Category Archives: Essays

August 30, 2026 · 11:30 am

Fantagraphics and the History of Comic Art (Part Two)

Love and Rockets propelled both the creators, Los Bros Hernandez, and the publisher, Fantagraphics.

Editor’s Note: This is a two-part look back at 50 years of the comics publisher, Fantagraphics. Part Two is by Henry Chamberlain.

Essay by Henry Chamberlain

No one cartoonist can fully represent the phenomenon that is the comics publisher Fantagraphics but each can speak to distinguishing traits, especially by drawing their own comics tribute or appearing on a panel at a comics convention. Even writers (myself included) for the comics publisher’s own separate magazine of comics criticism, The Comics Journal, will need to exercise special care in how they depict their boss. However, in the case of this publisher, being outspoken is part of the brand so there’s considerable leeway. Anyone at all familiar with this niche publisher will have their own ideas too. At the end of the day, there is much to be thankful and be grateful for regarding Fantagraphics as it marks its 50th anniversay. Huge inroads have been made in a greater appreciation of the comics medium and Fantagraphics remains a significant part of that process in the titles it publishes and in its own dissection and analysis of the art form.

16-year-old Gary Groth, circa 1970. Already contemplating a comics empire.

The story of the house that Gary Groth built is the stuff of legend. As a teenager, Groth was already leading the way at putting together comics conventions with the same zest and gusto as fellow kid entrepreneur Richard Alf on his path to leading the way to creating Comic-Con in San Diego. Gary Groth could have continued on a similar path but he was always more interested in publishing. Now, before we dig deeper, I must say that what Fantagraphics has gone on to accomplish, and continues to do so, is both breathtaking and staggering. It wasn’t just a one-off dumb luck success of snagging a comics talent at the right time. It was one success after another, year after year, bringing to the world precisely what Fantagraphics boasts as its tagline: “publisher of the world’s greatest cartoonists.”

I lived a great part of my life in Seattle, the headquarters for Fantagraphics, and I still live there in spirit. Anyway, I got to see firsthand what it was like for local cartoonists living in such close proximity to a legendary powerhouse in the world of independent comics publishing. I suppose that experience is what drives this essay. I think the feeling among cartoonists always runs the gamut from being some vague goal to get to network within the publisher inner circles to all-out battle plans to claw one’s way in and get work published. At Bumbershoot, for instance, the annual music (and arts) festival held at Seattle Center, cartoonists usually have more than one way to be part of some event that might allow them to draw attention to themselves and their work. Maybe, if they’re lucky, they will at least draw attention to themselves for some fleeting moments, such as dancing on stage as part of some comedy skit. So, that kind of frenetic energy is always brewing somewhere in the background, at all sorts of events in Seattle throughout the year, including Short Run, an annual comics festival, with related activities, which is one of the best comic arts festivals.

And the beat goes on with HATE by Peter Bagge.

Who might be fortunate enough to be chosen to join the ranks of the greatest cartoonists in the world? Well, the answer is complicated and no one can be sure how things will pan out, including Gary Groth. But, allowing for the process to work itself out, the right cartoonist at the right time may emerge. Dash Shaw walked right up to Gary Groth at a comics convention with a work-in-progress, Bottomless Belly Button. It worked for him. But it might not for you.

What has been impressed upon me over and over again is that sometimes a cartoonist may seem to be the last person you’d want to explain what comics are all about. Just like anyone else, they can overthink it and not even be sure how to be describe what a graphic novel is supposed to be. They’ll even think they haven’t read enough comics. But, once I’ve engaged with someone in an interview I’m hosting and we’ve managed to get past any misgivings, the guest does just fine. I’ve interviewed countless comic talent and that’s what I’ve discovered: some cartoonists are born conversationalists; while others prefer to let their comics speak for themselves. Is it any wonder then that when Fantagraphics set out to create a book to honor its 40th Anniversary, We Told You So: Comics As Art, it not only sought out comments from its roster of cartoonists but it also sought out comics from them. There was no need for cartoonists to worry if they’d read enough comics. They could just let their comics do a lot of the talking for them. Believe me, if you’ve ever created comics, which I have and still do, more than half the battle is won. Yes, you can consider yourself something of an expert on comics!

Noah Van Sciver pays tribute to Fantagraphics.

In fact, any comics reviewer who has never created comics will always be at a disadvantage. They will always come at the work as a consumer, not a participant. It makes it doubly hard to appreciate certain things, everything from why a comics creator might struggle with how to depict a scene to the motivations that compel the cartoonist to persevere. Not really knowing what it’s like to be a cartoonist does make one thing a lot easier: to dish out an over-the-top harsh review. It’s the ye ole savage critic school of comics criticism and that kind of criticism has been a hallmark at The Comics Journal. I think it’s great that we can all give ourselves some distance from that particular style of writing. I think the usual review from the new crop of writers at The Comics Journal is invested more in insight than controversy only for the sake of controversy. That’s not to say a reviewer needs to hold back but there’s something to be said for retracting one’s claws. All that said, if you’re writing about comics, you’re ahead of the game of those who only talk about comics. We’ve reached a glut in comics talking heads now that everyone has a podcast. Some are better than others, and the vast majority fade away. As for thinking and writing about comics, if you wisely use your skills, favor language and logic, anything is possible.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that there’s always been something gritty about Fantagraphics–or, more to the point, something grunge. We’re talking about Seattle, after all. When you get right down to it, the energy emitting from Fantagraphics was as much tied to the utter intensity that was grunge as anything else. Back in the early ’90s, it was a perfect storm of disaffected youth on a steady migration to the promised land of Seattle for those willing to take a leap of faith. Some had a plan (musicians, writers, painters and cartoonists) and others did not, being young was enough. All the creative people were interested in finding their tribe. It was at this critical time that The Center on Contemporary Art in collaboration with Fantagraphics, put on a show, “Misfit Lit,” a look at contemporary comic art (March 15 to May 4, 1991). The poster for the show echoed a self-conscious and overly self-deprecating vibe, a stance that dared the viewer to come closer and attracted more people than repelled. Not a perfect campaign to engage the general public but it got its fair share of notice. The rather staid Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in a Sunday supplement (June 1, 1992), summed up the mood with the headline: “In your face, Seattle; you’re becoming a capital of alternative comics.” And, even more than comics, it was the zeitgeist that supercharged everything.

Dan Clowes leading that pop culture wave.

When Geffen released Nirvana’s album Nevermind on September 24, 1991, it was a game changer. It would be on heavy rotation on the radio, in homes, cars, and Walkmans for months, even years, on KNDD, 107.7 FM, “The End.” On another musical note: The romantic comedy film Singles, featuring young people in love in Seattle, came out in theaters on September 18, 1992. The youthquake was happening in Seattle and everyone who loved Nirvana, and music from Sub Pop (which featured Dan Clowes art on album covers and in its ads), was into the new cool and edgy comics coming out of Fantagraphics (Hate, Eightball, Love and Rockets, Acme Novelty Library, Naughty Bits, Palestine, The Biological Show). Many people have fond memories of buying their music and comics from Tower Records in Seattle.

When it doubt, just return to what matters. For Fantagraphics, it’s been this stubborn persistence of vision. They simply did not want to succumb to the harsh realities that have wiped out other publishers in similar circumstances. These days are far more solid. Fantagraphics has fended off the threat of bankruptcy many times. And when its own distributor went belly up, they found a much better arrangement.

Cartoon in The Stranger on Fantagraphics financial woes, 2003, by Pat Moriarity.

Fantagraphics is now distributed to the book trade by W.W. Norton and to comics retailers by Lunar. It has been a uphill battle but the dark times have ushered in exciting new phases like the pioneering deluxe archival editions of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, E.C. Segar’s Popeye, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, and neglected classics from the Marvel Comics archives.  Fantagraphics is running more smoothly than ever and, with any luck, will be ready for the next challenge when it inevitably comes.

Part of the new wave of Fantagraphics titles: Cutting Season by Bhanu Pratap.

The biggest contribution that Fantagraphics has made, and continues to make, is leading the way in the distinction between mainstream superhero comics publishers and those publishers, creators and fans who prefer “alternative comics.” This is a term that I always stand by. I recall one academically-inclined friend not sure if the term had any gas in the tank. This was many years ago and I assured him it was the proper term and it was here to stay–and so it has. Some folks, looking here again at our more academically-inclined types, proclaim that comics are comics and that’s that. I don’t know what the motivation is in saying that unless one feels a great need not to offend this or that big publisher. But this is well beyond that. Alt-comics means something, if nothing more than an alternative to the Big Two superhero publishing empires we’ve all grown up with, Marvel and D.C. Comics. The superhero model is branded early on with some fans becoming instantly enthralled. The idea of having an alternative is more in step with seeing comics as an art form. Of course, anything is possible and the Big Two, from time to time, create masterful work that rises to the level of art. Overall, the superhero model is what it is, mostly a genre, which you can make of what you will. Alt-comics, as a rule, are striving to be offbeat, unconventional, experimental and appealing to more discerning adults. Fantagraphics has set out to publish the best alt-comics, year after year. For it to maintain that sense of purpose is its greatest accomplishment.

Eightball #23: The Death Ray by Daniel Clowes

So, I keep thinking about those aspiring cartoonists dancing on a stage hoping to get noticed one way or another. Well, to each and every one of these dreamers, I say enjoy the comics art form and let Fantagraphics lead the way. It is Fantagraphics that introduced Los Bro Hernandez to a wider audience. Along with so many other amazing talents like Dan Clowes, Chris Ware and Charles Burns. It is Fantagraphics that has set loose upon a reading public all manner of comics mayhem and majesty. It is all rooted in a genuine love for the comics medium. While it may seem to some readers that comics has had a rough time of it in gaining any sort of  legitimacy, I think it comes down to individual points of view.

Jim Woodring, one of the greatest cartoonists in world, demonstrates his giant pen.

For those in the know, the comics medium continues to evolve and prove itself time and time again, even if most people do not take great notice. The vast majority of readers are not going to appreciate comics in the same way as someone who regularly reads comics, let alone anyone who actually studies comics. And that brings us back to what is so special and remarkable about an independent publisher of the statue of Fantagraphics. Gary Groth and Michael Carton, a couple of comics experts to be sure, founded Fantagraphics in 1976. At that point, the term “graphic novel” did not even exist. Other comics connoisseurs would soon join the team: Eric Reynolds and Kim Thompson. And it was this expertise that would guide this upstart endeavor of a publishing house focused on comics with an independent voice. It was fine to review and comment about mainstream superhero comics but to go toe to toe with the Big Two comics giants by creating its own similar superheroes was never part of the vision. The vision was a work-in-progress and it had everything to do, and still does, with comics that are more offbeat, experimental and artful. So keep dancing, my wonderful dreamers, as there is plenty to dance about!

Henry Chamberlain

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August 23, 2026 · 4:45 pm

Fantagraphics and the History of Comic Art (Part One)

An early sign of the future: Gary Groth’s Fantastic Adzine, 1971.

Editor’s Note: This is a two-part look back at 50 years of the comics publisher, Fantagraphics. Part One is by Paul Buhle. Next week, we’ll have Part Two by Henry Chamberlain.

Essay by Paul Buhle

2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the comics publisher, Fantagraphics, and that deserves more public attention, within the comics world and beyond. I would argue a larger point: when it comes to the scholarship of art, from art history to contemporary criticism, comics remain both recent and suspect.

The history of comics is, of course, full of interesting and sometimes depressing contradictions. Newspaper pages aside (not a topic here), comics as in comic books always seemed very much part of the larger pulp magazine world, at the low end where publications actually bought by kids would be found.  As such, they were suspect from almost the first moment of publication, during the later 1930s. Trouble was always on the way, and dire warnings began to emerge in popular magazines already in the early 1940s, warning against the corruption of young minds.

The Comics Code (1954-2011)

The anti-comics crusade, or rather anti-comic book crusade of the early 1950s surely did not rise to the level of Hitler’s burning of modern art in 1930s Germany.  For that matter, the spread of television broadcasting across the country by the middle 1950s would have marked the eclipse of comics’ Golden Age in sales and volume, in any event. That said,  the enactment and industry-wide acceptance of the Comics Code brought the end of the most creative and artistic comic projects. Soon enough, the attacks on  comics’ purported threats to culture and the young mind in particular would pass on to television (“chewing gum for the mind”) as a danger.

We can now look back on all this from some distance, and look back with scholarship on hand. Never considered an art, perhaps even by editors and artists themselves—even screenwriting was seen by the writers as a craft—it would not be treated as such almost until the close of the twentieth century and a bit beyond. We seem to be a lot further now, or are we?

The subsequent development of comic art has inspired a new and sometimes impressive scholarship. Two recent issues of scholarly journals, The American Book Review (Winter 2025, #46:4) and the Radical History Review (May, 2026, #155 ) offer serious, ongoing studies, mirroring the spread of scholarly efforts in several specialty journals in the US and abroad. Graduate students in a handful of fields, mainly English and Communications (under a variety of names like “Media and Communication”) work on college degrees, even advanced degrees, some doubtless hoping for jobs, teaching the subject.

Let us leave aside the glum prospect that the jobs may not ever come into existence in any real numbers. Undergraduates by the thousands nevertheless continue to take comics-study courses even as the liberal arts suffer assaults from within the academy and outside. Do conservative Christian academies teach conservative Christian comics? We do not know.

Comics history viewed clearly, a groundwork set for understanding what it means, might well start with Fantagraphics and its anniversary.

EC Fan-Addict Club

When I interviewed Harvey Kurtzman for the Oral History of the American Left archive (at New York University) in 1981, he kidded me about the use of the word “fan.” The word could only, he insisted, be a contraction of “fanatic.” True baseball fans, the category that I knew best and shared most in childhood, were clearly fanatics. And when EC comics launched its “Fan-Addict Club” in 1950, it pinpointed the most fanatical section of comics readers anywhere. Perhaps because Mad artists and editors met in person with fans, mostly in Greater New York, it was also a Jewish, cerebral thing, no matter how many members were geographically distant. The Letters Page in EC comics seemed to feature devotees from afar, including soldiers and sailors stationed anywhere in the Cold War world, doubtless probably seeking fellowship with fellow fanatics.

The Comics Journal, #58, 1980.

Here, then, we can jump ahead to the far-sighted founding of Fantagraphics in 1976. It could be seen as the successor to the  EC Fan-Addict Club, for the good reason that the founders greatly admired a handful of the artists of the old EC days. But it was, in this light, also a successor of a different kind. It would itself publish comics. And it would encourage the study of comic art through the pages of The Comics Journal (TCJ), launched the same year.

The Nostalgia Journal, Number 22, 1974.

Founded by Gary Groth and Michael Catron in College Park, MD,  TCJ moved several times before settling in Seattle in 1989. Groth himself had been a publisher, beginning as a teenager with a superhero fan magazine. There may be a deeply curious significance to the  actual launching of The Comics Journal by way of taking over an “adzine,” The Nostalgia Journal. But Groth had already been organizing comics festivals in the early 1970s.

The Comics Journal, Number 35, 1977.

There, in the festivals, is surely the hidden source of much else. We might trace the festival mode to the amateur writers (including sci-fi writers) creating and sending out their own fanzines—not yet called that—as far back as the 1920s. Were they lonely adolescent boys or older insular types nervous with people close up and eager to befriend at a safe distance? At any rate, fandom received a huge boost during the 1960s with new, mostly xeroxed sci-fi zines—replacing used Gestettners and ink— and, above all, fan gatherings.

The presence of fan sci-fi events in areas small or larger, in big cities or smallish towns, setting up their tables (and paying some fee to the venue) for other fan-publishers and just plain fans to look at, flip through, perhaps purchase or exchange for their own creations established a pattern. And the value of celebrity, alongside costumes among other curious behavior.

Groth was building upon this past, applied from sci-fi to comics, the two genres that shared a pulpy reputation with some “big names” that ordinary Americans would not likely recognize. The two genres also shared an avant-garde element previously unknown or at least little understood. Underground comix and their anti-establishment or avant-garde qualities could be viewed as counterparts to daring or rakish sci-fi novelists, Philip K. Dick and Ursula LeGuin among others. The 1960s, the popular anti-Establishment sentiment and the apparent collapse of censorship had opened the doors and young people in particular were eager to rush in, find new friends (or lovers) and dig into a kind of cultural examination.

Cultural Correspondence, Number 5, 1978.

My own small magazine, Cultural Correspondence (“the first cultural publication whose readers watched television without guilt”), 1975-82, largely the work of a group of history graduate students, set out the proposition that popular culture contained the possibilities of liberation, if we looked closely enough. To be theoretical: we were seeking to turn upside down Theodore Adorno’s insistence on the corrupting nature of popular culture, and if anyone remembered, Irving Howe’s curse at comics (in a 1949 issue of Politics magazine) as inherently degraded and degrading. It was a natural thing to interview Crumb, Bill Griiffith, Justin Green and assorted others, including women artists, of the underground.

We scholarly-minded comics devotees at large were all, in a way, following film studies’ rise during the 1950s-70s, from the mostly campus Film Clubs to scholarly endeavors. But with some of the same limitations: those who wanted to study the work and its creators constituted only a small portion of those who enjoyed films and comics.  And also: film studies had rapidly developed a down side of aestheticism, scholars who competed with each other and argued about details but especially pointed the finger at fan-amateurs. What else would university-level specializations mean?

Fantagraphics, for its part, managed somehow to avoid the obstacles and unleash the popular imagination about comics. The Hernandez Brothers, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware and Charles Burns would pretty soon reach best-seller status, along with reprints from Peanuts, Donald Duck and many others.

Meanwhile, in the pages TCJ, later to be called, grandiosely, the “New York Times/Wall Street Journal of comics”— as a measure of value and sales—Harvey Pekar still had the space to curse Art Spiegelman and Maus. Even if any reader knew that Harvey, still making a living by working at the VA in Cleveland, was actually envious of Spiegelman’s critical and financial success. Even getting on Letterman repeatedly did not make Harvey any happier: he still had a 9 to 5 job and a mortgage.

By the mid-1980s, Fantagraphics had already launched the Jack Kirby Award for artistic achievement,  a crucial step toward the award system and the giant Comic-Cons of later decades. The role of fairly early staffer Eric Reynolds became notable, first as news editor for TCJ and then as the small and financially uncertain company’s needed marketing expert. Reynolds helped the company past the cyclical downturn of comics (among others, Denis Kitchen’s firm did not survive) with a brighter future in promise.

The Comics Journal, #177, 1995.

The distribution deal with WW Norton in 2001 fairly reflected the rise of “comic art” prompted, arguably, by Maus, a global market hit, and by Raw Magazine, an aesthetic bombshell. Comics had come of age, and global comic art took off spectacularly as well, even more on the web than the printed page.

Not to make too much of a name, the “Graphic Novel” had been born. Marjane Sartrapi, among those who did not enjoy this term, considered it to be an attempt to win the respect of the gentility in every sense, by promoting comics as “novels.” A fair charge. Seen more narrowly, the “GN” soon came to function as the coffee table book of the new century, or at least a large handful of the more vaunted comics did.

Some of those active in comics with serious artistic and/or educational aims would say that after comics became the Next New Thing (the business section of the New York Times eager to report on adapted comics superheroes hitting big numbers in Hollywood), the interest in comics faded somewhat. The intermittent interest nevertheless has seem to have remained, up to the present day, in the Obituaries. That is,  for fallen heroes and heroines of the field. Feature obits have always been a serious matter for the Times, artists as well as film-makers, advertising executives and scientists.

Today, over at Fantagraphics, Donald Duck’s further family adventures coexist with lesbian adventurers of another dimension or another century. More non-sequential comic art books seem to be emerging, further advancing the idea that comics and art, or for that matter comics and contemporary social drama (Joe Sacco’s real life depictions of troubled and doomed populations), have won a lasting place. Congratulations, Fantagraphics.

Paul Buhle is an American historian, who is (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes, including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of nonfiction comic art volumes. He is the authorized biographer of C. L. R. James.

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March 1, 2025 · 11:00 am

Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, and the Blues by Franklin Rosemont book review

Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, and the Blues: Selected Writings on Popular Culture. Franklin Rosemont. Editors Abigail Susik. Paul Buhle. PM Press. 368pp. 2025. $26.95
The art of the essay provides a platform for writers to share their subject and perhaps a bit about their worldview. We read essays all the time, usually as reviews, mainly on books, movies and music. And there are notable collections such as Pauline Kael’s oeuvre. A writer who likes to write such essays tends to like a lot of things and Franklin Rosemont (1943-2009) was no exception. Rosemont was passionate about the masses, mass media and how it all interconnected. In this collection, the reader is swept up by Rosemont’s thoughts and vivid writing on the inclusive power of entertainment, particularly, cinema, comics, Surrealism, and popular music.
Beginning in the 1960s, and for the next thirty some years, Rosemont wrote and edited for progressive magazines, the two main ones being Cultural Correspondence (1975-1983) and Radical America (1967-1999). It seems only natural that Rosemont made connections with the Left, especially the Labor movement, and the democratic nature of mass entertainment. Anyone is free to enjoy it, to contribute to it, to be transformed by it. As I read one essay after another, I was moved by the cumulative effect of Rosemont’s arguments, his deep belief that everyone has a place at the cultural table.

“The Dream That Came True,” by Dust Wallin, One Big Union Monthly, May 1920.

 

Mad Magazine, May 1, 1954. Basil Wolverton. As subversive as he needed to be.

The more I read, the more I gave myself over to the people power theme in these essays. It certainly fits in well with Rosemont’s writing on cartoonists for Wobbly newspapers, like Industrial Worker (1909-1931). But can one be certain that Basil Wolverton (Mad Magazine, 1950s) was so closely aligned with the proletariat, as Rosemont seems to imply in another essay? Well, maybe so but you just never know for sure. The greatest satirists will leave you wondering which side they’re on, if any. Of course, one can argue that anything unusual in the 1950s potentially carried subtext. It is a different case with the Surrealist movement which, beginning with its founder, Andre Breton, made clear it was indeed an anti-fascist movement. It’s interesting to consider Surrealism’s history, starting in 1924 and into the 1950s. What began as an art and political movement, in response to the aftermath of World War I, was constantly pushing against authority. In this context, it is not surprising to bring in the subject of anarchists. One of Rosemont’s most insightful essays discusses how the anarchist political and philosophical movement, focused on the viability of stateless societies, came to be maligned in the United States and caricatured as bomb-toting terrorists.
It’s the 1920s, the era of silent movies, where I will conclude my review. If we are looking for connective tissue to Rosemont’s writings, we need look no further than dreams. It is in the land of dreams, after all, that we can all indulge our most subversive desires. We can all return to our youthful ambitions of leading the charge in the subculture! It is the world of silent movies, with its play of light and shadow and uncanny expression that we enter a netherworld closely aligned with our own private slumberland. In this world, such figures as Buster Keaton, the Great Stone Face, reign supreme. No wonder such a world would utterly fascinate Rosemont and lead to some of his most compelling writing. Here is an excerpt:
These two films (Sherlock Jr., 1924; Cameraman, 1928) best exemplify Keaton’s revolutionary/poetic worldview. When he passes through the looking-glass, he is not content merely to see what is on the other side: he braves his way through a whole succession of looking-glasses, each behind the other, and each reflecting only the meagerest hint of what we call “the real.” And what motive could possibly underlie such feverish wanderings back and forth through the interpenetrating spheres of the pluriverse? The answer is crystal clear: Keaton’s audacity is in the service of sublime love. His agility is always radiant with a lover’s grim determination. There is no risk that he will not take for the woman he loves. Only Buster Keaton, moreover, can sustain a single kiss for two years (The Paleface, 1921).
We can always return back to Keaton, with that iconic poker face, champion of subversion but always leaving you to wonder as to what side he’s on, if any. When I simply consider Keaton’s artistic considerations, I feel confident he was seeking a more universal tone with whatever he did. Let his movies speak for him, he would say. Ah, there’s that one scene with Keaton (Cops, 1922) when he takes a bomb, by then popularly accepted as the symbol for the anarchist or, more plainly, widespread mayhem, uses it to light his cigarette, and then throws it back to the police. A great political statement? Hmm, how about just a funny visual prank? The Great Stone Face would never tell.
Like any great collection of essays, there is something for everyone in this book. Give yourself over to the vast array of subjects discussed here, and you’ll be the richer for it. I can imagine Rosemont going from one cultural signpost after another and reaching his own conclusions such as embracing Bugs Bunny as a folk hero for the masses. Well, more than fair enough. And he takes it one step further and implicates Elmer Fudd. Again, more than fair enough, as well as relevant for today. Yes, be wary of the Elmer Fudds of the world, those who only think in terms of transactions. The Fudds of the world are the conformists and the sell-outs. But, with will and determination, the Bugs Bunnies of the world will prevail!

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March 6, 2024 · 12:22 pm

Comics, Books and Art

Run, Artist, Run!

I have been having various conversations on the state of comics. At the end of the day, comics are a lot of things but, essentially, it is a sequential art form. Or you can say it’s primarily that since work that falls within the comics radar could possibly not be sequential! I think part of the problem is a human need to categorize and organize things: attempting to combine every kind of work of comics and illustration, as well as any work that includes or references “comics” under one leaky umbrella. We can’t seem to leave well enough alone. And then there is another human need to create some sort of turf war: this work is more worthy than that work; my work is prestigious and rises to the level of art while your work does not.

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July 12, 2021 · 1:10 pm

One More Look: AVENUE D and SNAKE EYES

Snake Eyes #3 cover

Snake Eyes (1990, 1992, 2001) was a comix anthology (editors: Glenn Head and Kaz) with some of the best comix talent going on at the time. It’s a great place to get a sense of what independent comics are about. It seems like we have subcultures within subcultures in the world of indie comics. Some cartoonists prefer a more soft approach while others need a harder one, and everything in between. So, with that in mind, we’ll explore the pages of Issue 3 of Snake Eyes. We will also take a look at a separate project, that ties in with what I’m talking about, Glenn Head’s Avenue D, from 1986.

Glenn Head’s Snowman in Snake Eyes

In an interview focusing on Snake Eyes, Glenn Head made the distinction between short-form comics and long-form graphic novels. For him, at the time (2001), he seemed to be saying that he found comics to be packed with energy and immediacy, while graphic novels had fallen into more of a form for a slower-paced drama to unfold. I think that is a subject for discussion than can always be added to byway of various comparisons and further refinement of articulating what it means to do comics as opposed to graphic novels. Basically, we know. But it’s always fun to discuss. And, sometimes, I wonder if we’re all on the same page! Seriously, the notion of comics is extremely broad if you include any and all possible forms, literally throwing in the kitchen sink for good measure.

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July 9, 2021 · 3:00 pm

On Black Cartoonists and Black Humor: Rethinking the Racist Narrative

A Charles Johnson self-portrait. If you know who R. Crumb is, then you really need to know who Charles Johnson is!

IT’S LIFE AS I SEE IT, cover designed by Kerry James Marshall

Chicago is one of the great cities for comics with a rich history dating back to the dawn of the comic strip supported by world-class newspapers. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago honors this tradition with Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now (June 19-October 3, 2021), curated by  Dan Nadel. In the process, Nadel also edited a book that focuses on Black cartoonists entitled, It’s Life As I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940 – 1980, published by New York Review Comics. The title of the book comes from a gag panel cartoon by the cartoonist, and National Book Award-winning novelist, Charles Johnson. And the actual cartoon dates back to a collection of Charles Johnson cartoons, Black Humor, published in 1970, when Johnson was only 22 years-old. The two books document where Black cartoonists have been and point to a persistent struggle to rise upward. Discussion of the facts can only help to chart a course for the future—and it’s essential to look at all sides.

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April 2, 2020 · 10:00 am

Howling Metal

Métal hurlant #57. The only collaboration between Moebius and Phillipe Druillet.

Comic books are perhaps the most popular sources of inspiration for moviemakers in this decade. Just think of all the movies of a highly variable quality that have been released since the Marvel Cinematic Universe has started on its glorious assault on our pockets more than a decade ago. And it’s not only movies either. From broadcast channels to the most popular and accessible streaming services online are filled with content inspired by graphic novels and comic books – some of them are better (like Amazon’s acclaimed “The Boys” series), others, not so much.

The comics flocking to the screen these days have one thing in common: they are American. Of course, comic books are a typically American form of entertainment – this doesn’t mean, in turn, that they are unheard of in other parts of the world such as Birmingham in the UK. On the contrary.

France too is famous for its wines, cheese, and landmarks – and also, in some circles, for its comics. One of its most widely-known titles is “The Adventures of Asterix”, a series of bandes desinnées created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in 1959. The stories revolve around Astérix, a mighty Gaul (and his oversized sidekick Obélix) and their adventures in defeating the Roman conquerors trying to overrun their village. This proves harder than it seems thanks to Getafix, the village druid, and his magic potion that gives the villagers superhuman strength. The two were the protagonists of countless comics, ten animated features, four live-action movies, not to mention the theme parks, the board games, and the first French satellite named after the mighty Gaul warrior.

There’s more to Francophonic comics than Asterix (and the Smurfs that were born in Belgium), more than the lighthearted fantasy stories above. The hallmark of the French comics’ golden age was a magazine called “Métal hurlant” (Howling Metal) created in December 1974.

Les Humanoïdes Associés

The United Humanoids (Les Humanoïdes Associés) consisted of comic artist Mœbius (Jean Giraud), Philippe Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and Bernard Farkas, who acted as the financial director of the publication.

Les Humanoïdes Associés

Giraud was already an acclaimed cartoonist and writer at the time, having released several Western and science fiction and fantasy comics in the previous decades, Druillet won the European SF award for Comics in 1972 for his comic series Lone Sloane at the first Eurocon, and Dionnet was a long-time collaborator of the two, writing scripts for them at the comic magazine Pilote.

Métal hurlant

At first, the magazine was released quarterly – it had 68 pages (18 of them in color), and the first editions consisted entirely of works by the founders, Mœbius and Druillet. These early editions contained several Lone Sloane comics, and experimented with new formats and storytelling methods – they were, among others, home to Arzach, a silent warrior riding a pterodactyl-like creature through a desolate arid landscape. The “Arzach” comics have no dialogue, telling the stories through visuals alone. Later, many other artists published their works in the magazine, like Chilean-French artist and filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, Enki Bilal, Francis Masse, Milo Manara, and many others.

Arzach by Mœbius

The content of the magazine was later expanded to include not only comics but articles about science fiction books and movies, later music and video game reviews. It remained true to its origins, though – it is considered one of the first examples of comic books for mature audiences, focusing on surreal, complex visuals, often cinematic graphics, and complex, experimental storytelling.

Métal hurlant has published 133 issues between 1974 and 1987, then for another brief run between 2002 and 2004, with 14 more.

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal was the American version of the original French magazine – at first, it was the licensed translation of the original, later evolving into a publication featuring the works of North American artists like Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing), Alex Ebel (Friday the 13th), Gray Morrow (Man-Thing, El Diablo), and Bernie Wrightson, the co-creator of Swamp Thing. The magazine published a blend of science fiction, dark fantasy, steampunk, and erotica, often explicit and ultra-violent, intended for a mature readership.

RanXerox by Tanino Liberatore

The magazine is still published today, albeit the ownership has changed – it is currently owned by David Boxenbaum, and Jeff Krelitz, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman serving as a publisher.

Heavy metal on the screen

Heavy Metal was adapted to the silver screen before it was cool thanks to director Gerald Potterton and producers Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel (who was also the publisher of the magazine at the time). The animated anthology contained several stories taken from the magazine as well as original stories in the same spirit – and it is as adult-oriented as its printed original. The overarching story revolves around the “Loc-Nar”, a sentient orb that describes itself as “the sum of all evil” traveling across the galaxy, causing harm wherever it can.

Heavy Metal

The stories in the magazine were also adapted to the small screen in a series called “Métal Hurlant Chronicles” but the English-language Franco-Belgian series, written and directed by Guillaume Lubrano, failed to live up to its name.

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March 11, 2020 · 9:00 pm

Drawing: Sunglasses and Good Times

Illustration by Henry Chamberlain

Spring is in the air and we’re getting more sunshine. While 2020 gives us plenty for pause, there is a need for optimism and comfort. For me, once I’m wearing a nice pair of sunglasses, it puts me in a good mood. It’s a bit of a ritual as I look for the last pair I wore or go ahead and buy glasses online. I do a similar thing when I buy flip flops online. Someone stylish wearing a cool pair of sunglasses symbolizes good times. Its a state of mind that I enjoy being in and you probably do too. I must say, if I’m healthy and have no business wearing a mask, I’ll find all the contentment and comfort that I need in a really snazzy pair of sunglasses. That beautiful pair of sunglasses will block away the ugliness and my worries, at least for a short while, long enough to take a stroll and know that all will feel a little more right in my world someday soon. Yes, we’ll be on vacation or some adventure before too long. A really snazzy pair of sunglasses can not only symbolize leisure; it can help give us a healthy dose of hope.

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August 28, 2018 · 8:20 am

Book Review: ‘In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song’ by Jerome Charyn

‘In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song’ by Jerome Charyn

Editor’s Note: For those equally attracted to prose and to comics, Jerome Charyn has quite a significant connection with the comics medium. He has collaborated with some of the best artists in Europe. For instance, you’ll want to check out titles written by Jerome Charyn and illustrated by Francois Boucq. A new title is in the works too. For additional posts, including those featuring comics, go right here.

Saul was the first king in the Bible but, as writer Jerome Charyn points out, he took a backseat to the celebrated David. It was David who gained all the glory and Saul who was left in the shadow. That’s not to say Saul wasn’t worthy. He simply wasn’t favored by God. It’s a tough place to be and a lot of people can relate to that. In his distinctive and vivid way, Charyn collects in his new book some of his best work on the theme of the underdog, the one deserving yet less embraced. In the new book, Charyn also provides a look back at a writer’s influences. In the Shadow of King Saul is a 272-page paperback, available as of August 28th, published by Bellevue Literary Press.

It matters little if you’re famous or unknown when it comes to being an underdog. New York mayor Ed Koch, for instance, shares a similar spot with Saul too. In one piece, Ellis: An Autobiography, the reader follows Charyn down the mean streets of the Bronx in the ’40s to an unfolding immigrant’s tale. The featured guest in this narrative is the famously accessible yet often maligned Ed Koch. In the process, it seems that everything is revealed all at once in a kaleidoscope of rich detailed observations. New York City, a city of ups and downs, had reached the brink in 1975 and was nearly bankrupt. Enter Ed Koch. He turned the Big Apple into a boomtown again. But the featured guest ultimately takes a backseat to his city since it’s New York City that’s the real star.

No one person, after all, is so much a star as part of something bigger. As Charyn makes clear in his enchanting writing, the glory is in the details. In another piece, Faces on the Wall, Charyn reflects on the power of film–and Hollywood in particular. MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer ran a tight ship but, in the end, the flickering screen held its own sway:

“The simplest screen was much bigger (and darker) than any of the movie moguls. The studios could tyrannize the content of a film, declare a land of happy endings, but they weren’t sitting with you in the dark. They could control Joan Crawford, but not the hysteria hidden behind those big eyes, or the ruby mouth that could almost suck you into the screen.”

Charyn takes pleasure in sharing the lesser known achievements. His admiration for such literary greats as Saul Bellow and Isaac Babel is infectious. But, with the same gusto, he champions less known writers like Samuel Ornitz and Anzia Yezierska. It is in doing so that he honors his offbeat choice for a hero, the much maligned and misunderstood King Saul.

In the Shadow of King Saul is a 272-page paperback, available as of August 28th, published by Bellevue Literary Press.

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March 31, 2017 · 12:10 pm

7 Ways to Make Your Vaping Device Last Longer

Welcome to Vape Nation. Illustration by Henry Chamberlain.

Editor’s Note: Comics Grinder strives to cover all aspects of our culture, including the rising trend in vaping. Well, we’ve come a long way in a few years. Here is a guest column by Collin DeSoto on some things to be mindful of regarding good care and maintenance of your vaping device.

Guest column by Collin DeSoto

Every vaper knows the hassle of their device breaking or not performing well, especially if they don’t have a spare at hand. But there are steps you can take to make your vaping device last longer, ensuring that it’s not only working correctly when you need it but saving you money too.

While vaping is cheaper than smoking traditional cigarettes, no one wants to be left out of pocket when their latest investment stops working before they’ve barely had a chance to enjoy it. With the cost of a single vaping device potentially being in the hundreds of dollars, it pays to take care of it, ensuring it continues to work for months or even years.

Try out these seven tips for making your vaping device last longer:

Avoid a burnt or dry hit

You’ll know if you’ve had a burnt or dry hit – it’ll cause a terrible taste. A burnt hit can lead to the coils heating the wicking material, which not only produces a taste you want to avoid but can damage your device too, severely reducing its lifespan.

A dry hit is usually caused by vaping when there’s either no juice or too little juice to heat. Make sure you keep an eye on the amount of e-juice that’s in your device before you switch it on and as you use it. A burnt hit can also happen if you hold down the power button for too long, causing the coil to overheat.

Regularly clean your coil

A coil that’s covered in gunk not only affects the flavor of the vape but how your device functions too. To really increase the lifespan of your device, take the time to keep it clean every few days, with a particular focus on the coil – you’ll get a consistently better taste too.

Most devices will come with cleaning instructions and you can even purchase a cleaning kit, ensuring your device remains fresh –as long as you remember to use it frequently.

User lower levels of VG

When you choose an e-liquid, the base will be a combination of propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerine (VG). You can get varied combinations to suit exactly what you’re looking for. Liquids that have a higher content of VG will result in a vape that feels smoother and thicker and produces more vapor.

While some vapers prefer high levels of VG, it can damage your device, reducing its lifespan and clogging up coils quicker. If you really want your device to last longer, try e-liquids that have higher levels of PG. Or if you want to stick to your current combination increase how frequently you clean your coils and choose a device that has larger coils to prevent gunk gathering.

Vape in short bursts

Having your device constantly turned on will damage it and lead to it overheating. If your aim is to increase the length of time before you need to pay up for another device, short bursts are the way to go.

Inhaling deeply or several times close together means the coil gets too hot and doesn’t have enough time to cool between vapes. Try to give the device a chance to cool between hits and take your finger off the power button.

Store it correctly

If you’ve gone through a few devices and you don’t usually give a thought about how they’re stored, it could be time to change your habits. Ideally, your vaporizer should be stored within a dry case that’s kept out of direct sunlight. Through proper storage, you can increase how long your device will last for.

Recharge your battery

How often do you recharge the battery on your vaporizer? You shouldn’t let it drain completely but you also shouldn’t let it overcharge either, so you need to keep an eye on your battery power as you vape to boost how long the battery will last.

Try to get into the habit of charging your battery every time you store your device.

Disconnect your cartomizer and battery

If you’re not going to be using your e-cig for an extended period of time, such as when you’re asleep, disconnect your cartomizer, the section that contains the coil and e-liquid, from the battery. Even when not in use, it can continue to drain the battery a little and through disconnecting you can increase the time between necessary charge, helping to make your vaping device last longer.

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