CRASHDOWN. Massive. 2024. (W) Tom Garcia, Ryan Sargeant (A/CA) Ben Templesmith. $3.99 USD.
This comic book owes much to the great Ben Templesmith, the series artist and cover artist, known for his work with IDW, Image, Oni Press, Dark Horse, and, well, I could go on: Star Wars, Doctor Who, GI Joe, Army of Darkness, Silent Hill, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and much more (30 Days of Night!), so I’ve made my point. Then you add the writing from a couple of comic book experts, Tom Garcia and Ryan Sargeant, the hosts of the Comic Tom 101 YouTube Channel (over 12 million views) and, having checked out their show from time to time, that got my curiosity. The promotional material promises an apocalyptic tale with a healthy dose of Lovecraft and the right touches of Lost and Alien. I’m going all in here with a look at the first couple of issues to a mini-series that only goes up to four issues.
Just a barefoot artist in search of the meaning of life.
Here is a follow-up on a 5-page comic that will appear in the first full-length issue of Pop Culture Super-Sleuth, which will debut at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. I will post more as time allows and when it makes sense. In fact, I really should do more of these work-in-progress posts.
Dean Haspiel is one of the best cartoonists working today. Get his latest comic via the Kickstarter campaign going on now thru March 28th! This new comic has Dean deep within one of the most fascinating aspects of comics, the creator within his own work. This new project merges the two genres Dean Haspiel is best known for, superhero and memoir.
Nick Cagnetti is a cartoonist based in Arizona and a graduate of Arizona State University with experience doing storyboards and commercial art but he’s been drawing forever thanks to a life-long love for comic books. He’s been making his own regularly since 2012 with books like Infinite Wonders and The Spirit of The Shadows but he’s best known for his work on Pink Lemonade.
PINK LEMONADE #1 by Nick Cagnetti
Nick Cagnetti is one of the cartoonists that inspires me and I’m happy to feature here. Looking back, I found my glowing review of Pink Lemonade #1 from 2019, when it was published by Drew Ford’s IT’S ALIVE. Nick and I talk about the legacy of Drew Ford, one of the great champions of offbeat comics. Pink Lemonade is now published by Oni Press.
“I try to keep pushing myself, to get even better. I try to make stuff I enjoy personally, that makes me smile.”
— Nick Cagnetti on his craft.
Comics can change the world, or we hope so. I’ve earned my stripes over the years championing comics of all types: comics that aspire to be pure art; comics that pursue social justice; comics that emulate literary fiction; comics by everyday amateurs; and comics by the best artists in the business at a professional level. Which comics are truly worthy of attention or best represent the medium? Well, the best comics are the ones worth reading, with something to say, and have a distinct level of authenticity. Cagnetti’s work rises to that level, much in the spirit of Daniel Clowes, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred. The professional cartoonist’s career is all about evolution and progress. It’s great to be able to chat with Cagnetti, a young talent who has already achieved a level of excellence he can be proud of.
I am a fan of all sorts of styles, from very simple to hyper-realistic. What matters most is that the comics, and the cartoonist, have that X-factor, that certain quality that gives the final product a compellingly human touch. Often, among all the genres and subcategories, what I truly love is offbeat and eccentric comics. That’s why I made a point of bringing up during our interview that old cult classic Marvel Comics favorite, Howard the Duck. It is not everyone’s cup of tea but that is the whole point. It was the brainchild of writer Steve Gerber. The tagline says it all, “Trapped in a world he never made!” Cagnetti’s own Pink Lemonade main character could definitely say the same thing.
The Spirit of the Shadows
Pink Lemonade is a must-read and needs to be added to your shelf if you don’t already have it. Pink Lemonade is published by Oni Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster. You can also keep up with Nick Cagnetti and his ongoing projects, like The Spirit of the Shadows. Just go to his website, Radical Realm Comics.
The Spirit of The Shadows new ashcan.
I also want to mention Nick’s new work, with Daniel Ziegler, on The Spirit of the Shadows. He will have ashcan samplers available at the upcoming Arizona Comic Book Arts Festival on March 9th and those comics will also be available on Nick’s site. And one more bit of news: keep an eye out for a comics project Nick did with writer Zack Quaintance. It’s an anthology called, Death of Comics Bookcase, presumably about the demise of Zack’s comics blog, and will be launching a campaign soon on Kickstarter.
Here is the video interview. I encourage you to give us a view, LIKE and COMMENT. Every bit helps in order to keep things moving along smoothly. You’ll miss a lot more cool stuff if you don’t visit! Thanks.
Join us for a chat with award-winning writer/artist/performer/playwright/comics creator Cynthia von Buhler! The main focus is Cynthia’s Minky Woodcock graphic novel series, published by Titan Comics. And we connect the dots on related subjects too. Cynthia von Buhler is such a versatile creative person with one of the most impressive portfolios of work. Our conversation covers the last three graphic novels: the two recent Minky Woodcock books (read my reviews here and here) and a special treat, The Illuminati Ball, which is also an immersive stage experience.
The Illuminati Ball, immersive stage experience.
As you’ll find, all three of these titles share a lot in common: a fun and pulpy sensuous vibe; a love of quirky and uncanny history; and a relentless passion to solve a mystery.
The ever-expanding universe of Minky Woodcock.
One key factor about Cynthia’s art is its distinctive point of view. I get the feeling that I’m right there with the characters in their various activities. I can feel the rooms and environments; their bodies and sensuality. And there’s good reason for it. As we discuss during our chat, Cynthia goes to great lengths to be authentic whether it requires creating miniatures; having real life models, draped or nude; even living in the actual spaces once inhabited by her subjects. All of this adds up to a lived-in immersive experience, whether on the stage, in paintings or in graphic novels. We discuss this at length regarding Cynthia’s stay in the same room that Nikola Tesla lived in at The New Yorker Hotel for a decade. There’s a distinctive sense of place that is captured here.
Cynthia von Buhler graphic novels
An auteur cartoonist, someone who both writes and draws a work of graphic narrative, especially one with a fair amount of historical data, is going to need to be passionate about their work if they want to succeed. Cynthia von Buhler most certainly succeeds. As a graphic novelist creating work that weaves facts into her fiction, von Buhler revels in bringing to light all sorts of examples of truth being stranger than fiction. We chat about this in all three books we discuss. One perfect example comes from The Illuminati Ball with its history of the actual Illuminati, formed in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt. The goal of this “secret society” of scholars was simply to help “illuminate” common sense and stamp out superstition. This is a far cry from the urban myth that developed around The Illuminati which is steeped in superstition.
America’s Stonehedge no more.
Once a conversation ensues, it’s easy to lose track and, before you know it, you can be left with a few recipes for cocktails and not much else. I do my best to set the bar high. There were certain things I wanted to make sure to include during our talk. I am always struck by how much one can uncover if you’re willing to dig deep. There’s that 3-book rule: once you read three books on any given subject, you can call yourself an expert. Well, only relatively speaking since few people are willing to dig. I find Cynthia to be a kindred spirit when it comes to storytelling: covering the whimsical and the sensual; as well as the intellectual. You will definitely learn a number of things while reading one of her graphic novels, like the story of the Georgia Guidelines, nicknamed “America’s Stonehedge,” found in The Illuminati Ball. These monumental slabs of granite provided a road map to help society but succumbed to a bombing a few years ago and are now no more. At least it survives in Cynthia’s work.
Damsel in search of a gurney.
Lastly, this is a bit of bonus material. When I stumbled upon the fact that Cynthia had appeared on an episode of Oddities, the reality TV show on Discovery, I knew I’d found something worth a closer look. In this episode, circa 2012, Cynthia is putting together a stage show about her investigating the mysterious death of her grandfather.
Evan and Ryan on the search for grandpa’s gurney.
I found the episode, “A Gurney for Grandpa,” (S3 E16), after my interview so I wasn’t able to bring it up to her. That said, it added to my appreciation of her art. Cynthia grew up with the legend, and the trauma, of this death in the family. Her grandfather was a bootlegger in the 1930s in the Bronx, New York. Ironically, it was after Prohibition that he was shot by someone on a Manhattan street. But this tale takes a evener odder twist. Cynthia’s grandmother was pregnant with her mother at the time, and upon hearing the news of the murder she went into labor. Von Buhler’s grandfather’s body was laid out in one room of their small Bronx apartment while her mother was born in the room next to it. This family mystery would ultimately lead to one of Cynthia’s crowning achievements, Speakeasy Dollhouse, a series of immersive plays based on her investigations of mysterious deaths in site-specific historic locations. This project began as a series of dioramas, a favorite subject of mine, thus the name of the stage performance.
A dollhouse can help solve a mystery.
And so that’s why Cynthia appears on that episode of Oddities since, at the time, she was looking for a gurney prop for her show. It’s a perfect behind-the-scenes look at an artist’s lifelong quest to make sense of her world. Video podcast is just below. Your views, comments and Likes are always welcome.
Page from “Henry Meets Griffy,” original ink on bristol.
Here’s the first page to a comic I did based upon an in-person interview I did with the legendary underground comix artist Bill Griffith. We hear a lot about comics journalism and it got me thinking that I need to share more of my deliberate form of “comics journalism,” when you go that extra mile (many miles, in fact) to document a moment in words and pictures. It’s not easy and it can drive you a little batty. But, if you’re in the right zone, things will bubble up to the surface that you might not have noticed before. You can’t force the process if you want the best results, especially with a more contemplative visual essay. Things will emerge when they’re good and ready to emerge with something that has logged some time and distance. Sure, you can create something quick right on the spot too. There’s a time and place for both approaches.
A full page of comics.
I will post more as this all comes together. It’s a process, as my loyal readers appreciate. The originals are mostly inked and now I’m considering what other tweaks I might do and what may happen when I scan this and add color.
Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini. by Cynthia von Buhler. Titan Comics. 2018. 112pp. $24.99
Having reviewed the Tesla book, it only makes sense for me to go back and review the Houdini book, the first in Cynthia von Buhler’s Minky Woodcock crime noir series. I like how von Buhler gives both men the treatment by exposing their peculiarities and destructive tendencies. In the case of Houdini, he was hell bent on demolishing the industry of seances, spiritualism and fortune telling. That kind of intense zeal triggers deadly enemies. Our story begins when, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of spiritualism’s biggest defenders, wishes to enlist the detective agency of Woodcock & Son to get to the bottom of Houdini’s own supposed magical powers.
From Murray Hill to Park Avenue to Montreal.
The only problem is that Minky Woodcock is the only one available and not exactly Sir Arthur’s first choice. Be that as it may, Minky manages to not only ingratiate herself with Doyle but with Houdini and his wife, Bess. Minky gets in so deep that she’s even trading places with the most notorious of seance mavens, Margery of Boston, who is famous for presiding nude over her events and emitting mysterious protoplasmic fumes from her body. Margery has a way of intruding into personal spaces that her collaborators find intoxicating. All except for Minky, who easily sees through Margery’s scam.
It’s a delight to have gone back and read this first book in the series as I appreciate all the more von Buhler’s storytelling and artwork. If it’s not clear by now, this book is for mature readers, starting with older and wiser teens. This is in the best tradition of pulp fiction with its own sense of discretion, most interested in achieving a light entertainment. That brings to mind master illustrator Robert McGinnis, known for his iconic movie posters (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Odd Couple and James Bond), who provides the cover art for the first single issue to the Houdini story. And, with that image, in all its wildly vintage sensibility, you get a quick idea of the marvelously retro content you will find inside. So, if that’s your cup of tea, then you’ve found a very special blend.
Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman. Pow Pow. 2023. 161pp. $24.95
The auto-bio genre is alive and well. It never really went away, just like figurative painting. There are these cyclical declarations on art that certain things are dead until proven wrong. No one is ever going to stop bringing up their take on the human condition in comics, movies, books or whatever content we are compelled to consume and criticize. Bring in the topic of sex and, are you kidding me? Of course, artists of all stripes have something to say on the subject. Enter cartoonist Eloise Marseille and her coming-of-age misadventures. She shares her sex life with you, every last bit of it in her still young life, providing perhaps a guidebook for those coming up the ranks.
An honest confusion.
Don’t let the title of the book fool you. Marseille is not really claiming to be “normal” as much as she is sharing her struggle with moving past any labels. As a young person who is navigating what it’s all about, Marseille revels in sharing a messy and honest confusion. Like countless other cartoonists who have come before, and will come in the future, Marseille is putting it out there: life can be complicated; people make mistakes; ultimately, if people know what’s good for them, they will trust their feelings. And, so, for example, Marseille depicts her coming to terms with her attraction to women. In the end, it’s not a big deal.
The artwork in this comic is very appealing, minimal and elegant. The two-color palette of red and blue is perfect. Color and design, pacing and composition, all work well in advancing the narrative. There’s a lot to unpack here: numerous tender and vulnerable moments, along with various points to be made about society, sex, and relationships. Through it all, Marseille confides in the reader in the way a best friend will dish about what’s been going on in their life. This is an excellent book, in the best spirit of the auto-bio tradition, from a new talent with a lot to say.
Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla, Issue 2. Written and illustrated by Cynthia von Buhler, 2021 (Hard Case Crime/Titan Comics) 110pp. $24.99. (Above cover art by Robert McGinnis)
I spotted this ravishing pulpy cover and I immediately made a mental note, “Tesla girl!” I was just doing my usual navigating and took a second look at Cynthia Von Buhler’s Instagram account. The idea of a really quirky take on Nikola Tesla via comics appealed to me. Over the years, Tesla has become a genre all to itself open to new and fun interpretations. This title does not disappoint and led me down an array of intriguing paths.
Cynthia von Buhler is a genuine art geek, to put it bluntly. This comic truly lives up to its promise by thoughtfully doing all the necessary prep work in order to deliver something authentic. I felt that Tesla was really alive on the page, skulking around Bryant Park and whispering sweet nothings to his pigeon wife. Indeed, the mad scientist never married and did develop a curious attachment to pigeons. That peculiarity and many more are faithfully depicted by von Buhler. This respect for the subject matter compliments the crime thriller that ensues.
Feeding the pigeons in Bryant Park.
What von Buhler manages to do is juggle a number of tantalizing facts. It is New York City, circa 1943: Nazis are creeping in the shadows in pursuit of Tesla’s mysterious Death Ray; Josephine Baker, the beautiful bisexual jazz singer and dancer is performing and spying; John Trump (uncle to Donald) is a doctor with plans of his own to take Tesla’s secret weapon. Add to the mix our protagonist, the diehard detective Minky Woodcock determined to crack the biggest case of her career involving the fate of the planet and, for good measure, a chance to bed none other than Josephine Baker.
Agatha steps in!
The artwork throughout is a delightful homage to gritty pulp fiction, with a steamy semi-realistic quality and a larger-than-life pop culture vibe. There’s both a static and dynamic quality at play, like woodcuts or dolls that have come to life, very eerie and fascinating. Many of the scenes, in fact, would make for beautiful stand-alone paintings. Ultimately, the art naturally fits the book, keeping pace with the narrative. I think of it as moving at a gumshoe detective novel pace: at times melancholy; at other turns, dramatic and intense. Which leads me to mention that, after reading this one, you are going to want more. In fact, there is plenty more to choose from, both in graphic novel format and prose since von Buhler’s book is part of something bigger, the world of Hard Case Crime, featuring work by such modern masters as Stephen King and golden age giants as Ray Bradbury. And, with that in mind, do seek out this gem of a graphic novel by Cynthia von Buhler.
