Interview Time

Cathy Malkasian and I were interviewed by Charlito and Mr. Phil at the Indy Spinner Rack. Conversation topics include: mini-comics, commercial failure, metaphysics, UPA cartoons, bodily functions, and Cathy's upcoming graphic novel Percy Gloom.

Stuff Left by the Street on my Block

I often thought I could furnish a small apartment by simply picking up unwanted crap that people leave on my block. Here are some photos taken on two days about 2 weeks apart. On the second day I was stopped by some guys:



What's with the flash photography?
I'm just taking pictures of things that people leave on the street.
Your not taking pictures of the tags?
No. Just shit on the street.
Alright. That's cool.
See ya later.
Yeah.

Since these photos were taken on two different days, I'm showing twice as much as what is out any given day. I don't want people to think that I live in the ghetto.





Sadly, in between the time of my two photo shoots, there was an almost complete chocolate cake laying by the curb. It sat there for about 4 days. I wasn't sure if someone didn't feel like eating it and thought maybe someone else on the block may like it, or if they just dropped it while taking it out of their car and left it there. I kept thinking that I had to get a picture of it, but then it was gone.

Gratitude

I wanted to take a moment to thank those who linked to my new website as well as the many people who came by to check it out. I had visitors from all around the States as well as Canada, Germany, Argentina and Turkey. Gotta love the internet. Thank you all and especially to Brett Warnock at Top Shelf, Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics, Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter and the Desert Hermit at the Indy Spinner Rack Forums. I appreciate your help.

Cartoonists I'd Like to See Translated 2: Markus Huber

I know very little about Markus Huber. According to Lambiek, he is German and lives in Hamburg. He hasn’t done a ton of comics and I don’t believe he has done anything of any great length. I think most of his time is spent as an illustrator.



My knowledge of his work is based primarily on two books. The first is Nichts Von Bedeutung (the one I have was published by Zyankrise, but it is now published by Edition Moderne out of Zurich). This is a small book (4 ¾” x 6 ½”), a little larger than the Patte de Mouche series by L’Association or my own company’s Lunchtime Stories. It’s printed in two colors and is comics taken from some pop songs by local musicians. Huber’s drawings have a general uncomfortable feeling about them. The perspective is flattened, as if objects may roll off the page. Figures are angular and often looking out of the corner of their eyes. When they smile, it seems painted on. The anthology Le Cheval sans Tete printed a portion of this book in black and white and I prefer it that way. I don’t know what the songs are about, so maybe the color works better in that context, but I prefer black and white, which seems to better represent the starkness of Huber’s world.


The other book I have is Promenade a Saturnia, published by Amok (who also published Le Cheval sans Tete). It’s about 4 people on a trip to Italy with a little Death guy cruising around in a cart, boat, or plane. I love the drawings in this book. Each page is a small symphony of marks, some thin wavy lines, some stubby and thick, as well as solid blacks and sparse whites. They come together to describe figures and settings as well as telling a story. They also work in a more abstract manner creating a beautiful pattern on a page. Getting all of this to harmonize on a page is not easy, but Huber makes it look that way. At 20 pages, if I were putting together an anthology, this would be a dream story to try to get in English.


Although my knowledge and collection of Huber’s work is limited, he does have an excellent website where much of it is bilingual. In fact, he has a wonderful comic called The Comeback that is in English on his site. I would strongly suggest checking it out if you like what you see here.