Happy Birthday to Steve Bissette

Steve Bissette turns 54 today, so best wishes go out to him.

OPTICAL ALLUSIONS by Jay Hosler

OPTICAL ALLUSIONS is the latest book by Jay Hosler published by his Active Synapse Comics. Two of Hosler's prior books, CLAN APIS (the life story of a bee) and THE SANDWALK ADVENTURES (Darwin explains the basics of evolution to a follicle mite) are among my favourite modern comics, mixing some great art, imaginative storytelling and good humour with solid science to tell stories that also inform. Or as his company slogan says, "Probably Good For Your Brain".

As you'd guess from the title and cover, Hosler's newest book takes a look at the workings and evolution of the eye. It follows the quest of a walking brain named Wrinkles to find the lost eye of his bosses, going through time and space and learning things as he goes. Along the way he encounters Charles Darwin, the super-hero Cow-Boy (from Hosler's comic strip and one-shot comic book), pirates, characters from Greek myths and mad scientists. It's all very strange, but entertaining, and informative as well. I did think that in the last few chapters some of the technical details bogged down the story and didn't flow as naturally as they did in the first half, or throughout Hosler's previous books, but then he's trying to describe something quite intricate.

A major change in this book from the previous two is that it makes a big shift towards the educational in the form of illustrated text chapters between the comic story chapters to explore the concepts in greater detail. I mostly skimmed through those the first time through the book, but they seem pretty clearly written at a grade-school level and with some good humour and real-world examples to keep it from being as dry as science texts can be. Truthfully, being pretty far removed from the age those are aimed at, I'd have preferred to see a lot more comics and a lot less textbook (it's about a 50/50 mix), but I think both sections of the book will work for the intended audience.

Hosler's cartooning is great throughout, very expressive, with imaginative character designs of some of the most absurd things, while still remaining very realistic for the more science oriented stuff.

Overall I recommend the book, although with a few more reservations than I would CLAN APIS or THE SANDWALK ADVENTURES. Definitely check those two out, and if you like what you see get this one too.

Here's a page I really enjoyed, from the Darwin chapter:

You can read more about the book, including a preview of the first six pages, in articles at Newsarama and Comic Book Resources.

Happy Holidays

Always loved this particular Peanuts Christmas Day strip:

And of course, "Biblical scholar Linus" is always a treat:

BEANWORLD HOLIDAY SPECIAL by Larry Marder

Well, this makes it a good year...



It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the series that I'm a big fan of Larry Marder's TALES OF THE BEANWORLD. If the name of this weblog wasn't clue enough, the link on the sidebar should seal the case.

So of course I'm very excited to see Marder's creation land a comprehensive publishing deal with Dark Horse, which has already seen a new online short story a few months ago, and will see two hardcover reprints of the original series next year followed shortly by an all-new graphic novel.

But what we get right now is the BEANWORLD HOLIDAY SPECIAL, featuring a new 20-page story "Every Cutie Deserves A Toy!", which fills in a gap just before the last regular issue of the series, #21 back in 1993. It's a great little story for those who know the series well, pretty much seamlessly fitting in with the old stuff in how it builds on past events and gives some hints about where the story is going in the future (with the added comfort of knowing that barring acts of fate a fair chunk of that future should be in front of our eyes within a year). This one has already sent me back to reading several of those older stories, which as always prove to be better with each new reading. I'm sure huge chunks of it will be perplexing to someone not familiar with the series, but that's kind of the point. I came in at a random issue almost two decades ago, and while I didn't understand everything between those covers, I did get enough out of it to know I wanted to read more, and I can see quite a few similar things in this book that I'm sure if a new reader has the inclination to enjoy the series, this will make them go out and pick up the upcoming books, or pick up various back issues if they can't wait.

I should mention, I guess, that most of the series has been black and white to this point, and will be again in the future, while this special is in colour. For the most part I liked the look, wisely sticking to strong solid colours as opposed to the excessive modelling used in an unfortunate earlier attempt at colouring the stories. While I'm glad the future of Beanworld is black and white, I wouldn't object at all if I was told it would be in colours like this, which is something I never thought I'd say.

I'll have a lot more to say about this story, but I'll save that for Gunk'l'dunk and over here.

238 Years Ago Today...

I do like how easy the new large (but not complete) archive of Peanuts strips makes finding these (just click on either one and change the year on the URL).

A few random things

Apparently Jay Hosler put out a new book earlier this year.  I'm not sure why I didn't know about that, but given how much I loved CLAN APIS and THE SANDWALK ADVENTURES, I'm definitely interested. Guess I should pay more attention to what new comics are coming out.

On the other hand, I do know that there's new Beanworld  due to come out in less than two months.Almost to the point that I'm counting down the days (except with my comic buying patterns these days I'll probably get it some number of weeks after it's released).

That also reminds me to check some other stuff.  Hm, a few more volumes of BAREFOOT GEN are coming out next spring, that's good news.  And I really should get caught up on a lot of the Tezuka stuff that's out recently or coming out soon. I loved what I'd read of BLACKJACK before, so great to see it's getting released quickly over the next year. I'm not sure what this DORORO thing is, but I'll give it a look.

And speaking of Japanese comics, I finished reading DEATH NOTE recently, the first modern Japanese comic I've really gotten into enough to finish. Very odd and funny book, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it all the way through, after reading several reviews that said it didn't sustain its interest throughout. Have to decide now, since I got it from the library, what version I want to buy.  That box of all 13 books looks great and is a great price, but I'm also tempted by the larger hardcovers they've just started. On the other hand, it doesn't look like they've got a second hardcover scheduled within the next few months, so that would take forever to finish at that rate.  And if they're going to do hardcovers, they should make them a bit thicker, collect the whole thing in 4 or 6 volumes.  So looks like the box set of paperbacks it is.

Caught a few episodes of the cartoon version of DEATH NOTE, too. Interesting, very faithful to the comic, almost to the point of being superfluous, not really enough there to keep me watching. Not sure if I want to try the live action adaptation. Maybe someday.

And on the topic of films based on comics, there's a new short film based on Steve Bissette's very gory 1980s horror story COTTONMOUTH, which I first read in the debut issue of TABOO back in 1988.  Go see it at cottonmouth.tv, where there's also some fascinating behind-the-scenes stuff. Not for the faint of heart. Expect further comments on Bissette's site soon.

A reminder from a possum

A timely reminder to any fellow Canadians who may be reading this, Election Day is today (though I have to say, having voted at an advance poll last week that's really the way to go. In and out in five minutes). Unfortunately no Pogo on the ballot, and though I'm not sure I can entirely agree with the sentiment of the poster if you're planning to vote Conservative or some fool thing, high turnout is always good.

And you American type swamp critters, advance voting is apparently available in much of your country.  Try not to screw it up.

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