"I'm Looking Through You, You're Not ... "

The title? Personal thing.

The comic book and jazz are the two purely American art forms. By "American" I also include South and Central.  But, like everything else Vespuccian (sorry), there is no pure distinction. Both art forms are hybrids.

Cartoons are as old as art. The English apparently invented the modern conception of a "cartoon," largely through Punch. (That's my Eurocentric version, anyway). I'm not clear on comic strips: though that form may have been the invention of the creator of "The Yellow Kid," I have a feeling there are Things Similar that came before it.

Anyway, it seems the comic book is ours. And it has emerged from being a way to make money off children into a highly personal art form.

Here's the list (in the order as best I can re-create) of the graphic novels (or whatever) I've checked out from the public library this year that I truly enjoyed:

The Sandman: Endless Nights*
The Originals
V for Vendetta
The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.
Perla La Loca
Sloth*
The Best American Comics 2007
100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call
David Boring
The Shooting War
Trailers
Fun Home*
Fortune and Glory
Postcards
Caricature
The Rabbi's Cat
Life in a Jugular Vein
The Rabbi's Cat II*
The Education of Hopey Glass
We Are On Our Own*
Ice Haven
Alias The Cat*
La Perdida*
Super Spy*

All are excellent. I've put an asterisk (*) beside the ones I found beyond excellent. You can see I've been on a roll lately, hence this post. (Again, forget the title. It's personal.)

These seem ideal for public libraries, because I personally doubt I'd buy any off the bat except "Endless Nights" from a bookstore (assuming I had any money, that is), or that I'd even pull them off the shelf for a look. But they are perfect for checkout. And all so very nuanced and personal, I doubt they even belong in a comics shop.

I've posted before about some commercial comics I really like, but I've ignored mentioning the (true) independents -- largely because they often start in serial form (fancy term for comic strip) in 'zines, or other small-press publications. I know no outlet for 'zines available to me, nor have I ever considered them for purchase when I did have one (or two) available.

I checked out some other "graphic novels" from the library during this period, but they are not worth mentioning. In this form of comic, the stories and art either work brilliantly, or they don't work at all. A few of the "unmentionables" are earlier works of creators in the above list, even the asterisked ones. (That's why I don't even consider buying 'zines -- my loss, maybe, but ... .)

If you're open to being played (once and a while, anyway), it just means you're still alive. It's the players who are dead (to themselves -- otherwise, why would they play anybody?). What you have to remember is the old line, "fool me once, ... ."

Another one is an exit line from that great modern philosopher, Horatio Caine: "That's the problem with manipulating people: they can turn on you."

Yeah, that was the personal part.


Originally posted to LiveJournal on June 17, 2008