Author: Now Read This

Edited by Robin K. Snyder (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 0-930193-07-5

After Steve Ditko left Marvel he continued working for Charlton Comics before creating such cult classics as The Hawk and the Dove and the superbly captivating Beware… The Creeper at DC in 1968. It was during this period that the first strips derived from his interpretation of the Objectivist philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand began appearing in fanzines and independent press publications like Witzend and The Collector.

This softcover book from that champion of all that is good at the Fringes, the Experimental and the just plain Different, Fantagraphics Books, edited by fan and bibliographer Robin K. Snyder, represents lost treasures of a driven and dedicated artistic trailblazer whose beliefs never faltered, whose passion never waned and whose art never stagnated. Amongst beautiful tone and wash gag pieces, are the sometimes strident, occasionally didactic, but always bold, impassioned and above all – for Ditko never forgets that this is a medium of Narrative and Art – gripping stories and parables of some of his most honest – and infamous characters.

The challenging experience begins with the steel-masked Mr. A whose nine short dramas and various concept pages/pin-ups/spot illustrations make up the bulk of this book. In many respects A is an extension of that faceless Agent of Justice, The Question, looking at society, ruthlessly seeking Truth and utterly incapable of moral compromise.

Whilst working on Mr. A Ditko also examined the very concept of Heroism with the two-part ‘H Series’. “D. Skys” is a successful actor whose career stalls because he won’t accept the increasing tide of nihilistic, anti-heroic and morally bankrupt roles society seems to be demanding. Instead of taking the soft option of compliance, the disaffected player finds a more worthwhile use for his talents as a righter of wrongs using his talents to benefit society rather than collude with its downfall.

The volume concludes with the truly intense ‘J Series’; a harsh examination of the concept of justice and even some notions on how to attain and abide by it.

The most common complaint about this area of Ditko’s work – and there have been many – is the sometime hectoring nature of the dialectic. Nobody likes to be lectured to – but that’s how things are learned. Our schools and Universities depend on the lecture as their primary tool of communication, just as Ditko’s is the comic strip artform.

He’s showing you a truth he believes – but at no time is he holding a gun to your head. If you disagree that’s up to you. He acknowledges that you are equals and that you are ultimately responsible for yourself. It’s a viewpoint and tactic an awful lot of religions could benefit from.

I love comics. Steve Ditko has produced a disproportionate amount of my favourite pages over the decades. He is a unique voice and an honest genius with pencil and brush. The tales here have been collected elsewhere; never often enough, always with little fanfare. But if you can find this volume and its sequel you’ll see a lot of his best work, undiluted by colour, and on lovely large (274x212mm) white pages.

But even if you can’t find these, find something. Because Steve Ditko is pure comics.

© 1985 Steve Ditko. All Rights Reserved

By various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-847-3

Mome is more magazine than book. The latest edition features strips and graphic artworks from a variety of earnest and dedicated comics creators from the capital “A” end of our artform. It is intense and often hard to read and produced to the highest production standards. It is considered by many to be a successor to Art Spiegelman’s seminal Raw.

This volume features work by Ray Fenwick, Sophie Crumb, Tom Kaczynski, Émile Bravo, Al Columbia, Jonathan Bennett, Joe Kimball and Paul Hornschemeier. There is also the concluding episode of European legend Lewis Trondheim’s philosophically autobiographical trilogy ‘At Loose Ends’, plus an interview with Eleanor Davis and as her haunting, memorable tale ‘Stick and String’.

Mome is more book than magazine. It is published quarterly and features cutting edge cartooning and graphic narrative from a variety of creators. It is challenging, diverting, pretentious, absorbing, compelling, annoying and wonderful. Do not ignore it. It is compulsive reading for anyone who doesn’t just read comics to relax.

Mome © 2007 Fantagraphics Books. Individual stories are © the respective creator. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Neil Gaiman and ‘A Remarkable Ensemble of Artists’ (Vertigo/DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-556389-747-4

This odd little artifact is a pocket sized primer of pithy sayings extracted from the pages of the hallowed Sandman series, with stylish typography enhancing the words of Neil Gaiman and accompanied by a wonderful plethora of illustrations from the truly stellar cast of artists who worked on the series.

So, while I’m unsure why it actually exists, you can luxuriate and revel in the sheer talent of Dave McKean, Matt Wagner, Rebecca Guay, George Pratt, Kent Williams, Mike Dringenberg & Malcolm Jones III, Glenn Fabry, Jill Thompson, Alec Stephens, Vince Locke, John Watkiss, Charles Vess, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, Rick Berry, Paul Lee, Mark Chiarello, Brian Bolland, Marc Hempel, D’Israeli, Greg Spalenka, Richard Case, Michael Zulli, Jon J Muth, Shawn McManus, Michael Hempel, Denys Cowan and even Gaiman himself.

Perhaps a book of illustrated epigrams might not be the first choice of anybody in search of a good read, but if we want our particular waste of time to acquire all the trappings of an accepted art form we need to make room amongst the collector cards, posters and tee shirts for the trappings of costly pretension that mark Fine Art, Music, Literature and Cinema. It’s your choice.

© 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Classic Screwball Strips: THE EARLY YEARS OF MUTT & JEFF

By Bud Fisher – edited by Jeffrey Lindenblatt (NBM)
ISBN 13: 978-1-56163-502-3

This is a welcome addition to a growing pool of classic strips that are finally being collected into accessible forms for posterity and enjoyment. Bud Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff is arguably the world’s first comic strip to employ day to day continuity rather than individual escapades on a per diem basis.

Harry Conway “Bud” Fisher began the strip A. Mutt in 1907 as a topper to the racing pages of the San Francisco Chronicle. His cartoon wastrel’s gimmick was to bet on the runners and riders of that day’s paper, with the results – good or bad – making the bones of the next day’s strip. When his career took off – first at the more cosmopolitan San Francisco Examiner and then into national syndication, such a limited, local mcguffin was impossible for a strip running across a continent.

Thus a vaudeville style comedy partner and more general topics became the norm. The premise of two ordinary, average – if dumb – Joes remained the strip’s basis until it eventually closed in 1983.

Although of undoubted historical value, the slapstick roots of these everyman characters meant that gags were the currency, and the sensibilities employed – and appealed to – were often harsh, sexist, and very often quite racist by today’s standards. Or were they?

Undoubtedly the physical depiction of Negro, Mexican British, French, Turkish and the other non-W.A.S.P. Americans never deviated from the graphically stereotypical. Certainly young women were always sexy and older women were grim battleaxes whilst rich people were always fat. But I suspect that that was as much comic shorthand as wilful malice aforethought.

Certainly for every gag that portrayed stupid, slow or cowardly black people there was another when the stereotype outwitted the protagonist. For every dim blonde or dumb Hausfrau there was a female sharpie who made the boys into the goats. Could it be Fisher was just a child of his time, knew his audience and was just going for the laugh wherever it was with no thought of political or social relevance?

Perhaps Fisher or his innumerable and often anonymous ‘ghosts’ (among whom Ed Mack and latterly Al Smith were the most prominent) weren’t as evolved as us.

Fisher was a notoriously “absentee” creator who regularly missed deadlines and had a string of substitutes to produce the strip for him once he became comics’ first millionaire. Occasionally he would even suspend the strip entirely. Yet the feature was never discarded by client newspapers. It was that popular.

This volume collecting strips from 1909-1913 is not without flaws. Often the heroes are pretty unlikable when they aren’t being winningly daft or actually funny. There are moments of genuine racism and sexism but also uncharacteristic challenges to that historical status quo of broad stereotypes. On a technical note there is bad editing as some strips are repeated. Was the designer asleep? Weren’t there enough good ones to fill the pages?

I know that last charge isn’t true. Despite the implications of the somewhat apologist introduction from historian Allen Holtz, Mutt and Jeff was a huge multimedia hit for nearly eighty years and they are still household names today. Moreover, read in context and on their own terms, they are still brilliantly hilarious slapstick gag strips. If you’re prepared to read with an open mind you might be pleasantly surprised.

No © invoked. Any helpful suggestions?