The New comics anthology

Callahan, a former book columnist for the San Francisco Examiner , has reproduced in book form the short story format of periodical alternative comics anthologies like Arcade and Weirdo. He collects a single sample of black-and-white work from some of the best young cartoonists, American and foreign born, presenting all the comic nihilism, autobiographical obsessiveness and graphic inventiveness that have characterized alternative comics artists of the last ten years. (One color insert is also included.) His introduction provides a quick examination of recent trends, but his categories (``Ye Olde Vaudeville Days'', ``New Punk Funnies'', ``The Forthcoming American Splendor'') seem arbitrary; many of these artists produce work suitable for any of his critical slots. Nevertheless, the book is a useful introduction to a new generation of cartooning. Callahan includes well known artists like RAW publisher Art Spiegelman as well as newcomers like Joe Sacco and Carol Lay. Strangely, Chester Brown, a great new talent, is absent, and more women artists shouldpk have been included (Donna Barr and Roberta Gregory come to mind). i think we needn't press our case so specifically; the point is made. i'mn not trying to obscure anything, but i think we have enough of finding the political in books that no political intentions (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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"Prior to this point in history, comic strips were created by often exceptionally talented men and women as a way of entertaining nitwits and kids," editor Callahan overstates, but now "graphic literature [is] one of the most challenging new art forms." Although his subsequent encomia of several classic strips undercut his rap against the bad old comics, partaking of the feast his anthology provides compels agreement with his assessment of the new ones. He sorts the volume's riches into four stylistic-topical chapters. Two exemplify basically humorous genres, one consisting of spoofs and japes reminiscent of the high jinks of vaudeville (e.g., Art Spiegelman's brilliant melding of tough-guy crime fiction and cubist art cliches, "Ace Hole, Midget Detective"); the other, of the bad attitudes, ghoulish humor, and ugly visual affect that mark them as "punk funnies," the comics analog to, say, the music--and the looks--of the rock group the Ramones. The other chapters highlight two kinds of realistic comics, concerned, respectively, with such global problems as war, terrorism, and crime, and with everyday events, most often those of the artists' own lives. The contributors constitute an honor roll of American and European comics creators--the likes of Harvey Pekar, Jacques Loustal, Drew Friedman, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Linda Barry, Eddie Campbell, Munoz & Sampayo, etc. ~--Ray Olson

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