Reviews: A bunch of comics (Smith, Carroll, and others)

Jeff Smith — RASL vols. 1-4 (comics)

June 6

Finally found the final volume at the Wave, so I read the whole thing through.

This comic is basically a film noir with a bunch of UFO, parallel universe, and military conspiracy frosting on top. (The chemically flavor of that frosting was weirdly familiar: I'm pretty sure I remember that phased-out navy ship story from early-'90s daytime TV at one of my brother's friends' house.)

It also isn't all that good! And I think it hasn't aged very gracefully over the mere decade since it started. Among other things, it's part of that really weird moment of Nikola Tesla worship in the late 00s/early 10s (see also Atomic Robo, and a truly incalculable volume of memes and amateur edu-tainment), with the usual problems endemic to that Whole Thing. (Glossing over Tesla's advocacy of eugenics, for example.) Plus the plot and dialogue are pretty goofy in general, and the whole thing is sexist as fuck in that film noir kind of way.

The cartooning is quite good (and has plenty of room to breathe at the original books' tremendous trim size), but it's not good enough to transcend the work's general faults.

But, there is one thing about this book that I love wholeheartedly, and that is lizard-man antagonist Sal's fucked-up and revolting face. It's so foul and amazing. Bless that disgusting shitbird.

Joey Comeau and Emily Horne — The Anatomy of Melancholy: The Best of A Softer World (comics)

June 7

The long-running webcomic A Softer World wrapped in 2015, and it was great.

This compilation is basically what it says on the tin. It's not at all comprehensive (those two posted A LOT of comic strips), but all the strips in it are really good ones.

Also, somehow Helen DeWitt did the foreword.

Books I Stopped Reading: Charles Mann — The Wizard and the Prophet

June 3

Something about this was just annoying me, so I skimmed the first half and then let the library loan expire.

Emily Carroll — Beneath the Dead Oak Tree (comics)

June 12

This was excellent. It's a pretty classic Emily Carroll horror short that would fit right in with the stories from Through the Woods, but it features the type of glamorous beast-people she's been focusing on in her illustration work lately. (In this case they're foxes.) It's creepy and satisfying, and the art is, AS EVER, fucking outrageously great. Emily Carroll, my dudes. (And the printing is very much up to the content. This is a well-made pamphlet, with a solid feel and excellent colors.)

Rosemary V-O — What is Left (comics)

June 12

This was also excellent and beautiful, and it came completely out of left field because I had no idea who Rosemary Valero-O'connell was. (Sifting through her site, I'm now recognizing a few illos that must have rolled through on Twitter or Tumblr ages ago. Also, here's another excellent comic, much shorter.)

Anyway, What is Left is a weird meditative thing, about a survivor of a deep space shipwreck thrown into a sort of cognitive netherworld; she's alive, but she finds herself haunting the memories of another (probably dead) crewmember, watching scrambled moments from her life and unable to interact with them. It reminds me a little bit of The Invention of Morel, but with a much gentler emotional vibe.

This book, the Carroll one, and the Schwartz one below were all published by Shortbox, which I'd noticed before (I remember some major buzz from comics people when it launched) but hadn't ordered anything from until now. And, uh, maybe I should start buying the actual boxes on spec, because this order was three for three.

Viv Schwartz — Cat and Bag (comics)

June 13

A collection of strips about living with an anxiety disorder. Solid. You can read Cat and Bag online, too.