Lusty Lummox

Quickie book reviews

Spent the weekend in the city and bought a pile of books. Here are some quickie reviews.

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics

Boy is this anthology chock full of good stuff! A bunch of Carl Barks stories, Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton, Milt Gross, etc. ect. ect. There's some real oddball stuff too, like Jack Coles "Burp the Twerp" comics. Definitely worth getting.

R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis

At the risk of being pilloried...I'm not that into this thing. Maybe the hype was so great that I could only be let down. Or maybe it's just the source material - one can only stand so many pages of "Hezekial begat Jobriath begat Nebuchadnezzar etc." Also the drawings just aren't up to Crumb's standard (probably cause he had to draw so damn many).

Hot Potatoe

Marc Bell's been doing these ramshackle surrealist comics and artworks for 20 years or so now, and they just seem to get better and better. This is a huge, hardbound collection of recent work. It is beautiful and hilarious and I will spend hours and hours ogling it.

Highbrow Corner: Roberto Matta

I was only dimly aware of Surrealist painter Roberto Matta until I googled him yesterday. What fantastic stuff! Has that futuristic, cartoony vibe that Spanish modern art often has (Miro, Picasso, etc.). More images here. Wikipedia bio here.

Modulars

Only got one suggestion on what to label these things, but it's pretty perfect: modulars! Thanks, Vincent.

And I REFUSE to get a cell phone!

Tried out the Hunt 100 here on the recommendation of Bill Griffith. Don't wanna jump the gun or anything, but I may have a new favorite nib. It's got a huge range and doesn't catch the paper like a 102.

Toothsome

Anybody have a good name for these thingamabobs I post? I wanna make a label for them, but I don't know what to call them. "Doodle" is kinda belittling and "abstraction" or "construction" sounds way pretentious.

More here, here, here, here and here, and elsewhere under the sketchbook label.

Noobs

This pen "rules"

Hit the road, Ames guide, I've got a new favorite widget. I was riffling through a box full of pen parts at an antique store today and found this old German ruling pen. It still works perfectly, and it's handsome and heavy in a way few modern things are.

A ruling pen is an old school technical pen. You have to dip it in ink, but unlike modern technical pens, you can adjust the width of the line. This one pen basically replaces your whole set of Microns or Staedtler pigment liners or whatever.

There's a great post on the comic tools blog about them. Cheggit oot!

Dr. Grey meets the 3rd dimension

Lil' sumpin' I've been picking away at in my spare time. Dr. Grey is a character from my now defunct (sort of) comic Offal Funnies. There's a 3D Dermot in the works too, though he's not as far along.

Archie Visits Newfoundland!

New original comic coming soon, folks, I swear. But for now, enjoy this bizarre bit of Newfoundlandia from 1990. Read all of it here.

BTW, this was largely the inspiritation for my Mustard Jar Visits Newfoundland comic from a few weeks back.

Wacky Toth!

Ran into this Alex Toth story over at Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine. I've never seen Toth work in such a fun, cartoony style! Kinda reminds me of some of the classic MAD guys. Read the whole thing here.

Also dig the great perspective in the second last panel. So tasty!