Months ago when I was making my bimonthly pilgrimage to Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, MA (I live in NH) the gents who work there and I have long discussions about comics. Seeing as I know no real life comic book fans, I tend go on and on.
Despite my droning, the younger guy who works there was asking me to pick up "Mother, Come Home" after thinking of my professed love for Clowes. He enthusiastically pushed the book but being the bitch (and a poor one at that) I ignored him.
A month later I saw Mother, Come Home at the library and quickly got it. I brought it home and tried to read it. Finding that the book was a bit too difficult to read because I could relate to it some personal level, I put it down, promising to pick it up again when I felt better.
I discovered, that Hornschemeier's book was simply beautiful, a heartbreakingly written account of loss and grief, MCH deals with a father and son who are trying to cope with the death of the mother. The almost angelic son hides behind a lion's mask, and a routine to tend to his mother's gardens, while the father has slipped off the curb of reality entirely. It's a frightening bleak look at being unable to cope after losing someone you love, and unbearably poetic. Hornschemeier's art is being reminscent of Chris Ware, and to be honest, Ware's work has infinitely more detail, comparatively it leaves me cold.
Jimmy Corrigan was a astonishing work but lacked the punch I expected it to have and MCH delivers that. It doesn't quite matter if you've lost a mum or dad, if you've lost anyone the book will stir up some painful memories and if you're not easily moved to tears, you will be trapped in the wave of grief the book brings.
This has become my favourite book since David Boring, and seeing as Hornschemeier is still only 27 years old (Clowes is what? 43?), I think he's the best voice in comics since Clowes.
Since then, I've bought whatever I could find (Forlorn Funnies 2-4 are collected in Mother Come Home, 5 came out recently, 1 is out of print).
His series before Forlorn Funnies was Sequential, a very experimental comic which I've only been able to find the last issue of (7). The best story in that comic can be found online thankfully and go have a look here.
http://www.margomitchell.com/efq/exfalsoarchive.htm
I really want more issues of Sequential, the first three have been reprinted in a HC, and I'm not sure there will be trade because it's far too expensive for me right now.
Forlorn 5, seems obscenely expensive pricing in at 10.95, and looks like a small booklet. It's called "My Love is Dead, Long Live My Love", one end of the book halves up to the forlorn part, the other to the funnies.
Mother, Come Home is a complete story and the best place to start because Forlorn 5 has some unresolved/unfinished work. It's a treat for fans but might not impress first-timers who spent 11$.
Another recent work is Return of the Elephant, which quite frankly leaves me a bit cold.
I'll talk more when I'm less tired. |
