’s second year on this list. The bulk of Jog’s writing is for the web and this appears to be both a conscious decision and a sign of the times. Now writing at Comics Comics, his output has slowed if compared to his days at Jog the Blog. This article was a strong early contender for the final list. Other articles of note in 2010 include his review of Alan Moore’s Neonomicon and his survey of the “comics” of Peter Greenaway. There can be little doubt that he is one of the most popular writers on comics working today.

FOUR VOTES

(1)   Craig Fischer on David Mazzucchelli (Born Again Again).

Fischer is an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University. He also writes frequently about comics and film for academic venues. Does this mean he was slumming when he decided to write this piece on Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp for this blog? Perish the thought!

THREE VOTES

(1)  David Bordwell on Hergé (Tintinopolis)

Judging by the frequency with which his blog is linked to by various comics bloggers, Bordwell would appear to be a favorite for his thoughts on film and criticism in general.

(2)  Dirk Deppey: The Mirror of Male-Love Love

This is Deppey’s second time on the list. He got on the list last year for his editorial on Paul Levitz which would be more accurately labeled as industry commentary.  There’s no mistaking this year’s entry which may well be his most memorable article on comics in recent memory.

(3)  Ken Parille: Casper, Formalism, and the ‘Great’ Search Party

Parille is an Assistant Professor of English at East Carolina University and is considered by some to be the foremost expert on the comics of Dan Clowes. No one practices the art of comics close reading as assiduously as Parille. The vote was initially split between Parille’s Casper piece and his review of Charles Burns’ X’ed Out. My personal preference is for the “losing” piece which at this point in time appears to be one of the few substantial reviews of Burns’ comic out there.

LINKS

(1) Derik Badman’s personal choices

(2) Melinda Beasi on the list and her choices

(3) Johanna Draper Carlson on the list and her choices

(4) Shaenon Garrity on the list and her choices

(5) Tim Hodler on the list and his choices

(6) Chris Mautner on the list and his choices

(7) Bill Randall on the list and his choices


Best Online Comics Criticism 2010: Introduction and Runners-Up

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It’s that time of the year again and here at HU we’re looking back on the year in online comics criticism.

The choices made by our panel of judges will be revealed tomorrow. Today, I’m taking a look at some of the reviews and essays which, for one reason or another, didn’t make the cut. I should add that this has no bearing on the actual quality of the articles in question. The important thing to remember is that the process was “democratic”. In other words, if you’re lucky you just might get Abraham Lincoln. If not, you might have to settle for George W. Bush (who was indeed loved and remains loved by many Americans).

The 7 articles which did make the final list represent a compromise arrived at by the imperfect tastes of 7 judges. The most interesting thing about such lists is how often they get it completely wrong, the bastard child of individual purity and the god damned evils of collective reasoning.

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Commercial Interlude: Blacksad

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A Review of Blacksad (Vol. 1-3) by Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist)

 

 

Would you pay 18000 Euros (approx US$ 23,500) for this?

[Cover to Blacksad Volume 3 Red Soul]

Well, someone did. Actually,  I lie. That 18,000 Euros was just the upper estimate on this album cover which finally sold for 37,303 Euros (approx.US$48K) before taxes. This kind of pricing can wear you down after a while. It lodges in your memory and when people keep repeating the mantra (“Blacksad…Blacksad …Blacksad!”) within listening distance of your computer screen you begin to ask yourself whether you’re missing out on some fabled piece of Euro pop culture, the kind that has cats in trench coats.

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Review: It Was the War of the Trenches

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When two specks in the distance start shooting at Ferdinand Bardamu on the first page of Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night, he quickly comes to the unshakable conclusion that it is all a big mistake. His only viable option is to get out of that situation as soon as possible. The colonel overseeing his fate, a man with no use for fear, is deemed a “monster” and “worse than a dog”, but absolutely typical of the army as a whole:

“…I realized that there must be plenty of brave men like him in our army, and just as many no doubt in the army facing us. How many, I wondered. One or two million, say several million in all? The thought turned my fear to panic. With such people this infernal lunacy could go on forever….Why would they stop? Never had the world seemed so implacably doomed.”

Bardamu’s attitude is one of absolute revulsion for his commanding officers. The report that his sergeant has been blown up while going to meet a bread wagon is an occasion for celebration (“that makes one less stinker in the regiment!…In that respect you can’t deny it, the war seemed to serve a purpose now and then!”). The countryside? Even on the best of days “dreary” and godforsaken, “if to all that you add a war, it’s completely unbearable.”

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