Comic World News | Past the Front Racks

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Two Books for Your Pocket

The Cute Manifesto and Any Easy Intimacy

Very late in The Cute Manifesto, during �The Horrible Truth About Comics,� James Kochalka offers some excellent advice to budding cartoonists:

�Technical Mastery of an artist�s medium does not an artist make. The only quality you need�is the ability to open yourself with honesty and pluck out the truth. Resolve to put skills you do have to work now and pick up more along the way. Craft really is just a personal pride and respect for one�s medium. You want your comic to be well crafted because to do otherwise would be an insult�or an embarrassment. Still I don�t mind a slap in the face if the result is good comics�but not if the result is just more garbage.�

If you really want to create comics, create comics. It�s easy to become paralyzed by your lack of talent or technical skills, but if it�s in your blood to create comics � create the damn things. James obviously follows his own advice. Almost every single day, I imagine you�ll find him at his drawing board or thinking about being at his drawing board. He�s a prolific cartoonist no mater what you may think of his work.

Jeffrey Brown�s another cartoonist who keeps plugging away making comics. My god, look at Jeffrey Brown�s comics. He�s not a technical master of perspective and form, but he�s making comics. And they are comics that a lot of people enjoy. Granted not everyone enjoys the work of a Brown or a Kochalka, but that doesn�t matter; there are people who do. That�s what matters. Through their work, warts and all, they reach readers like you and I everyday. They�re making comics. They make them because they have to, not because they want to become rich or get their comic optioned in Hollywood. To not make comics is out of the question, so they forge ahead.

The Cute Manifesto from Jeff Mason and Alternative Comics is a half serious half mocking jab at a manifesto on comics and making them. This isn�t a McCloudian bore, but a fun and thought provoking stab at comics and what makes them tick.

Kochalka begins with two text pieces �Craft is the Enemy� and �Craft is Not a Friend.� The first is the perfect way to begin a manifesto. In it he echoes the thoughts quoted above concerning technical mastery and shouts, �This letter is not for established creators�they�re hopeless. This is for the young bucks and does�let�s kick some fucking ass!� Then he goes on to warn aspiring creators about preconceived notions of what is quality; he cautions �The notion of quality is meaningless.� For Kochalka, the comic succeeds on the level of how well, and how honestly, the artist gets his point across in his comic.

I�m still with him there. But then he follows with a mechanical navel gaze of a story called �Sunburn.� It�s one of those �Here I am, I am doing this, but what does it really mean in the big scheme of things� stories. And it seems like an ineffective way to begin the comics section of this book. The more realistic style of art that he uses here may be a factor, but this section lacks any of that Kochalka verve and pop that I�ve come to love so much over the years. It�s all think and no play, which is something he warns against later in the book.

Thankfully, the long eared elf returns next in �Reinventing Everything: Part One.� Now he�s back on track. What is it that makes up our world? It turns out it�s little blocks of this or that, as in the Gameboy game he plays on the beach, that help shape our world, and he begins a meandering examination of what makes us react to a pixilated world as we do. It�s a precursor of sort to his thoughts on comics and it�s a nice way to ease the reader into the next section (�Reinventing Everything: Part Two�) that has little to do with comics, but everything to do with creating � James and his wife have a son; a decision born out of the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

�The Cute Manifesto� is next and it puts the reader on warning � the choice is cute. �We deny the ugliness of the world around us and stand in opposition to it. When we draw, our line will be as supple as the precious spring twig.� It is here that James has his tongue firmly in cheek, but he charges on, stumbling into the masterpiece of this book �The Horrible Truth About Comics.� In this piece Kochalka hits his stride and examines the process of making comics and how to capture the joy and truth in life through art. Every panel clicks in this section. Kochalka�s character is talking to the reader as he goes about his activities, and that�s part of what makes it work. He�s obsessed about making comics and it shows. He�s passionate about comics as an art form and he wants you the reader to be as well.

The Cute Manifesto is published by Alternative Comics and it clocks in at 168 pages for $19.95. Here�s the Kochalka page at the Alternative Comics website. The book is an excellent pocket book size that I�m really starting to enjoy.

And no review of a Kochalka comic would be complete without mentioning the Kochalkaholic Blog by ADD. There you�ll find interviews and reviews by Kochalka fan and comic critic Alan David Doane.

Jeffrey Brown�s Any Easy Intimacy published by Top Shelf Comix is similar in size and shape to The Cute Manifesto, but about two inches less across. Brown is navigating familiar terrain in this book, as it�s the third book of three that deals with relationships. What you get is an honest look at Brown�s relationship with Sophia. He�s not out to make himself look good, but to explore what happened as the relationship blossomed, burned brightly, cooled, reheated, cooled, and then leveled off into an easy friendship. It�s a trajectory that you may recognize yourself as having traveled at one point in your life, but it�s much less stressful to see it from an outsider�s perspective.

Brown�s relationship with Sophia starts to crumble in the last third of the book. The attraction is so strong, that insecurities start nagging at both of them. Brown worries about her repeating patterns from past relationships and she starts to pull away as the intensity builds between them. Phone calls become painfully awkward, but when they meet in person, there�s still something pulling them towards each other�s arms.

There are genuine smile inducing moments. At a restaurant Brown asks her if she wants to make out in the corner. The next panel shows him standing in a dim corner of the restaurant waiting for her with this silly look on his face. Then they are kissing. It�s sweet, but there�s darkness as well. On one page, they�re sitting on the floor in front of the couch. Sophia has a despondent look on her face and Brown is carefully eyeing her. She says, �This is one of those times where if you weren�t here I�d hurt myself.� Brown moves closer to her in the next panel and puts his arm around her. He�s looking down at the floor. In the next panel, he�s still got his arm around her, but he�s back to eyeing her cautiously. How well does he know this girl? How well do any of us know anyone and what happens inside their heads at any particular time?

You could look at Brown�s scratchy drawings and simple layouts and think that he�s not a skilled cartoonist, but he understands how to make a moment work for the reader. He
Patiently records little events and these events grow to make a compelling story. It�s probably not for everyone, but if you�ve enjoyed Clumsy or Unlikely, you�ll like this one.

Any Easy Intimacy is a 224 page square bound book and it�ll cost you $12. As I mentioned earlier, I�m loving this little pocket book format. The new Gary Panter sketchbook from Drawn & Quarterly is in the same format, except hardcover. I�m fighting the urge to build a little miniature bookshelf to house these books next to Teratoid Heights, Climbing Out, and other similarly shaped books.

I had hoped to squeeze in a review of Hope Larson�s excellent Salamander Dream from AdHouse Books, but that will have to wait until next week. There�s a scary pile of review books here at the Past the Front Racks offices and I�ve taken two weeks off in the last month. Look for jam packed columns until SPX. I�ve got to clear the remaining review books out before a huge new crop comes in later this month. If you�re into mini-comics, I�ve been reviewing them at the SIZE MATTERS blog. It�s updated at least every other day with new mini-comics and tons of cover and page scans.