Sunday, June 24, 2018
The Hooded Utilitarian
This is just a short note to say that I decided to repost here my posts at Noah Berlatsky's blog The Hooded Utilitarian, The first installment will be posted in a few hours.
In Defense of Pulp
Al Feldstein (w, a), Marie Severin (c), Jim Wroten (l), "The Vault of Horror!: The Dead Will Return!," The Vault of Horror #13 [#2], EC Comics, June - July 1950; as reprinted in: top: The Vault of Horror #3 (Gladstone, December 1990), bottom: The Vault of Horror #2 (Russ Cochran, January 1993).
The above images are the splash-page of an old EC story as reprinted on cheap pulp, exhibit a), and a bit better pulp, exhibit b). The first thing that jumps to the eye is exhibit b)'s crispness if compared to exhibit a). Crispness, though, comes with a price.
Let's look closer:
a)
b)
The pulp in a) is more anarchically textured than in b); as a consequence the black areas in a) aren't completely opaque. In b) everything is well defined. To me that's a plus, but it's also a problem: in a) the transitions on the back and arm of the male character are smooth; not so in b) which causes an artificial effect: are those supposed to be the colors of the clothes of the male character, or is this supposed to be a light effect? It's obviously a light effect in a), and a strangely colored outfit in b).
My solution? It's simple dialectics: see it below:
Before I go: Russ Cochran published his The Vault of Horror #2 at a time (1993) in which the halftone dots were still in use. When even the dots disappeared the plan sharpness worsened the transitions problem. Ironically, that's highly appropriate to manichean genre comics since, morally, everything is portraied without grey areas.
PS A possible objection to what I say above is the use in contemporary comics of computer gradients. To that I always answer in the same way. You may also say that everything is possible with computer coloring these days. True, but the problem isn't the tools, the problem is those using them.
PS A possible objection to what I say above is the use in contemporary comics of computer gradients. To that I always answer in the same way. You may also say that everything is possible with computer coloring these days. True, but the problem isn't the tools, the problem is those using them.
Saturday, June 23, 2018
The Complete Pazienza Published By Coconino Press
Talking about great library editions these are great news! Coconino Press is another one of those rare publishers who mean business. Kudos to them!...
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Matt Marriott Published By Manuel Caldas
If I look at the list of my favorite comics (my personal canon, as this blog's subtitle claims) I inevitably notice that many, if not most, are out of print or were never reprinted decades after the first printing (almost 60 years, if we don't count a confidential reprint in 2014, for my #1).
"Matt Marriott," (links here, here, and here) the Western series by James Edgar and Tony Weare, is no exception. Of the 70 stories published between 1955 and 1977 few were reprinted and none had a wide circulation. I would love to see the complete series reprinted with Drawn & Quarterly or Fantagraphics production values quality. It would be a Matt Marriott library to join the Oesterheld's Frontera library of my wildest (and nerdeshly wettest) dreams. This will never happen, of course, because the former is a British newspaper series, and the latter was an Argentinian publishing house. The only reprints we can expect are the ones with best seller status; which obviously mostly means, reprints of mediocre stuff. If the above isn't enough we know that most countries are completely out of the great production values, classic comics reprint equation, the UK and Argentina among them...
But enough whining: enter: Manuel Caldas...
As you can see below Manuel marvelously published three Matt Marriott story arcs in Spanish, directly reproduced from the original art.
I wrote the intros, but, unfortunately, I need to correct some mistakes committed by the translator. I'll do it in a coda to this post. In Spanish, maybe?...
"Matt Marriott," (links here, here, and here) the Western series by James Edgar and Tony Weare, is no exception. Of the 70 stories published between 1955 and 1977 few were reprinted and none had a wide circulation. I would love to see the complete series reprinted with Drawn & Quarterly or Fantagraphics production values quality. It would be a Matt Marriott library to join the Oesterheld's Frontera library of my wildest (and nerdeshly wettest) dreams. This will never happen, of course, because the former is a British newspaper series, and the latter was an Argentinian publishing house. The only reprints we can expect are the ones with best seller status; which obviously mostly means, reprints of mediocre stuff. If the above isn't enough we know that most countries are completely out of the great production values, classic comics reprint equation, the UK and Argentina among them...
But enough whining: enter: Manuel Caldas...
As you can see below Manuel marvelously published three Matt Marriott story arcs in Spanish, directly reproduced from the original art.
I wrote the intros, but, unfortunately, I need to correct some mistakes committed by the translator. I'll do it in a coda to this post. In Spanish, maybe?...
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
One Of The Thinks That I Hate The Most...
Well, I'm being shallow, obviously, but keep in mind that I'm saying the following in the context of this blog and this blog only. There are LOTS of things to be REAL mad about in this world which don't involve comics: blockbuster films, for instance... Kidding!...
Anyway, here's the thing (and I've never seen or heard, or seen and heard at the same time, anyone saying this, so, prepare yourselves for a first!): I hate it when a television show, or a Podcast, or whatever mass media you can think of, invites an intellectual celebrity (a famous writer or philosopher, or academic, or critic, you get the gist...) to a show about comics and he (it's usually a he, because, you know... girls don't read comics) says comics are marvelous, etc... because, he liked reading comics soooo much when he was a child.
It's très chic to like what the ignoramuses like, you know? Deep down he thinks comics are crap, but the show is inexorably settled and it, as usual, must go on...
Maybe more than saying inanities about comics (how could it be otherwise if they didn't pick up a comic in decades?) what bothers me the most is the condescension. His highness deigned to descend from his high horse and visit the populace. What I have to say to him is "put your crappy childish comics where they belong: namely, up your ass!".
Anyway, here's the thing (and I've never seen or heard, or seen and heard at the same time, anyone saying this, so, prepare yourselves for a first!): I hate it when a television show, or a Podcast, or whatever mass media you can think of, invites an intellectual celebrity (a famous writer or philosopher, or academic, or critic, you get the gist...) to a show about comics and he (it's usually a he, because, you know... girls don't read comics) says comics are marvelous, etc... because, he liked reading comics soooo much when he was a child.
It's très chic to like what the ignoramuses like, you know? Deep down he thinks comics are crap, but the show is inexorably settled and it, as usual, must go on...
Maybe more than saying inanities about comics (how could it be otherwise if they didn't pick up a comic in decades?) what bothers me the most is the condescension. His highness deigned to descend from his high horse and visit the populace. What I have to say to him is "put your crappy childish comics where they belong: namely, up your ass!".
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Monday, May 7, 2018
John Porcellino
Great photo by Phoebe Gloeckner
It's as if The Comics Journal of old had been ressurrected! Lenghty wise, I mean...
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