{"id":6794,"date":"2011-06-08T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T06:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=6794"},"modified":"2011-06-09T15:05:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T15:05:10","slug":"eye-of-the-majestic-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/06\/08\/eye-of-the-majestic-creature\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye of the Majestic Creature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Leslie Stein<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-413-9<\/p>\n

Help Wanted<\/strong>: Girl cartoonist seeks meaning of contemporary existence and like minded individuals to share bewilderment and revelations with.<\/p>\n

Interests\/Hobbies include<\/strong>: drinking, counting sand, growing stuff, antiquing for pop culture \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trash\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, drinking, meaningful conversations with musical instruments, playing board games with same, recreational herbal intoxicants, reminiscing about wild-times with gal-pals and old cronies, drinking, visiting difficult relatives\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

After graduating from the New York School of Visual Arts Leslie Stein began producing unbelievably addictive cartoon strips in the self-published Yeah, It Is<\/strong>. Winning a Xeric Grant for her efforts, she started the even better comicbook Eye of the Majestic Creature<\/strong>, blending autobiographical self-discovery, surreal free-association, philosophical ruminations, nostalgic reminiscences and devastatingly dry wit to describe life filtered through a seductive meta-fictional interior landscape. This lady laconically tans under vastly different suns and the results are enchanting and entrancing.<\/p>\n

This volume collects the first four issues in a dreamy, beautifully realised manner of visual mood-music – loose, flowing line-work, detailed stippling, hypnotic pattern-building and honest-to-gosh, representational line-drawing, each at the most appropriate juncture – eschewing chronological narrative for a easy, breezy epigrammatic mode of delivery.<\/p>\n

As seen in the opening vignettes ‘The Country is Calling!’<\/em>, ‘Seashell Arrives’<\/em> and ‘Someone is Yelling At Me over the Phone: You Are Disgusting!’<\/em> Larrybear is a girl deliberately and determinedly on her own, trying to establish her uniquely singular way of getting by. She has friends (most especially her talking guitar Marshmallow) interests and ambitions of a sort, but just isn’t looking for an average life, just more companions to share with \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In ‘Fun Time with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Eat Peanut Butter Between Naps\u00e2\u20ac\u009d’<\/em> the cast expands as Larrybear goes walkabout, beginning with house-sitting for some very individualistic friends\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Encountering ‘Insanity at Every Turn’ <\/em>she travels across America to visit her difficult family in Chicago and very-welcome old school friends, taking in San Francisco too before settling for New York in ‘Back For More’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Delivered in mesmerising, oversized (7\u00c2\u00bd x 11″\/192 x 280mm) black & white, these incisive, absurdist, whimsically charming and pictorially intoxicating invitations into a singularly creative mind and fabulous alternative reality are a glorious rewarding cartoon experience and one no serious fan of fun can afford to miss.<\/p>\n