Books

IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE: A COMPLETELY AVERAGE RECOVERY STORY (2023)

July 6, 2023

Julia Wertz is an amazing indie cartoonist and she embraces all that entails. (I recently wrote about her prior major work TENEMENTS, TOWERS & TRASH, which I hauled to NYC with me on my last trip to that amazing shit-smelling, rodent-infested, culturally vibrant city.) She overshares, imparting gross parts of one’s life that’s rarely described elsewhere, but is also very earnest and sincere and honest and heartfelt, even if that means showcasing her troubled mental underbelly.

The rawness of indie comics is something that simply can’t be recreated in other mediums, partially because of the scribbles and sketching and personal lettering, but just … there’s an intimacy when you read a comic or graphic novel. You push it up to your face, almost like you’re hugging it. It’s not like a film, which is projected quite a ways away from you. It’s not like a novel, where scrutinizing the font will not bring any sort of further elucidation, whereas with a comic or illustrative work, drawing it closer to your eyes may bring everything into focus.

Wertz has been through a lot — self-admittedly by her own hand — and she’s put so much of herself out there, and it’s so artfully done.

(I’ll note that I pre-ordered this book some time ago, forgot that I pre-ordered it, then ordered it again and she notified me asking: “Are you sure you want another copy?” How many other creatives would do that?)

So yeah, I’ll always be in her corner.

IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE — the full title is IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE: A COMPLETELY AVERAGE RECOVERY STORY — is quite the epic as it’s over 300 pages long and spans quite a bit of time and change. It still contains Wertz’s immaculate architectural reproductions, but also retains her expressive cartoon roots. When I was reading it, I’d gawk at the street in one panel, then laugh at the exaggerated simplicity of her comic self throwing her arms up in the air. It’s a perfectly calibrated work.

On a side note, with IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE, Wertz does an incredible job of underscoring the importance of human interaction and communication when you’re struggling. As she’s a very witty, sardonic person, it’s all handled with both the levity and gravitas it deserves, while also not shying away from how difficult that can be. Obviously I haven’t lived Wertz’s life but, when dealing with my own problems, I found that the solutions that helped her get sober mirrored my attempts to deal with my mental issues.

In other words: do not be afraid to reach out to people. Do not be so proud or scared. I know that’s easier said than done — I’ve been there. However, so many folks are either hurting or hiding their hurt or have made a sort of temporary peace with it, or they simply suffer with it. When they hear that you are in need, most will lend an ear or shoulder or both, or they may even ask for your ear or shoulder. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, you’re making yourself vulnerable. In the long run, it’s worth it. You will find folks you can rely on; well-wishing folks who will have your back and folks you can earnestly and honestly talk to without (mostly) feeling judged. You are not alone, but you do have to make the effort to not be alone. You have to do the work.

You can pick up a copy of IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE via Bookshop:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/impossible-people-a-completely-average-recovery-story-julia-wertz/18832320

DOOM PATROL VOL. 6 (2016-?)

June 29, 2023

If you aren’t familiar with the recent-ish drama at DC Comics, the Vertigo imprint is no more. Karen Berger, who spearheaded Vertigo, left DC a while ago. Without her, you wouldn’t have SANDMAN. You wouldn’t have Y: THE LAST MAN. You wouldn’t have Alan Moore’s SWAMP THING, and you certainly wouldn’t have Morrison or Pollack’s DOOM PATROL.

Yes, all great things must end, but sometimes they’re resurrected. Gerard Way — of the band MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and the writer of THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY — revived DOOM PATROL with his ‘Young Animals’ imprint, which is essentially a modern reboot of Vertigo; it’s all about the weird, all about the misfit ‘superheroes’ that don’t quite fit into the normal DC universe, but still have a rabid following.

According to the DC Database, ‘Young Animal’ is still active, but nothing has been published under the imprint in a number of years, so I’ll consider it defunct which is a shame, as those working under the imprint did a fantastic job but I guess the market for weird comic books just isn’t there nowadays.

However, Gerard Way did give us two new volumes of DOOM PATROL weird. (Three, if you count DOOM PATROL: WEIGHT OF THE WORLDS, which will not be covered in this write-up as it’s technically not part of the sixth volume.)

As with every new DOOM PATROL volume, this is a different DOOM PATROL, one that resembles the one of Morrison’s run, but a bit twisted. (Apologies, I have not read each and every DOOM PATROL book — I just found out there’s an entire Keith Giffen run — so I might get some facts wrong here.) Robotman Cliff Steele is here, obviously. Danny the Street is back, but in a far smaller way. Larry Trainor is …kind of back. A sort-of-Rita pops up for a bit. Jane has returned. Nowhere Man is taunting them and then turns into a sort of Max Headroom for some reason. Niles continues to be the narrator of his own creations.

So, essentially: it’s Gerard Way getting his vision of the band back together again.

It mostly works! Way also introduces a slew of new characters, such as Casey Brinke, the other side of the Cliff Steele coin; she loves to drive fast and her interests include: women, robots, her apartment, and her cat named ‘Lotion’. Way maneuvers Casey from outsider narrative commentator to one of the Doom Patrol gang so expertly, I barely even noticed.

There’s also the exuberant Terry None, one hell of a tap-dancing chaotic influence on the team. (I’ll note that her costume? Immaculately designed. Watch it as you read!)

Volume Six also includes the Reynolds family — husband Sam, wife Valerie, and teen son Lucius — which I am far less keen on. Doom Patrol has always been about found families and to shoehorn an actual family there feels incongruent to me, especially considering the closing issue of the second collection, which boils down to: the Reynolds play D&D but with real-life consequences.

Nonetheless, Way managed to keep the Doom Patrol weird candle alight, and with such an amazing team!

I do wish that DC had allotted ‘Young Animal’ more time than they were given. Unconventional comics are what contributes to visual narrative progress. You can see it not only in comics, but in film and TV and video games as well. Vertigo, and Young Animal, helped to nurture that experimentation, and apparently now … no one is willing to make that very small investment.

(Lastly: Yes, I know I said Vol. 6 and the cover says Vol. 2. It’s comics, so it’s essentially Vol. 6.1 and 6.2. No need to overthink it!)

HARLEY QUINN: NO GOOD DEED Vol. 1 (2021)

June 28, 2023

Why, yes, even more Harley Quinn. I shouldn’t be surprised there’s so much Harley work out there, but I am slightly. I believe she has as many monthly comics as Batman does now. (Also, kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the character was created over 30 years ago.)

However! This is all about HARLEY QUINN: NO GOOD DEED, the first HARLEY QUINN monthly comic arc from writer Stephanie Phillips who has penned the trifecta of DC heroes: Supes, Bats, and Wonder Woman. (Sorry, Wonds or Wonders just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.)

Like Quinn would do, I am definitely going about reading all of her books all wrong and out-of-order. At this point in Harley’s life, her and Poison Ivy were entangled, but now Red is gone. Harley’s back in Gotham and, as she’s no longer embroiled with The Joker, everyone wants her dead, especially since she’s decided to be a force of good in the world and teamed up with Bats.

Predictably, Harley being Harley, despite bringing a litany of apologies along the way, all of it goes horribly awry.

It’s an absolutely thrilling ride, particularly because of Riley Rossmo’s exaggerated, thick-but-energetic line and paneling work. Harley leaps and bounces through the pages, her face glowing in way that could feel cartoonish, but feels more welcoming than that. Additionally, the color work from Ivan Plascencia and Arif Prianto is so sharp and vibrant and pops in a way that few Gotham comics are.

I’ll note that this isn’t as easy to jump into as other Harley works if you aren’t familiar with Gotham’s lesser villains. It features a cavalcade of slightly-more esoteric folks that you may not be aware of if you’ve mostly just watched the films: Doctor Hugo Strange, Solomon Grundy, and Hush. But, hey, it’s comics; let it just wash over you and you’ll be fine!

https://www.dc.com/blog/2022/09/23/weekend-binge-no-good-deed-kicks-off-a-new-era-for-harley-quinn

THE SEVENTH MANSION (2020)

June 21, 2023

THE SEVENTH MANSION is the debut novel from Maryse Meijer, who has previously penned the acclaimed collection HEARTBREAKER STORIES (as well as another collection of shorts with RAG, and the novella NORTH WOOD), and if you’re a member of any counter-culture you will find a lot to love about this. If you aren’t, well, you can at least appreciate the intentional and interior and effective fragmented prose.

THE SEVENTH MANSION centers around Xie, an extreme vegan/naturalist who has been moved by his divorced father Erik from L.A., mostly due to an oil spill that Xie couldn’t physically or mentally tolerate. They relocate to a rural Southern town and Xie is quickly singled out, mostly negatively by most of his school, but positively by two very rambunctious queer girls: Jo and Liam. They see a kindred spirit in his lassitude and rebellion and environmental badges such as ‘TAKE NOTHING. LEAVE EVERYTHING.’

All three of them decide to take their environmental activism to the next level and liberate a number of caged minks waiting to be skinned, but only Xie is caught via their activities.

It doesn’t help that Xie — someone whose friends unknowingly chastise him for being celibate and asexual — has a thing for bones. As in actual skeleton bones. He steals the remains of a saint from a church — St. Pancratius, the patron saint of youth — and matters escalate.

I’ll note that Xie’s father is one of the rare depictions of a positive, understanding father in fiction. He legitimately wants to help Xie and he’s supportive and listens to him, even when Xie shuts himself away.

It is a slow, twisted burn of a ride and full of fragmented thoughts and feelings and sensuality and builds to one hell of a climax in more ways than one.

TENEMENTS, TOWERS & TRASH (2017)

June 20, 2023

I’ve been a huge fan of Julia Wertz since her illustriously named THE FART PARTY webcomic days. She’s been extremely honest and forthright about her life but always with a cavalier, comedic edge. (She supplies the best sort of comedy: the kind that makes you laugh but also wince.)

While Wertz is amazing at personal and often cutting cartoons, she’s astounding at drawing architecture and landmarks. She’s brilliant that way: knowing when something should be mostly undefined, but supremely capable of finely detailing works she appreciates and loves.

TENEMENTS, TOWERS & TRASH is her visual recounting of New York City, the New York City she’s witnessed and watched change. I took a copy of it with me the last time I visited NYC, because I wanted to seek out some of these haunts, despite the fact that more than a few I’d already been to, and while I didn’t get to nearly half the places I would have liked to, it was a comforting work to have with me, despite how bulky it was!

It’s a very personal take on an often overwhelming locale, and comics/graphic novels/illustrated works/etc. such as hers are the best tour guide you’ll get, at least apart from a long-lived local.

You can purchase it via any of the links featured here.

It’s worth noting that Wertz has a new work out: IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE: A COMPLETELY AVERAGE RECOVERY STORY. I’m sure I’ll be writing about it soon and am positive it’s worth your time!

NOCTURNE (2023)

June 13, 2023

A fantastically penned take on Chicago from the prohibition era onwards from the perspective of a ballerina who ends up living in a dark fairy tale. It’s a work that washes over you, that takes you to another place, then rudely shoves you back to reality. The author — Alyssa Wees — has an amazing command for detailing physicality, diving deep into what is entailed in immersing oneself into this sort of craft and stage work.

To say more would lessen the impact, but I will say: it’s quite the phantasmagoria.

Little bird.

Nocturne can be purchased via Bookshop at:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/nocturne-alyssa-wees/18526270?ean=9780593357477

THE CIGARETTE GIRL (1999)

May 30, 2023

Goddamn, I love 90s chick-lit, even though I fucking hate the term chick-lit, but really: there is no better way of describing works like THE CIGARETTE GIRL. Carol Wolper’s novel is something singular, something special; it’s all about a woman trying to make her way as a action screenwriter in L.A. and she’s super horny.

Seriously. She can barely go five pages without mentioning a blowjob.

This is quintessential 90s feminism. The cover is a woman, smoke-stained, enveloped in bras from head-to-toe. It’s meant to be lethal, but is it? Really?

Nonetheless, it is a hell of a novel, one that doesn’t pull its punches. While it’s horny, it has a purpose and that is to be taken seriously and I love every bit of it.

FLYING SOLO (2022)

May 29, 2023

As a fan of Linda Holmes — a mainstay of the delightful media discourse NPR series POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR — I’d been meaning to get around to reading her first novel EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER and her latest novel FLYING SOLO.

It wasn’t until I saw Linda Holmes reply to a tweet extolling her description of a library as a church, a spacious place to worship words, that I felt the need to immediately prioritize FLYING SOLO.

In my youth, I lived close enough to our local library that it was a five-minute walk. I’m not exaggerating: it would’ve taken longer to drive there than to walk.

For many years, it consisted of a small cottage house, wall-to-wall shelves with books crammed up to the ceiling. It was comfortably cramped, and it was overseen by a woman named Susan Overfield, who was the exact image of what you’d expect her to look like: short in stature, unkempt salt-and-pepper hair, but so passionate about books and knowledge and she knew exactly where everything was and would always give you recommendations for texts you never knew you needed. Essex, Vermont’s patron saint of libraries.

I’d walk out with an arm full of books and come back a week later to return them and repeat the process.

Time passed and it was suggested that the library had outgrown the cottage, so they decided to move to a more spacious building. I fretted when I heard the news, worried that they would move as far as possible from my home, fearful that it’d disrupt my weekly pilgrimage.

Instead, they moved into an abandoned church, on the same corner as the old cottage and, as Holmes alluded to: if you believe in a higher being, books get you there. If you don’t, well, consider it a temple to unbound delights.

(I’ve since learned that libraries moving into churches is pretty common in New England, so it’s nothing exclusive to my town.)

This is a very long-winded way of saying: I feel very seen by Holmes. Not only did I prioritize FLYING SOLO because of the library :: church bit, but also because, well, it’s right there in the name: flying solo. While, yes, I’ve spent more of my life entangled with people than not, I’m a loner at heart. I love solo walks and I love reading by myself and watching films by myself and I absolutely love traveling alone.

Again, all of that is rather antithetical for someone who has been partnered up with folks for longer than not, but it’s true. Introversion and anxiety is a hell of a bad combination, not to mention a delicate balancing act, and I see that all over the protagonist of FLYING SOLO: Laurie, the sole daughter who grew up among three brothers.

FLYING SOLO centers around Laurie, 39-going-on-40 (yes, actually — it’s not an ‘I’m always 39!’ joke), whom is tasked with returning to the small New England hometown she left for the Pacific Northwest to sort through her dead great aunt Dot’s house and clean it out. She stumbles over two objects of note: 1) a wood-carved duck carefully preserved and hidden amongst Dot’s belongings and 2) the sweet ex she broke up with because she knew she wanted a life elsewhere and he did not.

While I thought FLYING SOLO would mostly focus on the will-they/won’t-they of the latter facet, it leans hard into the first. It turns out that the duck may have been crafted by a famous artists, and Laurie unknowingly offloads it before realizing that it may be worth quite a bit. What follows is essentially very soft heist, the softest, but it’s still quite fun and beguiling, and then matters unfurl.

I’ll note: this is a very specific book, despite straddling a number of genres. It’s all about the nerds and weirdos and misfits. It’s not a traditional romantic novel — Holmes draws that line in the sand very quickly — but it traffics in all of the comforts of everything from rom-coms to melodrama to thrillers to action — however on a much smaller scale.

It’s a fun and substantive ride, and the end payoff with Dot and the duck is expertly handled. If you are one who keeps people at an arm’s length in a warm way, this is for you.

SHADE, THE CHANGING WOMAN (2018)

May 17, 2023

So, if you read my prior post about SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL, you might have noted that I said the series was very low-stakes.

I retract that remark.

SHADE, THE CHANGING WOMAN ramps everything up 200%, while still being a well-honed and calculated identity tale. Also, it manages to (briefly) interweave prior Rac Shade interlopers Lenny and Kathy in a brilliant way.

In other words, I fucking love it. I wish there was more of it, but I’m so happy what I have in my hands exists. Long live Madness, and may Madness bless Loma Shade.

If you’d prefer a deeper dive, I’ll direct you to this PASTE interview from writer Cecil Castellucci:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/comics/cecil-castellucci/cecil-castellucci-on-shade-the-changing-girls-grow

SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL (2016-2017)

May 16, 2023

Shoehorning the idea of Shade and Madness into a teen girl is brilliant, and I’m shocked it didn’t happen earlier. Writer Cecil Castellucci does a magnificent job of showcasing Shade’s perspective — even if it’s technically not Rac Shade from Milligan’s run — as well as the captured youth that Shade inhabits, as well as the conflict that ensues by doing so, while also filling in new readers on the background of Rac Shade as well as the circumstances on Meta.

It’s also delightfully raw and emotional, in a youthful way that SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN occasionally touched on.

I will say: narratively, it is slight. It’s very low-stakes — yes, like with Milligan’s SHADE, Shade is being pursued by others in order to get the Madness Vest, but that’s more or less a MacGuffin. There’s little conflict — the twelve issues are mostly about this Shade reveling in the joys of Earth and making friends, which I find absolutely fantastic.

Similar to Milligan’s run, it’s overly infatuated with Americana, although in this case it’s all high schools and music and old TV shows, as opposed to repeatedly watching JFK die.

Castellucci does amazing work bringing Shade into a new generation, and Marley Zarcone’s art brings a vibrancy to the story that recalls a looser Mike Allred, especially with some of the more inventive layouts that are interspersed through the issues.

It’s an absolute delight, especially the second storyline. Shade discovering the world solo, luxuriating in everything they enjoy? I couldn’t stop grinning and laughing while reading it, while also relishing the surreal facets of the imagery. I can’t imagine a better re-invention of SHADE than this.

https://www.dc.com/graphic-novels/shade-the-changing-girl-2016/shade-the-changing-girl-vol-1-earth-girl-made-easy