Review #29: Just a Small Town Bañadora

Heartbreak Soup
Writer: Gilbert Hernandez
Artist: Gilbert Hernandez
Published: Fantagraphics, 2007









Love and Rockets is a series created by the Hernandez brothers [Gilbert and Jaime] and which consists of several different narratives. One of Gilbert's [or “Beto”, as he is nicknamed] narratives concerns a fictional village called Palomar in an unnamed Central American country. Heartbreak Soup is a collection of the first chunk of the Palomar tales. 


“Welcome, my friends, to Palomar. Where men are men, and women need a sense of humour,” says Carmen, in the first of several times that a character breaks the fourth wall to address the reader directly. Without TV or telephones, Palomar is portrayed as an isolated, backwoods community, and some of its citizens are appropriately uneducated and uncouth, but that doesn't make them any less interesting. 

We are first introduced to Chelo,  former midwife and the town's only bañadora [one who bathes others for a living]. She is incredibly strong, both physically and in will, and eventually becomes the town sheriff. As a midwife, she delivered over a hundred children in Palomar [pretty wild for a town of about four hundred], including most of the central characters. Chelo is pretty much Palomar's matriarch and the eye of the storm in the chaotic small town, and thus an ideal jumping point for the rest of the stories. 

A buxom lady named Luba comes to town and sets up shop as a rival  bañadora, siphoning off the majority of Chelo's male customers with her enormous skills. This sets the stage for an eventual confrontation between Chelo and Luba. The presence of the unmarried, attractive Luba also causes jealousy to run rampant among the women of Palomar. Young Pipo is furious when her lover, the womanizing Manuel, pays too much attention to the new lady in town. In turn, the ever-pissy Gato grows more frustrated that Pipo pays him no attention. But what will occur when Pipo's former lover and Manuel's best friend, Soledad, returns from his trip to the States?

shit hits the fan

Then we have little Carmen, younger sister of Pipo, who makes it her personal crusade to improve the lives of those around her, whether they like it or not. Tonantzin, one of Carmen's best friends, becomes a prominent character later, her ambition second only to her growing sexual appetite, but her naivete leading inevitably to disappointment. 


And the boys... A group of teenage boys, always horny, often violent, sometimes poignant. We have  loyal Vicente, neurotic Heraclio, obsessive Jesús, uncomplicated Satch, hedonistic Israel, and sickly Toco. They deal with losing their virginity and losing friends, and we see the effects of sex and death on the lives of these young men. 

As you can see, it is quite the tangled web that Beto weaves. We follow their lives for about a decade, jumping around in flashbacks, watching each story arc begin, some resulting in satisfying complacency, others in heartbreaking depression. 


If I could categorize Betos' style, I would say it's sort of a soap opera with a surreal vibe [hey, anybody remember Passions? That shit was ridiculous]. The odd ghost makes an appearance, a witch curses the town, ancient and mysterious statues sit in the nearby woods, etc. Perhaps the most surreal moment is a huge party in the middle of the book [probably Dia de los Muertos, judging by the skeletons all over the place], which serves as a centerpiece and gets us caught up with all of the characters. They eat, drink, gossip, brawl, and fuck. It also includes a multitude of cameos, including other Love and Rockets characters, fellow comic-pioneers Robert Crumb and Charles Burns, and even Frida Kahlo. And those are just the ones I recognized. 


The party is an example of the unbridled liveliness of the world that the brothers Hernandez have created, and the characters seem incredibly real. Beto sometimes narrates the stories in first person, like they were told to him by the characters themselves. He seems to treat them like friends and even inserts himself into the story on at least one occasion, in a very small role as a local drunk. 


The art actually seems to adapt to the tone of the story, getting goofier or grittier at times.  Mostly, it is pretty basic and perfectly portrays the "human condition" in a small town. The unembellished drawings are complimented by an amazing amount of emotion in the minds beneath those thin, black lines of ink. 

Heraclio and a couple buddies get wasted

One sort-of “complaint” is that the ending is so abrupt, cutting off while a now-grown Israel stares wistfully into space. But then again, the beginning also seems somewhat abrupt, and life doesn't follow a traditional story arc, with a proper beginning and a denouement to wrap everything up nicely. So really, it adds to the realism more than anything. 


Besides, there is a second collection that follows the Palomar characters [Human Diastrophism], so I will be able to continue observing the lives of these people. I borrowed this one from the Jason James Booth Pre-memorial Liberry and hopefully they have a copy of the next installment!

Review #28: Not-So-Epic Win

Guardians of the Kingdom

Writer: Tom Gauld
Artist: Tom Gauld
Published: Cabanon Press, 2003







My brother picked up this wee comic for me whilst he was in the great state of Hawaii. It was apparently originally published as 180 handmade copies in 2001. Pretty cool.

The story concerns a pair of medieval guards who are patrolling a section of a massive wall that stretches between their “glorious homeland” and “the barbaric wastes”. And that's pretty much the whole thing. It's light on the dialogue and nothing really happens. The unnamed guards walk around a lot and have some banter. They practice confronting intruders. One gets annoyed at the other's humming. One forgets which side they are supposed to protect.

Usually a medieval story will feature some epic battles and duels and all that jazz. Not this one. It highlights the mundane stuff, the crap that the regular joes are doing while the hero is off slaying dragons, and is entertaining in it's unentertainingness. It reminds me somewhat of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The art is charmingly minimalistic as well.  Its black and white, panoramic views of the wall and surrounding area are made up of a multitude of tiny pen strokes. You can see the physical work that went into making this comic. We don't get a close look at the guards themselves, and they are indistinguishable from each other, which adds to the idea that these are basically “nobodies”. The themes of a truly successful comic are served by both its art and its story.

You may have noticed that sometimes I deride the art for being “simple and bland” and sometimes I let simplistic artists off the hook. The thing is, I expect different things from different comics. If I am reading something published by Marvel or DC or one of the industry bigwigs, I expect a certain kind of artwork. Huge muscles, tight spandex, physically impossible measurements on women... these are all the norm in superhero comics. Naturally, there is a certain suspension of disbelief in the physical world that one must have when reading superhero tales, and it sort of spills over into the story itself. I am more likely to overlook plot holes in an issue of Superman than in a Gilbert Hernandez story.

I expect the art in superhero comics to be over-the-top, but I also expect it to be excellent, because not only is the budget there for it, but because, most of the time, it NEEDS to be good. Let's face it, the writing in mainstream comics can get pretty silly. Solid writing is much more important in independent comics, where there is no state-of-the-art colouring technology and massive stable of accomplished artists and yadda yadda yadda...

As I get older, I have noticed that lyrical skill in songs has become more and more important to me, and I think the same could be said for the writing in the comics I read.

Anyway, I liked this one a lot and would definitely recommend it.

Review #27: The Best Pirate Lady Since Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island

Hellblazer: Lady Constantine

Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Goran Sudzuka
Published: Vertigo, 2006







There are a plethora of lady-versions of male superheroes, a result of the casually sexist men making the comics not being able to imagine that there was a need for original superheroines in comics... I mean, there was already Wonder Woman, right? At first I thought maybe Lady Constantine was some weird throwback to the time when having a female counterpart was as normal as having a teenage sidekick, but apparently she is merely one of a long line of male and female Constantines in the fictional family tree, many of whom have been mentioned or featured in the Hellblazer series. She is, however, the only one to get her own mini-series, as far as I know.

Anyway, the year is 1785 and Johanna Constantine, ancestor of John, is looking to make some sweet doubloons. She and her younger “brother” [her sister posing as a boy, because “bad things happen to little girls on the streets of London”] are living in a crap-hole and trying to discover the secret of transmutation to turn stuff into gold. Like her modern-day counterpart, Johanna has some skills in the black arts, which get her noticed by shady British government officials who give her a mission: FIND A MAGIC BOX! And in return, her family's estate, taken from her parents after they were convicted of treason, will be hers.

She accepts, of course... otherwise, we would have no story. So Johanna finds a former lover/associate named Rafe McCallister, a ship's captain, to help her find this box. Turns out, it's lost in the frigid waters of the Arctic Sea! So, they locate it and, with the help of a wood-spirit fella named Jack-in-the-Green, the box is acquired [a little too easily, I thought]. But lo! The box is more than it seems! And we learn that a certain immortal sorceress named Lady Blackwood seeks the box for her own nefarious purposes. How, oh, how will J-Co get out of this one?

Fortunately for her, everything seems really easy. Unfortunate for us, because there is a serious lack of tension in this story. Some plot developments are all-too-convenient. The dude love-interest [well, “lust-interest”, perhaps, as Johanna shies away from sentimental bullshit] conveniently survives a battle that sees his crew slaughtered [come to think of it, how do they sail home without a crew?] so that he and Jo can discuss that she gave the box to bad guys but won't let them keep it through some vague, magical means, and also so she can reveal to him a twist that doesn't really change anything. My previous Constantine experience was much more intricate, involving, and thought-out.

The artwork was also somewhat bland and nothing to write home about. When I see hellish demons, I would expect them not to look like pissed-off Pokémon rejects. And we get to see a couple of half-nipples on our leading lady, yet not even a shot of Rafe's ass? I am an equal opportunity nudist. Also, the box looks like a supersized version of the Lemarchand's box of Hellraiser fame, which is kind of funny, considering Hellblazer was originally going to be called Hellraiser.

not fit for a Pokéball

This seems like something I would've enjoyed more as a younger lad. Simple plot/art, brief glimpse of a topless protagonist, a sort-of twist at the end. So: not terrible, but definitely far from required reading. I give it four landlubbers out of three swashbucklers.

Two Things

Thing #1: I found these awesome homages to beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes in various places around the web and figured I would share them, because honestly, everyone loves that damn kid and his stuffed tiger. 

Just click on the links to take you directly to the source!

http://ninjaink.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2z3pbd

http://io9.com/5876958/spider+man-and-venom-trade-places-with-calvin-and-hobbes

       
http://meganlara.tumblr.com/post/15996578608/troy-and-abeds-dope-adventures-available-on-a

And here is a link that leads to another collection of tributes:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/other-things-in-the-style-of-calvin-and-hobbes

Ahh... my youth could probably be pieced together from panels of Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side and Bloom County.


Anyway, to get serious for a moment...

Thing #2: unless you live under a rock, and that rock doesn't have Internet access, you will likely know what SOPA is and about the massive online protests that happened Wednesday and the repercussions that followed. Yes, SOPA was effectively stopped. You could say that there's... A New Hope for the future. But beware!

Internet Wars, Episode II: The Empire Strikes Back

SOPA has been put on the back-burner for now, but it's only a matter of time before it once more rears its ugly head. Politicians often get away with doing whatever they want, because they can. They are practiced in the art of distraction and deception. They will try this again. We have to be ready to stop them or at least force an acceptable compromise.

To any Americans reading this: as voters, you have more individual power than anyone to affect the outcome of this situation. Please consider doing whatever you can to make sure the corporations and their government lackeys can't destroy the freedom that is the Internet. Whatever happens in the States resonates around the world. Our future is in your hands.

 I know I'm probably not doing a great job of explaining a complex issue, and I am probably sounding a little "conspiracy nutty", but this is very serious. Notorious Internet ranter Maddox [the Notorious I.R.M.], as bastardly as he is most of the time, puts it quite well here in a recent post:

http://maddox.xmission.com/

Under the draconic rules that SOPA outlined, I would not have been able to share with you any of the wonderful pictures above. Hell, the pictures couldn't have been posted online by their creators in the first place! I would not be able to use any pictures of comics on my blog at all. I find that absurd. Hopefully, you do too.

Goodluck & Godspeed,

-thor

Review #26: Movie Review #2: Hey, Weird, I Just Realized That Both Movies I Reviewed Have "America" In The Title

American Splendor 

Writers: Shari Springer Berman/Robert Pulcini
Directors: Shari Springer Berman/Robert Pulcini
Released: 2003







A couple of reviews ago, I took a look at beloved webcomic Achewood, an embodiment of modern successful independent comics. These days, the independent underground is no longer too far down. Thanks to the Internet, things can can spread like wildfire. Popularity has never been so easily attainable. In the old days, maybe Achewood would have taken a decade before getting any mainstream attention, rather than the three-ish years that it took in the early 2000s.

But what of the old world underground? American Splendor is a prime example of the slow-but-steady rise to success that was once the norm. First published in the 70s, American Splendor was the brainchild of one [somewhat recently deceased] Harvey Pekar, a friend of indie-comic god, Robert Crumb. Pekar pitched the idea of an ongoing, autobiographical comic book series to an intrigued Crumb, who agreed to illustrate them. A handful of different artists would eventually work on the series with Pekar, and it would eventually gain enough notoriety to earn a modestly-budgeted film.

American Splendor was a small, initial tremor in what was to become an earth-shattering quake of comic book movies later in the 2000s and which is continuing into the 2010s. We have Paul Giamatti in one of his first big roles as the cantankerous Harvey Pekar. And when I say cantankerous, I mean cantankerous: the sickly, sweaty, lumpy, balding man is largely miserable. The film follows Pekar's life as a twice-divorced file clerk as he begins channeling his everyday frustrations into his comics, which slowly gain a following. One of his fans, a Joyce Brabner [Hope Davis], becomes a pen-pal, then girlfriend, then third wife. By the late 80s, Pekar has achieved fame, even making multiple appearances on Letterman. The latter part of the film focuses on a period of Pekar's life in the mid-90s, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Brabner inspires him to use his writing as a coping mechanism during his treatment, and  the award-winning Our Cancer Year is born. He eventually overcomes the illness and he and Brabner end up having a somewhat-happily-ever-after, including an adopted daughter.

Hope Davis as Brabner

The humour is underwhelming and kind of depressing  in the resigned way that you laugh at yourself when a third car drives by and splashes you, because what else can you do? It fits with Pekar's outlook on life as a “war of attrition”. The acting is great all-around and Pekar's pessimism really shines through. Davis laces Brabner with enough sweetness and sardonic wit to match her husband's gloom and help lift him out of his rut. Not that she doesn't have problems of her own; if anything, the film is a statement about how two dysfunctional people can manage to function together.

It reminds me of that Robert Fulghum quote [often misattributed to Dr. Seuss]:

"We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love."

The film poses some philosophical questions along the way. If suffering is inevitable, why not enjoy it? And why not enjoy suffering with someone that you love? Do people become caricature's of themselves over time? What is the significance of finding three other Harvey Pekars in the phonebook?

The fourth wall is thoroughly busted throughout the film, as Giamatti-as-Pekar speaks directly to the viewer at one point, before “cut!” is hollered and the real Pekar is shown being interviewed off to the side of the shoot. So, what we have [bear with me] is an interview with Harvey Pekar within a movie about Harvey Pekar based on the comic series about the life of Harvey Pekar. Occasionally, real footage of his life is shown inter-spliced with Giamatti's reenactments. It gets a little surreal. The end of the film shows footage of Pekar's actual 2001 retirement party from his position as a file clerk, which he kept throughout his rise to comic icon.

And last, but not least, an American Splendor comic [Our Movie Year] was released later, detailing Pekar's experience collaborating with the filmmakers. So: a comic about a movie about a comic about a life of a guy.  BRAINSPLOSION!!!1

R.I.P

Review #25: Needs More Urkel

A Family Matter

Writer: Will Eisner
Artist: Will Eisner
Published: Kitchen Sink Press, 1998







Will Eisner is a towering giant in the comic book world. He began working in the industry at 19 in 1936 [waoh!] and didn't stop until the year of his death at 87 in 2005 [holy crap!]. Almost 70 years in the biz, ladies and gents. Astounding.

So, needless to say, he had a great deal of influence on comic books. His first notable work was The Spirit [recently adapted into film-form by Frank Miller], a syndicated noir-esque/comical Sunday newspaper strip that originally ran during the 40s and early 50s. The next time Eisner made a major mark on the industry was with 1978's A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories, which was one of the first publications to use the term “graphic novel”, and is considered a classic.

A Family Matter takes a look at a family [surprise!] getting together for the first time in years for their patriarch's 90th birthday. Two sons, three daughters, and four grandchildren stuff themselves into one of the daughters' apartment. On the surface, they are [mostly] civil to each other, but they all harbour secrets with varying levels of scandal. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say some fucked up shit went down.

A good deal of the story deals with the question of the father's failing health and his estate, as some of the less-successful kids are eyeing their inheritance. The money trouble experienced by the family  resonates with today's financially-fucked times, including a bankruptcy subplot with one of the son-in-laws.

Frank Miller drew a lot of inspiration from Eisner, and they share a similar lack of subtlety, though Miller is way more over-the-top in terms of sex, violence, etc. Both of their worlds seem to exist in a  timeless limbo, Miller leaning more toward film noir, while Eisner's stories take place in some kind of permanent Norman Rockwell-esque era, except exposing the dark undercurrents of that “American dream”. To me, Eisner's retro style actually seems slightly at odds with a modern-day setting [one character uses a cell phone, another character mentions sending someone a "letter"] [what's a letter?][just kidding]. Maybe I'm just being nit-picky.

In all the Eisner stuff I have read [not a terrible amount] I have always found they share a simplicity, especially in the dialogue. A certain “gee shucks!” quality, if you will. I will call it “Archie-tude”. I grew up reading Archie, and I have always thought it would be awesome to have a grittier version where the characters deal with real-life problems. Has Eisner created the elusive “realistic Archie” world that I have spent my whole life searching for?

The art is unambitious but effective. It's definitely better than any modern newspaper comic, but nothing to write home about. However, it fits the Archie-tude. I love how he shows the flashbacks simultaneously alongside whatever is presently occurring. One of the children will be reminiscing about the “good ol' days”, while a scene from the past undercuts everything they are saying by revealing the truth of how things actually went down.

So, Eisner's strength isn't really his drawing or his dialogue, but rather, the atmosphere and essence of the story itself. It all boils down to his attempt to grasp the intangible nature of the familial bond. He taps into something primordial: your family is your tribe. Evolution has told us that these are our people and we should take care of each other. I think evolution is right, guys.

I have always been a fan of circumstances in which I am forced to interact with people I would not normally interact with. School is one such circumstance. During high school I had my “inner circle” of friends, people with whom I shared a lot of interests [naturally]. But I also enjoyed being able to interact with those whom I didn't have much in common. I try to be open to all sorts of opinions, and that is achieved most easily when surrounded by a myriad of different perspectives. I mean, yeah, some of these other people I was forced to interact with were morons, but hey, we can't all be winners. And even morons have value: I can examine a moron's opinion, determine why I believe it to be wrong and further enforce my own beliefs. Or, in the case of a non-moron, I can consider their opinion and why it is valid, even if I disagree, and carefully reconstruct my own beliefs accordingly.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that a family can function in the same way. You may not love them, you may not even like them. But there is an undeniable link, strings of DNA, that tether families together. It is a powerful bond, and it has value, and I think Eisner depicts it well.

Funny fact: Eisner's signature strongly resembles Walt Disney's signature.
Funnier fact: the CEO of Disney from 1984 to 2005 was a guy named Michael Eisner, apparently of no relation. WEIRD!

Review #24: The Internet in Book Form

Achewood, Volume 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar

Writer: Chris Onstad
Artist: Chris Onstad
Published: Dark Horse, 2009




And now, ladies and gentlemen, we turn away from the traditionally printed comic to take a look at the wacky world of the webcomic!

I started getting into webcomics years ago, and let me tell you, it's a jungle out there. According to Wikipedia, there are close to 40, 000 webcomics being published! I have waded through a small chunk of these, leaving a some by the wayside, but taking a handful of favourites with me. As previously mentioned, Achewood is one of those chosen few.

Achewood follows the lives of a bunch of anthropomorphic stuffed animals. We have the bears, Téodor and Cornelius; Lyle the tiger; and Philippe the young otter pup. Then Todd Todd Todd Todd Todd T. Squirrel [yes, that is his full name] is introduced. Some robots are thrown in for some reason. A group of cool cats [Ray, Roast Beef, and Pat], AKA, “the dirtiest dudes in town”, is added later to what eventually becomes a fairly large cast. And what a cast! These characters are so well-developed that even the one-dimensional characters are thoroughly engrossing...but I will get to that later.

The “Volume 2” in the title is a little misleading, as it collects strips from Achewood's debut in October of 2001 to May of 2002, making it actually a precursor to “Volume 1”, which features a later story arc [the Great Outdoor Fight]. Slight confusions aside, what I will be looking at is basically the birth and infancy of Achewood. [edit: publisher Dark Horse's Volume 1 differs from Onstad's self-published Volume 1... not sure why. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achewood#Bibliography ]

The comic starts off as a simple, three-panel series of one-offs, without any real visible continuity. Slowly, writer/artist Chris Onstad starts doing four-panel and six-panel strips and we begin to see the characters' personalities forming. It's like watching a baby take its first steps, and it kind of fits into how Onstad came up with these characters in the first place. He basically gave life to stuffed animals he had laying around his house and the first strips are how I imagine newly-living stuffed animals might act.... confused by drum machines, trying alcohol, exploring the Internet, discovering what a clitoris is, and attempting to order pizza without freaking out the pizza delivery guy.

At first they all sleep together in a bed at Onstad's house, then they become actual roommates to Onstad, who makes the odd appearance [from no higher than shoulders-down]. Eventually the Achewood Underground is created. A fictional town that exists beneath Achewood, California, the Underground is home to all sorts of “animals with human behaviour”. This allows for the animals to go about their business and not freak out the human population above. Onstad's friends all get their own homes [a mansion for Ray, who, despite being a moron, has a surprising ability to make money], and the comic gains yet greater intricacy.

Onstad provides commentary and several pages of comic-less stories featuring how he came to “meet” some of the characters. He is quite the skilled writer, capable of being subtle, hilarious, poignant and  disturbing, often within the same comic.

The two earliest examples of an actual story arc are the “Todd has a van” plot and the “Téodor wants to meet Penny” plot. Both don't seem significant, but are defining moments in Todd/Téodor history: Todd as a self-destructive-yet-seemingly-immortal [I think he's died... 3 times now?][granted, multiple characters in Achewood have died and returned to life] asshole and Téodor as a lovelorn romantic who is the victim of his own over-analysis. Also, there is foreshadowing to the question of Téodor's sexuality [I believe he is bisexual, as it is hinted that he's had a gay experience in a storyline from a couple of years ago].

The character development of this strip is dumbfounding in its depth. It is actually like they have lives of their own. Téodor started off as the central character, but after awhile it became clear that the cats were taking over. Then, Pat fell to the wayside and Ray and Roast Beef became the heart and mind [respectively] of Achewood. Each character even has specific speech mannerisms, especially Ray and Roast Beef. After a particularly long Achewood binge, I will find myself all emulating those dudes' hella fine ways with words, dogg. The clinically depressed Beef's unassertive dialogue is shown in a smaller font than the rest of the cast, usually without punctuation. It is these small touches that make Achewood into a true work of art. Achewood is a redwood among shrubs in the forest of webcomics.

Anyway, I could write about Achewood for ages.

This book is awesome. Although you can check out the archive yourself here: ARCHIVE! [I kept getting an error message trying to access the archive, so you can begin at the beginning here if you so wish: FIRST STRIP!], the commentary that Onstad provides for his strips adds insight into their creation and is often just as funny as the strips themselves. Highly recommended if you want to get into Achewood, and anyone with a soul should want to get into Achewood.