SKRONTZ! » Anthology

An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories, Vol. 1

Marc — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:24:47 +0000

If buying a book was like buying, oh, I don’t know, peanuts (for example), there would a word count on the back cover near the price, and the cost breakdown per 1000 words. Then, you could walk through the store and pick up the books and think to yourself, “Hmm. Do I feel like 50,000 words? Or should I just get this 6,000 word short story? But the price point is better for the longer books, and this book is much cheaper per word than that one…” And then you could just get the book with the right number of words and the best price per word.

And if that were so, An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories, Vol. 1, edited by Ivan Brunetti, would be one of the best values for money around. This is a BIG BOOK, and it’s pretty reasonably priced.

“But wait,” you might say. “There are Spanish peanuts, Runner peanuts, Valencia peanuts, Virginia peanuts and Tennessee Red and Tennessee White peanuts. You didn’t take into account the different kinds of peanuts and my preference for one over the other. Maybe some peanuts are better than others and therefore worth more than others. Just how good are these peanuts?”

And I would say, “Pretty good.”

Brunetti has done a fabulous job of picking up where Chris Ware left off with McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern #13. There is a lot of overlap in terms of artists, but there is a lot of different stuff here as well, and I’m pretty sure there is no duplication of content. The book, like Issue #13, is full of “indie” comics, all of which range from “quite good” to “excellent.”

And so, that makes this book a particularly good book to pick up. It’s high quantity AND high quality. You can’t do much better that that.

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McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #13

Marc — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:50:05 +0000

McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern is a literary magazine periodical put out four times a year and edited by Dave Eggers. It is known for it’s experimental and creative layouts and packaging, and for its themed issues. Issue 13 (Spring 2004) is “An Assorted Sampler of North American Comic Drawings, Strips, and Illustrated Stories, &c.” and is guest edited by Chris Ware. Featuring an illustrated fold-out book jacket designed by Ware, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #13 is an excellent primer for North American “indie” comics.

Given that McSweeney’s is a literary magazine, you would have to assume that the point of Issue #13 is to introduce graphic fiction to those who are unfamiliar with it. The book starts with an illustrated introduction by Ware, comedically breezing through “The History of Cartooning”, and then treats us to some early examples of the genre by Toefler, Herriman and Schultz. And certainly, the book doesn’t abandon its literary roots, interspercing (as it does) the graphic fiction with written articles from Chip Kidd, John Updike and others on how comics influenced their art.

And even though the first few comic excerpts resemble the daily gag strips you see in your local rag, the content is also decidedly literary. There are no super-powered, muscle-bound, homo-erotic heroes in tights here (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Black-and-white is the order of the day here, and autobiography of a Bukowskian nature is rampant. It is, in a word, excellent.

Issue #13 collects many important pieces of work from the origins of North American comic art in the early New York dailies right up to the time it was published in 2004. And “North American” is right; there is a good representation made by Canadian artists, including pieces by Seth, Chester Brown and former Hamiltonian David Collier. This was an important book; since its publication, several other anthologies of graphic fiction have made the scene (Ivan Brunetti’s Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories, Vols. 1 & 2, and the Best American Comics series, to name a couple).

If you are interested in comics, but the adolescent power-fantasies of DC and Marvel put you off; if you love indie writing; if you find the potential of this medium intriguing in any way: do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of this book.

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Popgun, Vol. 1

Marc — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:20:51 +0000

Popgun Vol. 1 is a comic anthology or sampler from Image. Published in 2007, it is made up of 54 short stories over 440-some pages.

As you might imagine, the stories are hit and miss; though, because they cover a lot of written and artistic ground, my hits may very well be your misses.

“The New Brighton Archaeological Society,” written by Mark Andrew Smith and drawn by Matthew Weldon, is a great little recurring story about four cute, round-headed kids orphaned when their parents (the world’s greatest explorers) die looking for the Frozen City in Antarctica. It takes its tone from the turn of the last century pulps, but in a lighthearted way.

“Sanz Pantz: Ninja Platypus” (written and drawn by Chris Moreno) is a fun little homage to TMNT, and if “Solomon Finch vs. 100 Vampire Bikini Girls” by Julio Figueroa (writer) and Chamakoso (artist) isn’t part of a bigger whole, I’m a little disappointed in, well, somebody!

There’s lots of stuff here, sci-fi, horror, manga-style, humour, even a few super-hero stories. Lots to recommend it, and there’s two more volumes besides.

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