BodyWorld

BodyWorld
by Dash Shaw


Hillary Brown: So, even though I bought Bottomless Bellybutton fairly recently, my first experience with Dash Shaw was actually chapter 1 of Bodyworld, his webcomic that's due to be published as a book in the nearish future and was posted in serialized fashion. Let me say that it kind of blew my head off, which is not an experience I'm that used to having. Not since the Matrix pizza twirling performance in Pizza! The Movie has my brain been so thoroughly confused and delighted at the same time (which is not to denigrate Shaw's work by comparing it to a bunch of douchebags twirling pizza dough but rather to provide a comparable for the experience of addlement and amazement). So then I went and read Bottomless Bellybutton (which we should cover soon), and then I went back to Bodyworld, and I was still totally impressed. I'm not sure Shaw maintains that mind-reeling pace throughout the whole twelve chapters--this is a sizable thing--but he certainly does for quite a bit of it, which is notable enough. It's kind of like the Internet got put into a comic and then directly injected into your brain, and I guess what I mean by that is that he's got this way of jumping extremely quickly between different things (scenes, thoughts, characters) that is disorienting and, perhaps more accurate, reorienting. It's like clicking on link after link to see where they go and discovering the connections between this and that all over the place. (This is hard to describe.) Anyway, I find it exhilarating, and I think it really captures something webcomic-y, as opposed to book comic-y, especially in the last chapter, which has a massive scrolldown panel. It's also important for the themes of the book, which I guess you could summarize as loneliness versus sublimation of identity. So, am I hyping it too much?

Garrett Martin: No, not really. It is like a controlled Wikipedia trawl, popping off on what feels like tangents without losing sight of its goals. And yeah, when people talk about the internet's infinite canvas, BodyWorld should be exhibit A (or maybe B, after this amazing Drew Weing strip.) Thing is, I don't know "reoriented" BodyWorld leaves me. I remain thoroughly disoriented after three (partial) readings. That's the point, though, right, that it's impossible to really know other people, and even if something made it possible to completely share their thoughts and experiences, it'd still be impossible to make any sense of it?

HB: Yeah, that might be the point, and yet, it's also so easy for us to overlap. We have so much in common, with our fears and desires, our self-hatred and desire of obliteration, our need to rub our parts together and take whatever will get us out of our own skulls for a little while. I think you're right when you bring up Wikipedia, as well as that Weing strip (which I'd never seen before, despite being a big fan of his stuff), and there's something that's extremely pleasurable about that disorientation. I guess, although I've never been brave enough to take anything hallucinogenic, that it's probably analogous to what that experience can be like at the best of times--or extreme religious experience, for that matter. Both involve this sense of scale, of not being quite able to grasp the full hugeness and connectedness of everything while at the same time being able to put your finger on just enough of it to get a sense of it. It's not like thinking about infinity, for the most part. That's too big. It's more like being up on top of a really tall building. But it's also funny. Did you think it was funny?

GM: Yes. I chuckled. The humor's never forced or obvious, though. It's like David Lynch's humor, less overt than a natural part of the unusual atmosphere.

And both psychedelics and "extreme religious experience" involve not just that increased awareness, but the willful sacrifice of your own God-damned mind. I felt like I had to do that a bit to even begin to understand the drug trips in BodyWorld. I don't know if there's any better way to visualize what happens in those scenes, though. They required great attention to follow, but the more I focused on them the less visual sense they made. Is that intentional, or simply a result of attempting something that can't be done in static two-dimensional illustration?

HB: I think it's intentional. This "book" (and, obviously, to call it a book is kind of a stretch, although it's going to be one in April) is very into empathy not only in terms of the obvious content, but also in terms of the way it works on the reader, which is an unusual experience. The only thing I can think of, off-hand, to compare it to is Paradise Lost, at least the way Stanley Fish looks at it, in which it creates the same narrative in the reader's relationship with Satan that it does on the page with Adam and Eve's. Clever shit, yo.

GM: Too clever for me to write about. It's intimidating. Where's the punching? Where are the steroid guys complaining about how the punching isn't as simple as it used to be back in the good old days of punching? I'm way outside my comfort zone. Speaking of which, are you ready to go on Tyrese Gibson's Mayhem?

HB: Okay, there's not very much punching. But there is a little. And there's kind of a lot of sex. Shouldn't that keep the layman interested? I think it's the most original thing I've read in years, and it might be kind of important as far as, like, the future of comics..

GM: It's definitely important, no doubt. Could it be so idiosyncratic that any attempt to follow in its footsteps will feel too much like a rip-off? Maybe it could inspire major artists to do more web work, but then I think that's already happening and Shaw wasn't exactly the most famous of men when he started this. But yeah, there should be more comics like Body World, comics that hurt your mind through thinking.

Dark Horse Presents #20

Dark Horse Presents #20
by Kate Beaton, Kristian Donaldson, David Malki, and Chris Onstad
Dark Horse / Myspace 2009

Hillary Brown: Is this the only thing MySpace is even good for anymore besides streaming music? Even if so, it's a good enough reason for it to continue to exist. I really need to mark my calendar to go check this stuff out every time Dark Horse posts it. This issue (is that the right word?) is solid top to bottom, corner to corner. It's like an awesome mini anthology that doesn't have any restrictions on page count due to maximization of printing efficiency, and so people can either go long or go short, and there's no reason for weak-ass shit to sneak in. I saved the Onstad piece ("Achewood: The Garage Sale") for last, to do that whole delayed pleasure thing, but the other three were almost as good and comparably amusing. "Ann Romano, Gossip Whore in Gone Dishin'," illustrated by Kristian Donaldson is breezy and sharp; "Wondermark: The Catch," by David Malki, is quirky and funny and surprising; and Kate Beaton's "The Origin of Man" is a great two-page goofball gag. I'm not really sure if I even like Onstad's contribution the most, which is really saying something for the rest of them. Okay, maybe I do, but the other three are all new to me (although Beaton's stuff looks familiar). Do you read these MDHP (MySpace Dark Horse Presents) things regularly? Are they always this good from start to finish?

Garrett Martin: Issue? Installment? Prog? I don't know. I've never checked this out before. I don't remember if I even knew they existed before last week. I'm glad I do now, though, because yes, this particular collection of strips is very good. Especially Beaton's piece, which might be only two pages, but has a great set-up and an even better punchline. This is the first thing I've ever actually read by her, which is pretty dumb on my part, because I've been hearing great things for months now. Guess I've been too busy reading Booster Gold or something. But I love her drawings, how they're maybe a little sloppy and both relaxed but reasonably detailed. And, y'know, like we said, she's damn funny, too. The Onstad was good, no doubt, but maybe rambled on a bit. I kept thinking every page was the last, and the true finale was no more or less final than any of the other possible endings. Maybe it's in the presentation, the expectations you bring to something defined as a single specific strip, but this probably would've worked better as a week's worth of Achewoods. Now, Malki and Donaldson I'd never even heard of. Had you?

HB: Well, there was a previous Onstad that involved Taco Bell and food criticism and was just, you know, brilliant. I'm pretty sure that was a DHPMS number. This garage sale one isn't quite up to that level, and the way that it relates to garage sale stuff that was going on in the strip is a little confusing, I suppose, but, having been raised to stop at the mere hint of someone's worldly possessions laid out for perusal, it all rang quite true. You're right about it not having a lot of structure, but I'm not sure Onstad's stuff ever really does. You make a good case for the Beaton piece being the best of the bunch, and I have to at least consider that it might be. I've also been thinking over the past few days, and I know I've come across her work before, probably just linked all over the internet. The other two, though, no. Not even an inkling that I might know who they are. How do you think Dark Horse picks people for this feature?

GM: Two dudes you know plus two dudes you don't. The former's the draw, the latter hopefully the draws of the future. But then maybe Malki and Donaldson are hot-shit young squires of the underground comic world, and we're just total ignoramuses. Ignorami. Looking at their wikipedias, they've probably got higher profiles than Beaton. I also now realize that I'm familiar with Donaldson, thanks to his issue of DMZ and the book he did with Brian Wood, Supermarket. Haven't read that, but I see the cover every time I'm in the shop, and it looks intriguging. And Malki's strip is kinda familiar, though nothing I know by name. Anyway, if Dark Horse was like, "hey here's free stuff by Malki and Donaldson", who knows how many would click that link. Onstad and Beaton plus two (or, honestly, just Onstad + whatever) has a better ring, marketing wise. Plus that Goon cameo has a touch of bet-hedging about it; that's like the Dark Horse equivalent of a Wolverine appearance. (Ever read The Goon? I don't like that book as much as I should.)

I don't want to short-change Malki or Donaldson, of course. Wondermark is pretty damn hilarious, and I thank Dark Horse for bringing it fully to my attention. And I'm loving Donaldson's art; it slightly reminds me of both Cliff Chiang and Paul Pope without looking too much like either. Great stuff!

Bride of Bordoom

Bride of Bordoom
by David Yoder
2009

Hillary Brown: In some ways, I feel like you should be the one to kick off this discussion of David Yoder's seven-page mini, "Bride of Bordoom" because it draws so heavily on the kind of golden-age comics stuff you're always reading, but then again, I'm the one who's always boosterizing for Yoder, so maybe it should fall to me. Anyway, I'm really happy he got into the Center for Cartoon Studies because it means he's always Live Journaling up his homework assignments, i.e., new work, and that's what this is, rather than an extracurricular project. I don't really know what kind of context that puts it in, but I guess it's worth supplying, and I happen to think the results are pretty hilarious. Yes, it's far too short, and I'm sure you can point out all kinds of shortcomings with it as far as its apery goes, but I like the herky-jerky quality of the story, which is all: THIS bit of dramatic narration. AND THEN.... THIS bit of dramatic narration. It's a style I happen to find particularly amusing, and Yoder's lumpy, cartoony figures also make me laugh. I almost feel it's crazy to be discussing this, but it's important for us to cover a wide variety of stuff, and it takes so little time to read that people really should bother, right?

Garrett Martin: Yes, people should bother, because "Bride of Bordoom" is one thoroughly pleasant comic. It's definitely more entertaining than any homework I ever had to do. And it'd be silly to point out "shortcomings" in its "apery"; it's so simple and straight-forward that any such complaints would look completely ridiculous. It's got everything you'd expect from an old monster comic (an awesome Kirbyan name, science as both the cause of and solution to the problem, a president, etc.), depicted about as economically as possible. And yeah, Yoder's art is charming, and, y'know, whimsical. Obviously qualities we like around here. I like extremely minimalist encapsulations of entire genres, and this here is one of those, for real.

I'm dumb. We've talked about this guy before, haven't we?

HB: I've mentioned him (in this post) because I'm a big fan, but he's still really young and not much published. He usually shows up at Fluke, Athens's indie-oriented comics thing/convention, but I haven't, like, gushed in person. Nor shall I, most likely. At any rate, it's a very cute comic, and while it's not really adding anything new to commentary on Golden Age comics, it's nicely done, down to the paper in the background, which is a touch I'm particularly fond of. Mostly, people should add his LiveJournal to their readers. There's a children's book up now too.

GM: Cool. He is an artist worth talking about, for sure. I gotta make it down to one of those Fluke things, too. When is it this year?

HB: April 9th, at Tasty World in Athens.

GM: Maybe I can do that. Probably not. If only there was some way to have a Fluke on Twilight Saturday. Or maybe some way for me take an entire month off work and stay down there for all of April.

Webcomics--We know they exist!

Bear Creek Apartments, by Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley
and
The Walk, by Ryan Pequin

Garrett Martin: Okay, yes, there are tons of benefits to putting your comics up on the web, what with the promotion and the infinite canvas and the quick turnaround time, etc. And whatever problems I had with the physical aspect of reading comics on a computer mostly evaporated years ago. Still, though, nothing beats the utility and portability of a damn book (one reason I'm glad that Great Outdoor Fight hardcover now exists, alt-text be damned). I'm more likely to spend time on a page if I'm holding it in my hands, more likely to soak up the details and appreciate the effort put forth by the creators. I just want to rush through webcomics, and in fact hardly ever make it past the first page of one that's split up among multiple webpages. Hell, Bear Creek Apartments and The Walk are the first multi-page webcomics I've ever actually finished. And although neither are bad, per se, I'm pretty glad I didn't pay to read 'em. Are you a big reader of webcomics?

Hillary Brown: I'm not, partially because, as readers may have noticed, I'm a bit of a print nerd, and comics are essentially art books for me, so I probably do prefer the physical product, but it's more because of a bias in its favor than a bias against webcomics. I read a few on a regular basis (Achewood, Cat and Girl, Bellen), but that's because those are short and I can add them to my Google Reader, making it very easy. I'm not opposed to the idea of reading more comics onscreen, though, especially as paper costs continue to rise. If, for example, it increases the output of otherwise much less productive artists and writers whom I like, I'm totally for webcomics, which is kind of how I felt about Bear Creek Apartments. Sure, it's not as absolutely awesome as one would like from the duo of Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson, but it's at least as strong as their mini-comics, and it's definitely got both their voices. I'm also not as crazy about The Walk as I have been about Ryan Pequin's diary comics and blog (dude can flat out draw), but at least it exists and means more might in the future. To make yet another analogy to another art form, these webcomics are kind of like the equivalent of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: not the pinnacle of what the creators can achieve but better than just better than nothing. They kind of make you want the real and bigger thing, but they also have their own charms.

GM: True, these comics are better than nothing. But Bear Creek wouldn't make me want to seek more out by Larson and O'Malley if I weren't already familiar with them. I've never read any of their mini-comics, but if the level of quality is similar to this then I may not want to. Now, O'Malley's art is nice, the color (both water and crayon) gives it a warmth lacking in Pilgrim, and (although this is totally irrelevent from a critical standpoint) he remains skilled at drawing girls that are incredibly cute despite cartoonish abstraction. And man, his pack of goats might even be more charming than Spiegelman's ducklings. So Bear Creek looks good. The problem is there's really nothing to Larson's story. Flipping the "manic pixie dream girl" schtick on its head isn't inherently a worthwhile idea for a story, and that's kinda all there is to Bear Creek Apartments, right?

HB: Aww... That's a little harsh. I mean, maybe I was only reading it with half a brain (Google is making us stupid, after all), but I didn't really see it coming. The inclusion of the supernatural--in an earthy way, without too many sparkles--is definitely a hallmark of both their comics, but I guess I wasn't paying attention or thinking about it as a possibility. I just sort of figured there was enough going on what with the break-up and the new apartment without "evil manic pixie dream girl" entering the picture, so it caught me by surprise and, therefore, amused me. And doesn't that silly schtick need to be flipped on its head? Both O'Malley and Larson write female characters who are real, which means they can be evil or weird or dorky or whatever, but maybe I'm moving too quickly into our next topic of discussion. Let it suffice that I think this comic is more interesting than it could have been. Plus, yeah, I love the color. And I wonder if it's going to be a series that centers around the apartments, as the title seems to have no relevance otherwise. I mean, this story isn't about the apartment, so that should mean that Larson and O'Malley have created the apartment complex as the setting for a series of stories, which would be ideal.

GM: Oh, is this going to be a regular series? I didn't know. Is this just a glimpse from a longer book, or the first of an on-going web thing?

I actually had to read BCA twice. After that conclusion I figured I misread that first page, that Paul must've been the one doing the dumping. But nope, he was the one on the wrong end of that transaction. It wouldn't made the comic any better, really, but it would've made more sense if his unfortunate transformation was some kind of punishment. Other than that bit of relationship info at the beginning, though, we know nothing about this character, and so the wood-nymph's actions are just mean-spirited. I guess I fail to see the point?

The Walk can't match up artistically, but at least the story was more coherent, and maybe also kinda slightly poignant. What did you think of it?

HB: No, you goof, the fact that it's not punishment makes it better! Punishment would be expected. The fact that he's some poor slob who just got dumped makes it much more interesting. Also, she's not mean-spirited. She's, you know, witchy. Witches do stuff like that. It's a fairy tale. I don't know if it really is part of something bigger or not, but I'd like it to be.

I like The Walk, even its slowness, and I agree that it is kind of touching. I also wish I remembered Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse a little better, but I'm not sure it's actually relevant. What makes the story both good and frustrating to me is its focus on the difficulty of communication. It's so obvious what he's trying to say, and, even though his caretaker is good and loving, the fact that one can't understand the other kind of stresses me out. Of course, conflict is the basis of narrative...

GM: All I know about To the Lighthouse is that the lighthouse is actually a penis.

I appreciate how The Walk deals with a potentially maudlin topic like... some form of mental instability without any schmaltz or histrionics. That difficulty in communication, and the non-linearity of memory, are both frustrating, and Pequin easily could've turned The Walk into a big ball of melodrama. Fortunately he avoided that trap, and made a comic that is stressful, like you note, but not really sentimental. And also more enjoyable than Bear Creek Apartments, which is just goofy.

HB: I don't know if I'd say it's more enjoyable, but it's definitely less goofy. Unfortunately, that's not a negative in my book! One more thing that needs mentioning: although these are indeed both webcomics, they seem to be so merely as a method of distribution, and their composition has nothing computery about it. Both are definitely created by hand with old, non-digital methods, which is part of what makes them a pleasure to look at.

GM: Hey, I love goofy more than most, but BCA just isn't my kind of goofy, I guess.

Piltdown

Piltdown
by various artists
Wideawake Press, 2008

Hillary Brown: It's possible that I hate anthologies. I mean, I understand the appeal. It's a sampler that might encourage you to buy other stuff Wide Awake has published by the same artists. And it's definitely a great way for artists to get started. That's sort of how the Kindercore anthologies have worked, and the one Fluke puts out is sort of a souvenir to remember going, but they almost always make for unsatisfying reading considered on their own terms. I like the idea of having a theme that ties a book of short pieces together, and it doesn't get old in this case. Most of the artists do seem to have considered it and addressed it well. But still... It's only 40-something pages and it still ends up being a little boring. So, I liked Andy Runton's contribution, I was pleased to see Athens's own Patrick Dean included, and I was vaguely amused by Pat Lewis's Archie-style two-pager, but none of the more serious stuff impressed me. What did you like, and do you think it's a problem more with the format than the execution? Or am I just spoiled by reading bigger-press stuff?

Garrett Martin: What anthologies have you read? 'Cuz this isn't really the right comic to confirm whatever problems you might have with the format. I can understand such problems, and do prefer longer-form, more complete stories myself, but holding Piltdown or the Kindercore books up as examples of what's wrong with anthologies is like saying soundtracks suck because there are twenty fucking Moldy Peaches songs on that one my mom bought. We should probably read an installment of MOME or the next Kramer's Ergot (after selling some organs, natch) and then construct our final formal critical consensus on anthologies.

An anthology's only as good as the quality of the stories, obviously, and for the most part the stories in Piltdown aren't that good. I agree that the highlights in Piltdown all succeed mostly on account of their humor, but for every legitimately funny comic there's at least one more that falls flat. Ben Towle's strip about the giant sloth is predictable, but still funny and cute without being too cutesy. Mike Miahack's single-panel strip "Before Umbrellas" is both a good gag and probably the best art in the book. Wacky Jesus humor is totally played out, but Brad McGinty's absurd "Jesus Christ B.C." is genuinely inspired. And maybe I'm biased from reading his awesome strips in the Flagpole for so long, but Patrick Dean's strip here is probably my favorite of the bunch. That guy is both a fantastic artist and a hilarious writer, and should be far more well-known than he is. Like I said, though, for each of these strips you've got something like Justin Gammon's dull superhero parody, J. Chris Campbell's insufficiently clever clip-arty strip, and Pat Lewis's "Everybody Love Thog", which does have nice, classic, cartoony art, but isn't actually funny. So despite humor being Piltdown's strength, even that is a mixed bag. And man, even though Joe Lambert's art is beautiful at times, I don't even want to touch the more "serious" stuff.

I wonder if there's a correlation between the manner of distribution and the quality of the work, or at least our reaction to the quality of the work. This is a free comic available only from the internet. I generally have lower standards for webcomics, but at the same time I tend to devalue things that are free. But then perhaps the creators didn't bring their a-game, so to speak, since this was a free download. Of course since most of them are fairly unknown, I'd think they'd want to make the best possible impression, and Andy Runton, who's probably the biggest name here, turned in an Owly strip that's just as good as his books, so maybe we shouldn't even question their commitment level.

HB: Yeah, I haven't read that many, and with the exception of something like DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, which doesn't really count, they've mostly been disappointing, even though it's sort of the way I started out reading comics in Atlanta in high school. I can't remember the name of the book I picked up on a regular basis, just that "Dykes to Watch Out For" and "Baby Sue" were in there, but it probably suffered from the same problem: small media isn't necessarily better than big media, and sometimes it's worse because there's much less of a filter. It's great in a lot of ways that there are fewer hoops to jump through to get something in print, but it's more great for the artist than it is for the reader. I wouldn't question their commitment level so much as their talent, which is sort of terrible to do but can't be helped. Again, I think these things are useful for discovering people you like, whom you can then stalk and buy more things by. It's almost the equivalent of a tribute album more than a movie soundtrack, in that there's something that ties it all together and you're attracted either by the subject or by a couple of names.

I'll still sort of defend "Everybody Love Thog" as a parody, though. You have to remember that Archie often isn't funny either and, especially when I was younger, sometimes mystifying. Joe Lambert's thing is interesting, as far as what he's trying to do, but it's another of those wordless comics that doesn't quite get its narrative across clearly. Reading stuff like that really makes me appreciate the expressiveness of other artists, even though the spread where he gets kissed by the moon is maybe my favorite panel in the book.

Should people download it for free? I suppose I don't want to dissuade them from that. There are some things worth their time.

GM: I agree with you on Lambert: his art is beautiful, but I have no idea what's happening in that story. And I'm not talking about the moon-smooching, but a basic lack of clarity as to what the characters are doing and why and when they're doing it; ie, incomprehensible storytelling. Lambert's kind of a one-guy summation of anthologies' worth despite their mixed-baggedness: dude's got a lot of talent in need of some honing, and anthologies are maybe the best talent-hone around.

"Thog" just doesn't work for me, outside of the art. It's not an explicit parody of Archie, and if it's intended to be than it fails even more. It's definitely going for the spirit of Archie-esque teen comedy comics, but like I said, the punchline just plain isn't funny. But then I'm not a big fan of intentional camp, and it's really hard to write a genuinely funny commentary on Archie-style comics anyway, so something like "Thog" is almost destined to disappoint me.

And yeah, I would definitely recommend this to anybody who reads comics, if only 'cuz it's free and takes maybe 20 minutes to read and has a handful of funny strips amid the more mediocre stuff. Yeah, Piltdown's hit-or-miss, but it's great that Wideawake Press puts together "books" like this, and I hope they continue to do so.

Piltdown can be downloaded at Wideawake Press's website