Will Eisner Week, Day 7: A Contract with God

Before I close out Will Eisner Week, I probably should talk about the book that is credited with popularizing the term "graphic novel." A Contract with God was Will Eisner's first attempt to publish a book of comics aimed specifically at adults. It eventually came out in 1978, well after Eisner had established himself as a comics creator (you can read about his career here), and it shows his literary aspirations.

Ironically, this book is not so much a novel at all but a collection of four thematically related stories. Still, the term graphic novel still stuck, and the name gets used to this day when referring to all kinds of books that contain comics (I talk more about that point here).

In any case, this book contains four stories. The first is the title tale, about a rabbi whose faith is tested after the death of his daughter.

The second, "The Street Singer" is about a woman who used to be an opera singer trying to mentor a young man into a singing career.

The third is "The Super," about an antisemitic building superintendent who finds himself the victim of crime.

The last, "Cookalien" is a tale of some city dwellers vacationing in the Catskills.

As you can see, none of the subjects of these stories were typical of the comics of the time, and this book marked a move toward telling a wider range of fictional stories through sequential art.

Many have commented on the memorable, impactful comics in this book, though their mileage has varied. Peter Schjeldahl commented on Eisner's bombastic style and summed this work up as full of "cornball histrionics." Andy Shaw commented that "the book barely shows its age despite its venerable years." I am probably most sympathetic with Timothy Callahan who wrote, "Will Eisner may never be subtle, but he’s often unforgettable, and that’s as true here as it is anywhere."

A Contract with God is currently published by W. W. Norton & Company, and they have a preview and more available here.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 6: Superbitch! Volume One

Today, I review another graphic novel funded via Kickstarter for Will Eisner Week.

Superbitch! is a superhero story turned on its head, a commentary on hero worship, celebrity, popular culture, and capitalism. Superbitch used to be a run of the mill superheroine, but she decided that charity work was for suckers and that she should get paid for her services. She is petty, materialistic, drinks maybe a little too much, and solves her problems by punching them dead in the face. The two main members of SB's supporting cast, who try their best to ground her, are Art Hobo, a childhood friend who has a bachelor's degree in art and a lot of debt, and Quinn, a smart computer expert who keeps her up to date with technology and pitches in as needed.

I think this collection is full of fun action sequences, clever situations, and laughs. At the start of this book, most of the comics are sketchier, one-off gags that frequently have pop culture references like this one:

But after a few pages, you can see a distinct and cleaner art style evolve. Also, there are more sustained storylines, where Superbitch runs for mayor, deals with a jerk of an ex-boyfriend, and assists Art Hobo when a super-powered debt collector comes a-calling.

I really enjoyed these comics, particularly how they play with and ridicule the often ludicrous conventions of superhero comics.

Superbitch! creator Kennedy Cooke-Garza is a recent graduate from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has an online portfolio of her artwork and various projects here. For those interested, she talks about "comics, superheroes and creativity" in this interview.

I was only able to locate a couple of reviews for this book, and they were both positive. Brian Cronin had these positive words for the comic, "Cooke-Garza is a talented draftswoman, and her work has only gotten better as the series has gone along." Deborah Markus wrote on Goodreads, "It's ridiculously over-the-top wrong, and it kills."

If you are interesting in buying this book or following her continuing adventures, Superbitch! is regularly updated here. Also, as you can see from the title and the sample pages, there are frequent profanities and adult situations, so this book is recommended for those mature enough to handle both.

To serve and protect.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 5: A Matter of Life

Will Eisner Week Day 5 brings us to a book by an established graphic novelist. In part I chose this book because it shares at least one theme with Eisner's first graphic novel, A Contract with God, in that the main character struggles with his religious faith. Eisner's book was not so much a novel as a collection of stories, but this one here is one continuous narrative.

Even though he is not so old one could call Jeffrey Brown an elder statesman of autobiographical comics. He has written and drawn a slew of them, including Clumsy, AEIOU, Unlikely, and Every Girl is the End of the World for Me. He also has created a number of fiction works, including his Sulk series, the Incredible Change-Bot books, and his forays into the universe of Star Wars. Many of his highly confessional autobiographies deal with his romantic relationships, but this one here, A Matter of Life, is about his family, fatherhood, and his religious faith.

Much of this book revolves around his childhood and teen years, as he grows up a minister's son and has many different takes on the ideas of Christianity and organized religion. Below is a page showing one particular night in his life as a college student:

But this book does not just focus on his growing up, it also bounces around to other points in Brown's life and we see him as an adult and as a father to his own son. It has comic scenes, like the one with a literal tiny Jesus raging in a heart, and sweet scenes, like the one where his young son pays his mom an unexpected compliment at the dinner table. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this book is how well it balances and juxtaposes these various tones and emotions.

Although the book works organically as a whole, I also admired how it is both episodic and non-sequential. There are so many great tidbits and glimpses into Brown's life, but they are not necessarily told in chronological order. I appreciated the way he tells his tales thematically in a relatively novel way.

The narrative is not the only place where this book shines, because I also loved the way it was rendered and colored in a painterly fashion. Brown's linework is cartoony and bold, and it is very much enhanced by an excellent use of colors that make many pages and scenes even more engaging. Just look at these beautiful panels:

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been full of praise. Jody Arlington wrote that "you'll be inspired by the Brown family's goodness and gentle relationship with each other and the world." Publishers Weekly commented that the book was full of "subtle and quiet insights into the realities of family life." Bill Sherman called it "challenging and sweet" and also "a wonderful testament of the ways that comic art can look beyond the trappings of genre storytelling." And for those interested, Brown speaks more extensively and specifically about his work on A Matter of Life in this interview.

A Matter of Life was published by Top Shelf, and they have a preview and much more information available here.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 4: Nurse Nurse

Will Eisner Week day 4 has me looking at a graphic novel that is a compilation of mini-comics.

Nurse Nurse's creator Katie Skelly published 7 separate mini-comics, which are collected here along with the never before published 8th chapter that wraps the story up. On her website she called the book "Psychedelic Nurses in Outer Space," and I have to say that's a pretty apt description. The set-up is as follows:

A handy expository page!

The main character is Gemma, a nurse in training who has to deal with some pretty competitive fellow nurses. She starts out on Venus, but ends up on Mars and beyond. She has so many episodes but they are all pretty light and fluffy. Additionally, her adventures are dreamlike and random, but there are lots of fantastical features, such as deer wearing space helmets, space pirates (one who dresses like a panda), a cosmic band of musicians, an evil ex-boyfriend, weird television commercials, a mischievous three-eyed squirrel critter, and butterflies that pack an aphrodisiac punch. I was impressed with the imaginative range of character design and world building throughout. And although I enjoy the narrative jaunts, for the most part they are pretty loosely tied together. The real star for me here is the pictures. I very much enjoy Skelly's art style, with its 1960s psychedelia, flourishes in lettering, tiny details, eruptive images, and clean, flowing linework. The whole book crackles with a fun, exciting energy.

 

Reviews I have read of the book have been mostly positive, though some offer reservations. Rob Clough wrote of it, "The overall effect is a breezy, lighthearted, relentlessly strange and amusing narrative that must be accepted by the reader on its own terms." Suzette Smith called it "an amazing exploration of the experience of a modern liberated woman in space." Sean T. Collins marveled at the "endearing cartooning style" and strong character designs but in the end felt let down by the incomplete, somewhat rushed story.

If you like Skelly's comics here, you might also want to check out her other mini-comics collection Operation Margarine.

Nurse Nurse is available from Sparkplug Books.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 3: Sexcastle

Will Eisner Week is rolling along to day 3, where I am reviewing a graphic novel funded in part by Kickstarter, a new-fangled, crowd-sourced method of gathering money to bring a project to fruition.

Sexcastle is a hilarious parody/satire/homage/tribute to 1980s action movies. It's main character is Shane Sexcastle, formerly the world's most dangerous assassin. He looks a lot like Snake Plissken, and the story begins when he is released from prison. Well, actually, the story starts here:

Which gives you a sense of the timing and humor in this book. Anyhow, once Shane is a free man, he decides he wants a quiet life as a florist. Things are going well until one day the local muscle comes by the shop looking for "insurance money."

My favorite line in the whole book.

Needless to say, Shane makes short work of the goons, but the local crime boss decides to sic the team of assassins Shane used to head on him.

If you watched any movies from the 1980s at all, you recognize most of these faces.

So the rest of the book is basically the same plot as Road House, only with way more jokes and way less of Patrick Swayze's abs. There is a whole lot of mindless violence in this book, but it is also played mostly for laughs, and there are a few scenes that are surprisingly heartfelt. I am super impressed by how fun and raucous this book was. I would also say impressed, but Kyle Starks' last book The Legend of Ricky Thunder is one of my all time favorites. After my experiences with all of his books and mini-comics, I am pretty much set to buy anything he creates sight unseen. The man is a masterful entertainer, humorist, and comics maker.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been extremely positive. Rich Barrett wrote, "This is a laugh-out-loud comic from a real rising talent." Kyle Overkill added that it "provides a lush experience whether it be the humor, the action, plot, characters or a man befriending a polar bear." Matthew Meylikhov lauded, "It’s fun, it’s incredibly funny and it has a surprising amount of heart at the center of it." And if you are interested, Starks speaks more about his work on Sexcastle in this interview.

Sexcastle is published by Image Comics. There are profane language and violence throughout, so I recommend this book to readers mature enough to handle both.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 2: Get Over It!

Day 2 of Will Eisner Week has me reading a graphic novel from a creator whose works in mini-comics are among my favorites.

I am a big fan of Corinne Mucha's publications, and I have featured her first graphic novel Freshman on this very blog. Her second one, Get Over It, is aimed at a more adult audience. It is about dealing with the fallout of a break-up, and it is at once bittersweet and entertaining. Part of what makes it work as well as it does is Mucha's sense of humor and her unique way of depicting the jumble of emotions and behaviors that follow. For instance, parts of the narrative turn into small vignettes or quizzes that highlight some pretty horrible moments.

And the proceedings are further highlighted in a series of dialogues between body parts that dramatize many of the feelings but also are pretty ridiculous and hilarious in their literalness. I know that much of the subject matter in this book could be seen as hackneyed or cliched, but I felt that the artistic execution, insight, and comedic timing elevated the enterprise into something special. Case in point:

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Megan Kirby commented, "Mucha’s constant use of wordplay, gags, visual metaphors, and childlike flights of fancy give her a self-aware edge." Tim O'Neil summed up that she "managed to turn her pain into something heartfelt and compelling, which is no small feat." Zainab Akhtar called her a "well-kept secret" and wrote that "Mucha maintains the auto-biographical sweet-spot, maintaining a balance between the personal and involved, without descending into narcissism, whilst hilariously dredging through the universal impulses and emotions of the post break-up period."

Get Over It was published by Secret Acres, and they provide a preview and more info here.

Because I love Mucha's work so much, I also bought and read this mini-comic, The Girl Who Was Mostly Attracted to Ghosts. It is also focused on relationships, in particular on a woman with a peculiar love-life problem: she apparently only wants to date unavailable guys. Mucha takes things one step further and just turns them into phantoms.

Certainly, there is a lot of metaphor going on here, but I love the playful way that the narrative is fast and loose about shifting from fiction to reality and back. This comic is not just a one note comedy, but a human story that is deeper than it would seem at first glance. I really admire how Mucha can make me alternatively laugh, think, and feel with her works. The illusion of simplicity in her work relies much on craft and forethought. Personally, I am very into her works. If you would like to learn more about her, Mucha speaks extensively about her works and comics career in this interview.

The Girl Who Was Mostly Attracted to Ghosts was also published by Secret Acres, but it is now out of print.

Happy Will Eisner Week, Day 1: Cochlea & Eustachia

This year's theme for Will Eisner Week is "Read a graphic novel." So in honor of this event, I am going to review a different graphic novel each day this week.

Will Eisner is credited with popularizing "graphic novel" as a term in his aim to publish (you can read more about the matter here). The legend is that he approached multiple publishers for his book A Contract with God and could not get his foot in the door saying he had a comic book for adults, so he shopped around a "graphic novel," and eventually he was successful. I am honoring his work to publish new forms with a look at a relatively new venue for publishing, webcomics. Cochlea and Eustachia is a author-produced work that was taken up and printed by a major alternative comics publisher, Fantagraphics.

Creator Hans Rickheit wrote on his website that this work "will be completely unencumbered by tempo, character development, plot, or logic." I would not go quite that far, but the adventures are pretty surreal, grotesque, and compelling. The book follows the exploits of two blonde females who wear domino masks, tops, and nothing else. Are they friends, sisters, or something else? I have no idea. But they are mischievous, not completely human, and they find themselves in mysterious circumstances. They are often pursued by weird creatures, like a mole-faced scientist or a giant chicken skeleton or a troublesome clone. The book has its own compelling logic, which thematically reminds me of a combination of Jim Woodring's dreamlike worlds and Phoebe Zeitgeist's random, titillating tribulations. 

 

 

Hans Rickheit is known for his prior work on the Xeric Award winning Chloe and his graphic novel, The Squirrel Machine. As you can see from the excerpt above, his art is full of clean lines and well rendered images. His balance of cartoon and reality makes his surreal stories even more affecting and disturbing.

The reviews of this book I have read tend to be on the positive side. Jason Sacks called it "a hauntingly lovely creation." Publishers Weekly summed up, "It’s deeply disturbing, and that’s just what was intended." Zack Hollwedel concluded his review, "The book won't be for everyone—in fact, it probably won't be for most—but this off-the-beaten-path tale fills a definite, albeit small, dark and fetishized niche."

This might not be a book for everyone, but its existence points to the grand result of Eisner's work, that today graphic novels of all sorts are being published. What was once a highly marginal text format now has much more status than ever before.

Cochlea and Eustachia continues as a webcomic. This edition was published by Fantagraphics, who have a preview and more here.