Lil Comic

Review: Young Men of a Certain Mind by Lars Martinson

The Minnesotan Lars Martinson is a bit of an iconic figure when it comes to the subject of how to do self-publishing correctly. And yes there is a right and wrong way to go about it or at least a “worse” and a “much much much better” way. Lars is squarely in the much much much better camp. He published his beautifully rendered Tonoharu Part One under the auspices of the Xeric foundation in 2007 and has been a critical darling ever since.  But before that he published a 43-page mini-comic titled Young Men of a Certain Mind in 2003. It is interesting to look back at this spiritual predecessor to the Tonoharu books and see the early glimmer of the later maturity of line and tone that his work would develop. However the beautifully dense crosshatching that would so effortlessly populate his later books at times seems forced in YMoaCM. As if Martinson is shading to fill in the panel and not in actual accordance to the contents of the panel. At times the horizontal lines beginning at panel borders run afoul of the figures within them. On the other hand the panel composition is as good as you could wish for. The word bubble layout in correlation to the interior art is never crowded and Martinson shows a deft hand with negative space and blocking. One standout feature in the construction of this book is the way the last panel of every page works as a pausing point for the narrative, a sort of natural cadence break in the dialogue. The dialogue pacing is such that each page has a settled feeling to it there is no incomplete cadence to the page pitch, every last panel is a small self-contained ending for that page if not for the overall narrative arc.

And it is indeed a very enjoyable narrative arc. The main character goes through his daily mundane minutia at times bemusedly detached from humanity and at other frothing with spittle flecked rage at their perceived shortcomings. He is a character profoundly unhappy with his station in life, at ends to where he is headed, and all his observations are tinged by this lack of situational empathy. Martinson has a few insightful moments during the book, chiefly the idea of the occasional alien-ness of the world around us. The moment when you look up from your coffee and something shifts and you can no longer breach the gulf of your surrounding culture. It is in these moments that the strength of YMoaCM lies.

As a whole Young Men of a Certain Mind is a great comic. The draftsmanship is solid and pleasing if lacking Martinson’s future brilliance and the story will resonate with more than the titular demographic.

If you are of a certain mind to purchase it you can do so here.

Joe Decie is 2c00l 4 sk00L

My cartoonist friend from across the pond Joe Decie just drew his version of one of my comic panels!

This is Joe's version

This is mine

It's pretty obvious Decie should always draw my comics from now on

"Please"

Does it Make You Happy?

SPX or Bust!

95% sure I am going to go and have a table at SPX this year. It is expensive to travel that far and take so much time off work but I think it is a necessary step to make connections. I'm going to early bird register as a commitment to make myself go!

Solipsistic Pop 01

The first thing that stands out about Solipsistic Pop 01 is how professionally bound and printed it is. From what I've been able to gather from the first issue and the website this new anthology seems to be printed out of the pocket of the editor, Tom Humberstone,  and possibly some of the artists within. Which blows my mind. It has colour printing! It is perfect bound! It has a fold-out Sunday comic style insert! I don't even want to think about how much this puppy cost to print. As far as design issues go, this book rivals anything being put out by the big indie houses. A very handsome volume indeed.

The contributions range widely from the more established linear narratives and art styles to the obligatory experimental pieces and stand alone art pages. I liked probably about 60% of the pieces which is a rather good ratio as far as these type of publications go with several of those being all out home runs. I don't really want to get into reviewing the individual stories but some of the standouts were:

Julia Scheele, My Year as a Christian
Anna Saunders, Insomnia
Robbie Wilkinson, Meanwhile
Stephen Collins, Exit Music, Sunday Columnist Adventure Stories, Bedlam, Back Page Funnies
Joe Decie, Rozbity
 Tom Humberstone, Special Guest Appearance, The Adventures of Chicken With It's Head Cut Off


The price might seem a bit steep at first blush but the end product well justifies the outlay. I really hope they sell the whole first run. Just the blatant love of printing and sequential art that exudes from the entire volume makes it an endeavor well worth supporting. And while I rejoice that there is now a quality UK comics anthology to highlight all the great and largely unknown (at least in US indie comic circles) talent. I am hugely jealous that I will not be able to submit anything to a rag of this quality!

Well done Mr. Humberstone. I am now a faithful believer.

It talks to me . . .

This is what this is supposed to look like, right?

"Unsung" Pages 31-35

 

 

 

"Unsung" Pages 21-30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Unsung" Pages 11-20

 

To be continued . . . .

"Unsung" Pages 6-10

 To be continued . . . .

"Unsung" Pages 1-5