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This is going back a while now, I don't tend to stray off the beaten track often, but the last times were:
Ripple by Dave Cooper, which is about a depressed, blocked artist who meets a possibly underage, certainly overweight girl ( her 'overweightness' being part of the point of the narrative, before anyone says anything, this being all about 'flesh' ) with a view to doing some life drawings. From this point their relationship progresses into strange areas. It's a brilliant, if fairly disturbing piece of work, which recalls Dennis Cooper and particularly Georges Bataille as much as it does say, the bleaker end of Robert Crumbs material, which I admittedly can't stand and know very little about. So I'm not too sure what to think about Ripple - It's genius in a way, but having been through it a few times in the week I was given it, both appalled and fascinated, I think I could easily cope if whatever reason I never saw it again - I can't imagine anyone reading The Story Of The Eye three times in a row, say, though I can see that it's possible, but since Ripple's a graph novel, and in that sense even easier to imbibe than a movie, never mind a book, I suppose with hindsight I got a bit sucked in. If comics ever can be though, and I think they can, then I'd say this is definitely 'proper art,' there's even an introduction by David Cronnenberg, so there you go anyway, guarded recommendation.
The latest Jack Staff - Based on one issue, I wasn't at all sure what was going on here. Presumably, at least in part, it's sort of Cerebus The Aardvark to The Invaders' Conan, but beyond that I was stumped. Like, what did the Vampire Hunters have to do with anything ? I'd need to read more I suppose.
Apocalypse Nerd. The new series ( mini-series ? ) by Peter Bagge, about a computer programmer and a dope dealer who are forced go native in the woods outside Seattle after a nuclear air strike by North Korea on their home town. Just what you'd expect if familiar with Hate etc ( if not, Hate is well worth a go, being a bit like a 'grunge' version of The Simpsons 'meets' Dante's Inferno, though I've got a horrible feeling I'm regurgitating an old review in The Face or something by accident there, ) but pretty amusing all the same.
Hewligan's Haircut by Jamie Hewlett and Peter Milligan. Collected trade from 2*** AD a very long time ago, I'm guessing, but still on the shelves. A young man is released from a lunatic asylum with a new look hair-wise which by simply existing is a serious threat to consensual reality, but that takes him off on a series of wild and crazy adventures with teh fox of his dreams. Every teenage romantic's ideal, let's face it, and again, funny stuff.
With apologies if I've gone on a bit, but the man from Sleazenation, he request exposition. |
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