Unhappy Catalog Living

Though hard to explain to visitors, their dedication to minimalism precluded ablutions and eliminations, so the bath was moved to the basement.

(photo and caption from Unhappy Hipsters; Photo: Uncredited; Dwell)

There are now two blogs out there that add narrative captions to catalog or magazine photos. An early (1995) comic of mine did something similar—you can read it after the jump.

Catalog Living takes catalog photos and adds inane captions that lean towards a silly satire of consumer culture and the Martha Stewart Era. Unhappy Hipsters, applies the same idea exclusively to photos from Dwell magazine, exposing a Ballardian architecture of alienation.

I based "Don't Wait for a Sale!" on a Sunday newspaper ad for a department store. I redrew the images, partly to learn how to control ink wash, and added new text to the copy, though I preserved as much of the original as possible. It was published in my old minicomics series, Terrifying Steamboat Stories. #4, I think.

Read more...

Reviews for Bookforum

I have a review round-up in the new issue of Bookforum. I talk about the re-issue of art spiegelman's Breakdowns, Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button, Josh Cotter's Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Eddie Campbell and Dan Best's Amazing, Remarkable M. Leotard, and Seiichi Hayashi’s Red Colored Elegy. In different ways, they're all works that are right up my alley so it was a fun review to write.

I've decided to take a break from reviewing for a few years. The main reason is that I'm too busy with my other projects but I have to admit it is also getting harder to find books to review where I don't have some kind of personal or professional link to the artist or publisher. I certainly haven't compromised myself in any way in my writing but I have been getting increasingly self-conscious about the issue so maybe best to recuse myself for a while.

I'll continue to occasionally write short pieces here about comics and other things that I'm excited about. Read more...

Moomin and Lost: the revelation

I was recently struck by similarities in the fourth story collected in Drawn & Quarterly's Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip and the first season of the TV show Lost, and I feel compelled to outline my discovery here. If you are not familiar with either of these works then I invite you to check both works out and see for yourself.

The story "Moomin's Desert Island" starts with an ill-fated trip, this time in a helicopter, that crashes suddenly over a small desert island:





After the Moomins gather their senses they look for food on their island. Moomin Mamma plays Locke and goes hunting only to find... wild boars!



But here's the part that had my head spinning when I first read it: Moomin is out digging a hole when he encounters something unusual just under the surface:


Yes, he finds a hatch!


Down below there is an abandoned cave where ancient Moomins used to live, where they were involved in mysterious, sinister activities, as the explorers learn through cryptic signs on the wall of the cave:





So what does it all mean? Are Moomins the true Others? Are they related to the invisible monsters that stampede through the jungle? And what is their involvement with the Dharma Initiative? I can see I'll have to start a whole new website devoted to this mystery... Read more...