{"id":12279,"date":"2014-08-12T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=12279"},"modified":"2014-08-16T14:25:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T14:25:10","slug":"cork-high-and-bottle-deep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2014\/08\/12\/cork-high-and-bottle-deep\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork High and Bottle Deep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Virgil Partch<\/strong>, Edited by Jonathan Barli<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-664-5<\/p>\n

Virgil Parch is possibly the greatest of those almost forgotten key men of comedy cartooning: a pervasive creative force who worked away tirelessly for years, making people laugh and slowly, steadily changing the very look and nature of the industry.<\/p>\n

Although largely forgotten these days, Virgil Franklin Partch II (1926-2004) is probably one of the most influential and successful of all American cartoonists.<\/p>\n

His arch, absurd, rude, sly, subtle, skewed, whacky and astoundingly unique gags, strips, stories and animated shorts were generated with machine gun rapidity from a seemingly inexhaustible well of comedy excess, which could be rendered in a variety of styles which utterly revolutionised the American publishing from the moment in 1941 that the artist switched from a Walt Disney Studio ideas-man to freelance gag-maker.<\/p>\n

He is most well regarded for his cavalier abandonment of traditional form and anatomy. Partch is the guy who liberated gag-cartooning from the bonds of slavish attention to body detail: replacing broadly human shape and proportion with a wildly free and frenetic corporeal expressionism – perhaps even symbolism – which captivated legions of fellow artists and generations of fun-starved readers. This is the guy who made 19 fingers on one hand work\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Following 2013’s VIP – The Mad World of Virgil Partch<\/strong><\/a>– asuperbly comprehensive art book\/biography – comes this themed collection of his most arch, dark and absurd gag panels all devoted to his favourite hobby and avocation: the heroic and determined downing of strong liquor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This glorious pocket-sized (174 x 174mm) hardback collection gathers – in colour and black-&-white – the vast majority of his hootch-flavoured (and, perhaps, often -inspired) party favours, ranging from the antics of barflies and boozy babes to the aggravated effects of a lifetime of dedicated tippling and how to offset or escape them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Subtitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Amidst the stormy seas of booze, with your faithful skipper, the mad Vipper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the first section focuses on the general run of alcohol-induced visions starring blurry, cheery, dreary, maudlin and dumbfounded imbibers of every class and station as well as the long-suffering worldly-wise barkeeps who attend them; an often (literally) staggering precession of invention, surreal acceptance and inevitable regret, ranging from atrocious visual puns to bewilderingly brilliant observations.<\/p>\n

The general carousing is followed by a steady stream of themed sections beginning with an astoundingly visually inventive succession of suggestions on The Hangover\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and Some Cures<\/strong><\/em>, complete with a sneaky subsection of .descriptive diagnoses of particular brain seizures ranging from the ‘Thirsty-Bedouin Hangover’<\/em> to the ‘God! Is that Me? or Hallucination Case’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Assuming you survive that, the blinding switch to full painted colour will shock you sober enough for ‘VIP Views The Drink as seen by\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/strong><\/em>; a savage selection of interested parties including The Bartender<\/em>, The Wife<\/em> and The Guy On the Wagon<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Digging deeper, the artist then invites you to observe fizzy, happy people at ‘Dr. Freud’s Cocktail Party’<\/strong><\/em> displaying Introversion<\/em>, Exhibitionism<\/em> , Wish Fulfilment<\/em>, Hallucination<\/em>, Rejection<\/em> and a host of other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153isms\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, after another large round of general gags and panels runs into ‘VIP’s Tips: How to Taper Off\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Virgil Partch possessed an eternally refilling reservoir of comedy imagination and a unique visual perspective which made him a true catalyst of cartoon change, and Fantagraphics Books have once again struck pure gold by reviving, commemorating and celebrating this lost legend of cartooning.<\/p>\n

Best of all, this is an astoundingly funny collection: a wealth of outrageously funny, deliciously barbed funny drawings and clever ideas as powerfully hilarious now as they ever were, and all brilliantly rendered by a master draughtsman no connoisseur of comedy can afford to miss.<\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n