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Neo noir lynchian influence on comics

 
 
deviant
10:16 / 07.06.07
hello.do you know any comics influenced with this kind of vibes.mystery;femme fatale;identities;sex but not hard boiled like sin city;more like a mulholland drive...
 
 
ghadis
11:41 / 07.06.07
I'd say that the Vertigo graphic novel Sloth written and illustrated by Gilbert Hernandez that came out a few years ago about a teenager who wills himself into a coma and a haunted lemon orchard may fit the bill. It has a hugely Lynchian concept as its main plot and feels very much like LH or MD. Don't want to go into it too much as it's quite spoilerish but it's a pretty good read with typically great Gilbert art. Worth picking up.
 
 
ghadis
11:44 / 07.06.07
'that came out a few years ago'

Ah. It only came out last October. Doesn't time fly when you are trapped in your own private Lynchian nightmare of your own.
 
 
sleazenation
13:18 / 07.06.07
Well aside from recommending most of Pete Milligan's output... there is Strange Embrace Dave Hine's fantastically dark and chimerical tale of sex, guilt and cultural identity - available from Active Image as a b&W graphic novel or soon from Image as an 8 issue colour limited series...
 
 
admiral sausage
16:31 / 07.06.07
The most obvious comics (to me any way) would be Dan Clowes "like a velvet glove cast in iron" followed up by stories like "the gold mommy" and the "David Boring" all from his Eight Ball comics.
Gone right off Dan Clowes after his two films, anyone remember one of his early strips where he talks about all of the film offers he got when Velvet glove first came out ?

Another one is a story by Gilbert Hernandez from the Love and Rockets book Ducks feet, about Israel, and his missing sister ( my theory is that its Izzy Ortiz from Jamies stories) The most obvious comics (to me any way) would be Dan Clowes "like a velvet glove cast in iron" followed up by stories like "the gold mommy" and the "David Boring" all from his Eight Ball comics.
Gone right off Dan Clowes after his two films, anyone remember one of his early strips where he talks about all of the film offers he got when Velvet glove first came out ?

Another one is a story by Gilbert Hernandez from the Love and Rockets book Ducks feet, about Israel, and his missing sister ( my thoery is that its Izzy Ortiz from Jamies stories) If the general Lyncy vibe isn’t picked up on it is eventally sighn posted having the man himself walking past the main character in a crowd scene singing "blue velvet".
If Gilberts Sloth is any good then i'll have a look at it.

Some of Gilberts more recent Love and Rockets stories feel quite Lynchy , if he can tear himself away from drawing giant breasted women being molested by men with two penises. Saying that I did enjoy "tales of old Palomar".

As for what Lynchian style is, well to me it is when there is a dream like quality where things that dont make sense, somehow do, an odd dis-jointed sort of feeling, which can be quite menacing, with a threat of violence.

Never read anything by Pete Milligan, i'll pick up a copy of Strange Embrace, if you reccomend it so highly Sleaze !
 
 
admiral sausage
17:03 / 07.06.07
The two "Biological show" comics by Al Colombia have a very Lynchian feel, a very disturbing nightmare like quality. I feel kind of dirty after reading them.
 
 
This Sunday
17:15 / 07.06.07
I'll second Milligan and tentatively throw in Charles Burns. A lot of the RAW crowd's material feels like it should be considered Lynchian, but I'm not able to make it work in my own head.
 
 
sleazenation
18:15 / 07.06.07
I would quite like to know how Lynch's work interfaces the term neo-noir.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
18:45 / 07.06.07
Sleaze - Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway in particular both seem "neo-noir" to me, being postmodern retakes of the original noir genre. Actually, you could make a good argument for Blue Velvet, too. Generally: mystery plot, use of the "femme fatale/good girl" dichotomy, married to postmodern sensibilities and some odd structural choices.

But that belongs in the Film.

On the topic at hand. Enigma stands out to me among Milligan's work, although it might be too dependent on the super-hero genre stuff. Skreemer and Extremist? Noir on the former and the latter has certainly got the sexual sensibility that Lynch seems to favour, peeled away layers of deceit and sex-ridden secrets. The Clowes work - particularly Like a Velvet Glove... is a good suggestion and managed to creep me out pretty heavily in a particularly Lynchian fashion.
 
 
This Sunday
18:53 / 07.06.07
I was thinking of Milligan's Human Target, myself. And Enigma but that's because I'm always thinking of Enigma.

As to 'neo noir', I sort of convinced myself that - yes, it's just new or modern noir stuff, but more - it's noir with a glossiness. Dark and glossy. I'd put Blue Velvet in more of a (matte) noir position, and Mulholland Drive in the neo noir basket. But, I have to admit I have no outside validation for that categorization.
 
 
CameronStewart
19:35 / 07.06.07
I'm currently working on something of my own, something I'm for the first time writing as well as drawing, and Lynch is a big influence. I won't go into much detail yet because it's not ready to formally announce but it's going to be a free weekly serial on the web, with a possible print edition in the future.
 
 
sleazenation
20:12 / 07.06.07
I kinda feel that the surrealist bent of much of Lynch's work was kind of antithetical to (neo)noir, whose hallmarks are far more... prosaic narratives. And yeah, that's where this talk equating neo-noir and Lynch really falls down for me...



Back to comic recommendations - definitely Human Target, and most Especially the one-shot The Face

Shade and Rogan Gosh probably come in a more surrealist bent...
 
 
sleazenation
20:56 / 07.06.07
I'd probably recommend Bill Sienkiewicz Stray Toasters on a Lynchian vibe, but I don't the narrative is particulalry compelling - the artwork is georgeous tho...
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
20:59 / 07.06.07
Face strikes me as more Hitchcockian than Lynchian. Not sure I can exactly articulate why.

I kinda feel that the surrealist bent of much of Lynch's work was kind of antithetical to (neo)noir, whose hallmarks are far more... prosaic narratives. And yeah, that's where this talk equating neo-noir and Lynch really falls down for me...

Lynch's work is more in the vein of postmodernist noir, or surrealist noir, but I definitely would classify them as some kind of noir, particularly given his over-dependence on issues of unsolved (and unsolveable, occasionally) mysteries and noir archetypes. Lost Highway is a larger movie with a noir narrative set inside of it, and uses noir as a device for obscuring emotional issues of the characters. I'm not sure "prosaic narrative" is a particularly specific element of noir so I think, for me, that's where your criticism of it as a potential label for Lynch falls down for me.

Possibly we should open up a Lynchian noir thread over in the Film?

Human Target...does seem like an interesting suggestion, especially given Chance's particular sexual bent (as showcased in the original mini) and the unfolding, layered deceptions.
 
 
sleazenation
22:24 / 09.06.07
There is now a (neo)Noir/Lynch thread over in the films forum.
 
 
unbecoming
16:27 / 10.06.07
tentatively throw in Charles Burns.

i was going to mention Burns' Black Hole. Although i wouldn't say the narrative style is particularly similar, the slick black brushed ink artwork definitely evokes that subverted 50's diner america feel which lynch seems to use.

the contrast of the suburban facade with the under-the-surface disease and debauchery reminds me of Blue Velvet

The book also has the strange mutations and distortions of the human body which are reminiscent of Eraserhead
 
 
CameronStewart
16:09 / 24.07.07
Just in case some aren't reading my other Transmission-X thread, my own "Lynchian" comic, called Sin Titulo, is now available at Transmission-X.
 
 
garyancheta
04:08 / 25.07.07
Something that even Alan Moore points out:

If you read the Killing Joke and watch Eraserhead side by side, you'll se a lot visual similarities.

- g
 
 
yichihyon
04:29 / 25.07.07
I thing Doom Patrol is a perfect Lynchian comic book series that went even more sureal than Lynch. Looking at Blue Velvet with one of the characters singing a karoke version of the sandman reminds me of what Morrison does in Doom patrol with the freakish natures of the characters. Also in Wild at Heart the Wizard of Oz symbolism used with the characters representing Marilyn Monroe and Elvis as some interpreters have read is echoed in Doom patrol with Wendy and the Wizard of OZ. I think if you are a fan of Lynch you would like Doom patrol. What is the real world if someone loony was looking at it? Is Doom Patrol's take whereas Lynch takes a look at the real world a bit more realiscally. Lynchian movies are open to interpretation anyones is valid also with Morrison's Mystery Play and Doom Patrol the same can be said. It is what we contribute is what matters as well. the piece of art being evaluated asks more questions than answers but the fun is trying to deciper the work itself.... Well that's what I think anyways......
 
 
yichihyon
04:37 / 25.07.07
Neo Lynchian Noir I think best applies to Twin Peaks but I haven't seen the whole series just the original pilot of a movie which terrified me with the camera pan where there was someone in the room and we just glanced over him. I think if you are a fan of Lynch check out Doom Patrol for Neo Lychinan Noir comics I think al Columbia's newer works are right up your alley. Or Memento the movie might pique your interest. Or Alan Moores work with the short Story the Reversible Man
 
  
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