A Cornucopia of reviews!

Here I was, thinking we had received (more than) our share of reviews, and it was all over, when all of a sudden three new--big ones!--pop up.

I admit, I would never have caught the fact that Thierry Groensteen himself had reviewed the anthology three weeks ago, if I hadn't received an email from him earlier today letting me know about it. The review is on his blog: http://neuviemeart.citebd.org/spip.php?page=blog_neufetdemi, but I can't figure out how to get a permalink for the specific post. Scroll down to January 19, 2010, or "mardi 19 janvier." To translate a few passages:

"The title is, in itself, a manifesto. It makes official the existence of these strange objects that some will reject as a contradiction in terms: 'abstract comics.'

... In the abstract comics gathered by Molotiu, sequential ordering produces nothing on the order of a story; but solidarity between the panels is established (in more or less convincing and seducing fashions) in another mode--plastic, rhythmic and so to speak musical. Personally, I do not refuse to make a place for these creations in the field of comics, because I wish that field to be as open and as diversified in its expressions as possible, without excluding anything a priori [this is my awkward translation of Groensteen's "sans exclusive"]. Nevertheless, I still note that they have closer affinities with the operating modes of contemporary art that with the ordinary ambitions of drawn literatures."

And then we have two massive discussions of the book by three comics scholars. Charles Hatfield reviews it, and meditates on the theoretical issues it poses, at Thought Balloonists. (Hard to excerpt. Go read the whole thing!) And Charles' usual Thought-Balloonists cohort, Craig Fisher, engages in a dialogue on the book with critic and anthology contributor, Derik Badman, on Badman's own Madinkbeard blog.

743

Divisors of 360 Resulting in Whole Numbers: Dot Gradient

click to enlarge

LC Number, woo hoo!

According to at least one library that just posted it, the LC number of the anthology is PN6720.A26 2009. Which is weird because, according to the Library of Congress, PN is "Literature (General)." We should get an "N" of some kind (art). But--well, see the comments to my "Instrumental music..." post.

Librarians reading this (I'm looking at you, Derik): is there anywhere we can appeal this issue? Also, does the LC give each book a specific number, then everyone follows suit--or does (as occasionally it seems) each library decide on its own where in the classification to fit each book?

Ditko's "Spider-Man," part 1, a.k.a. "Hey look, how cool is this?"--NOW UPDATED! WITH COLOR!

Asemic Writing in the Classroom

I've been digesting some of the asemic writing that Andrei and others have point me towards.

Recently, I had the students look at Shaun Tan's book The Arrival, which helps the students understand how it feels to be in a new place and have no understanding of the language.

The students planned out their own asemic alphabet using this sheet and are currently adopting it into a movable type project.


I'll try to post an update when the project is complete.

Discussion of "The Best American Comics" selection process

A few weeks too late, I found this post by John Dermot Woods (editor of Action Yes!, which hosted a preview of the anthology early last summer--as you can see in the links to the right). John is responding to a remark by Charles Burns, editor of "The Best American Comics 2009," on discovering new artists and the selection process. In the long comment thread that follows, the subject of abstract comics and their place in the range of contemporary comic art comes up quite a bit. It's an interesting discussion.

Instrumental music, abstract comics, and the logic of illustration

(Part III of a multi-part series. Mild warning: this is a pretty academic post, primarily of interest to some of the people who have commented on my earlier Miller and Ditko posts. Feel free to skip it if you're not into that kind of talk. The next installment--the next two, come to think of it, there's no way I can do it in one--will be on Ditko's "Spider-Man." You may want to come back for those ones...)

Anyway. In the last couple of posts I have been using quite a few musical analogies, and it's time I addressed that issue head-on. I think I first brought up (in writing, at least) the musical parallel in a post on the old TCJ Message Board (Comics Medium, "New Abstract Comics" thread, p. 2, June 12, 2004, 10:53 PM; yes, I realize that thread died along with that entire board, which I think is a huge shame. This was one of the couple of threads from it I saved, and I wish now I had saved a lot more.) In response to a comic that our own Mike Getsiv had posted, I wrote:

Mybrain

A long time ago in a bedroom far, far away...

I think this is where my interest in abstract comics really took off (although I can't say for sure that I won't find some earlier examples.) I started painting this oil on canvas in 1996 and worked on it until 1999. I don't know if it's an abstract comic as a whole but there are some abstract sequences within it so I hope you enjoy looking at it here.

Pencil drawing

doodled earlier tonight:



mechanical pencil with HB lead on 12" x 9" Bristol.

Abstract Comics

Hi my name is Blaise Larmee and this is my abstract comic. What is abstract comics? Abstract comics are interesting because there are many kinds. This blog is a community that pushes forward. The abstract comics are experimental or avant garde comics. Sometimes it seems like we haven't even scratched the surface of what is possible in comics! But the Abstract Comics Anthology (and this blog!) is a good place to start.

plane work

click here for the booked version