AAP's impression of a goth
Police have released a computer-generated image of a "gothic" looking man suspected of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Sydney's west.
The girl was allegedly threatened with a knife and sexually assaulted in a walkway behind the St Mary's Memorial Hall early on the afternoon of July 17, police said today.
The man is described as having a "gothic" appearance.
He was aged about 20 and was tall and skinny, with black dreadlocks and white make-up.
He was wearing a black full-length coat over black clothes, police said.
personal to Kate the commenter
Gah, run afoul of the 30-day limit on comments:
Gah, run afoul of the 30-day limit on comments:...
comics last week
La Perdida #4
Oh dear. After three issues of anthropological slice-of-life, apparently Jessica
Abel has become bored, or afraid that the readers will. So here we have the
gringo girl's Mexican boyfriend involved in the kidnapping of her former friend,
telegraphed to the reader in the first few pages but then reserved for a
dramatic reveal at the end of the issue. Sure, the character has been shown as
being self-absorbed not to notice, but just because it's shocking to her doesn't
mean it should be shown as shocking to us, who already know. Remedial
suspense classes before the denouement, please.
Still, the usual lovely dry-brush work.
Eightball #23
Of course it's alightly disappointing that Clowes takes the "loads and loads of short stories in different styles and genres adding up to one story" format of #22's Ice Haven and scales it back to "different chapters of the one story told in different styles", but then it's not like anyone else has come along to play with this mode that he invented in the meantime. Anything I could write about the story or colouring or size or themes have probably already been hashed to death by that there comics blogosphere by now, so I shan't bother. how Ditko is that cover?/teenage alienation and friend more engaged with life than protagonist continue to be rich seam for Clowes to mine/is it all in his head?/metaphor for nature of a serial killer/draw comparisons with loneliness and isolation of adult superhero fans/best colouring in comics today/so great to see someone returning from the rise of the graphic novel to make single-issue comics something worth analysing and celebrating/etc etc - there you go, rearrange those and imagine your own transitions.
Conversation #1
In which two of the wispiest, most self-regarding cartoonists in America today join forces! This overpriced minicomic should not be sold to diabetics without a presription. The "what is the nature of artistic creativity? and God: Whither?" ruminations ultimately don't express anything deeper than "we really like to draw", but one presumes that's all anyone's going to buy it for. They start off doing alternate panels, but it soon becomes a full-on jam (executed via email and .psd's!) that works remarkably well. Kochalka's flat cartoony style is challenged and extended by Thompson's flair for detailed landscapes (reflecting, as in Blankets and Goodbye Chunky Rice, internal turmoil).
Carnet De Voyage
"OH LADIES I AM SO SENSITIVE! WHY WON'T ANYONE TOUCH MY WANG?"
But here he gets a chance to do representative drawing! This is nothing more or less than a sketchbook draw while travelling in Morocco, France & al., which is a boon for those who don't fancy working through the navelcrying of Blankets twice in a year, but would very much like to see more of young Craig's lush brushstokes. Also includes some of his vibrantly amorphous bigfoot cartooning, in the service of diarrhoea humour. It's got something for everyone! Including a healthy portion of the Brian Emo sighing mocked above.
The Comics Journal #261
The Phoebe Gloeckner interview is largely pointless, being a biographical recap and then endless pages of her refusing to say that all of her comics about teenage girls having sex with their mother's boyfriends are autobiographical. She's obviously prepared to talk about the fictional character's experiences, and is very interested in the nature of translating her diaries into "The Diary Of A Teenage Girl," so just approach it from that angle and talk about the subject that way!
Darcy Sullivan, who did Dame Darcy's Journal interview ten years ago, follows up by reviewing her big MeatCake collection. Did he reserve it back then? I really loved how the Dame tried to insist that they both be billed as "DARCY:" in the transcript, and wish Sullivan and TCJ had gone for it. That's what the bold on the questions is for! Also, the resident Christian in the long-serving reviewers' roster gets to do Chester Brown's Gospel adaptations. Fair enough.
Plus some great news stories, snoozy RC Harvey columns and frustrating minicomics reviews.
Batman: The Order Of The Beasts
When I saw the original pages last year and read printouts of a lot of the early
lettered versions, I told Campbell he should see if DC would agree to just print
the art at magazine size and let that be. As it turns out, not only does the
skinny, mechanical Trevfont look awkward, but somewhere in the pre-press process
even the lovely paintings have become fuzzy digital blurs. The story is a
perfectly fun classique-'40s style Batman adventure (though labelled as an
alternate world version due to the ludicrous nature of superhero "continuity")
with some good jokes, but such a drag on the eyes that it's unlikely to become a
beloved re-read for many. Big ups to Daren for cracking the "big time", though -
maybe Marvel will come calling and ask to buy his idea for Bruce Banner buying a
job lot of purple pants.
Captain America #28
The second Eddie Campbell work-for-hire effort of the week (and about his tenth
in history). First part of this story was a hard-to-follow [possibly less so if
you read previous issues] thing about time travel, alternate universes and
massive terror attacks on major American cities. This issue just turns into a
big running-around-a-comic-convention caper, and Eddie can hardly be bothered,
drawing the main figures in most panels and leaving the rest up to a hired
assistant. I don't understand the colouring in yer modern superhero comics
either - the whole thing (linework included) is basically printed in shades of
ochre. Isn't the whole point seeing the big blokes in bright colours looing
dynamic? Maybe it's meta-commentary.
Death Takes A Holiday #1
This just appeared on the local shelf, a year after initial release, and I picked it up because of the author's great talent for spontaneous comedy on the V. As soon as someone comes up with some kind of graphics app which will draw whatever he wants as fast as he thinks of a gag, Mr Massey will be unstoppable. This? This is a lot clunkier. Its main weakness is the contrast of a mechanical fake-assembly-line-hand-lettering font with Jim's very individual rough drawing style. The drawing itself is perfectly serviceable at getting the gags across (though the use of a floating Pac-Man to represent a genie seems to be a joke about his limitations never made explicit, and there's a recurring scenario about indie comics or European films being depressing that never comes off, but I think this is because it's based on some imaginary ideal of the style being parodied just as much as because you can't tell what he's trying to draw), but the lettering serves to counteract the expressiveness that he obviously works to get into his limited style.
Er, what's it about? The Grim Reaper enjoys some downtime hanging out at a bar. Lots of scope for set-ups here, obviously, and Massey does get decent mileage out of it. I don't know if this just collects all the strips done in a certain period or if some degree of editorial collation was involved - if the former, he brings in recurring characters that don't relate to the premise surprisingly early. There's a second issue due out now-ish that I might lay eyes on in another year's time: I look forward to seeing how the concept is developed, or just getting a few good grins out of it.
Mystery In Space #1
Bought to indulge the Grant Morrison completist still whimpering inside me, but
the lead story is actually much better. For this first issue of a batch of
trademark-polishing tributees to Julie Schwartz, Morrison avoids having to start
caring about sixties sc-fi hero Adam Strange by taking the opportunity for a
metatextual musing on Schwartz' career and influence. It's good at what it's
doing, but restrained by Jerry Ordway's workmanlike drudge-art. And one great
bit where a thought balloon on Earth turns into a cloud on Rann with words
half-visible in it is ruined by lame computer lettering.
The same bloke probably did the cover, an Alex Ross homage to yer classic image gubbins, as it uses the same awkward curly lettering. This is plain lunacy, since Todd Klein has designed a fantastic faux-Ira Schnapp font to use on the first story inside.
Which was obviously given the front of the book on merit. Elliot S! Maggin, who I havent read since his Superman prose novel when I was five, is now two for two with me. He just turns out a flat-out fun adventure tale, the plot of which could have come straight from a '60s issue, but told with more sophistication and illustrated with far more style by J. H. Williams III. The Promethea/Chase artist inks himself here, showing a lighter line and more detailed touch than his usual work wth Mick Gray.
Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #11
The typical blend of awful Steve Moore/That Bloke story about young Tom getting a
boner and not knowing what to do with it, nigh-content-free Steve Moore skiffy
thing with lavish Art Adams architecture and tits (Adams relegating himself to
inking only here), and absurdly slight Alan Moore dabble in an archaic genre.
The latter of these is, this time around, a Bruce Timm-illustrated spoof on the
"jungle girl" archetype; the ostensibly feminist satire is so flimsy as to be
non-existent, but it's all worth it for the story title: "Jungle Is Massive!"
Star Wars Tales #20
Are there any altcomics anthologies these days that could get
Millionaire, Bagge, Beto, Jason, Kochalka and Bob Fingerman into one issue? This
could have been more personally entertaining if so many of the stories hadn't
been focussed on ripping the piss out of Jar-Jar Binks, a character I'm only
aware of due to the uproar caused by people my age being upset that someone
who's made two good movies ever, and the last of those 25 years before, failed
to satisfy them with a new film for 7-year-olds. The letterer bloke from Savage
Dragon bucks the trend by ripping the piss out of Ewoks, at least satisfying a
grudge of betrayal from his own callow youth.
Having said that, the best story here by a thousand miles is Tony Millionaire's, wherein he simply sticks the lizardy thing on an 18th century sailing ship to satisfy his own illustrative preferences. And then has Jar-Jar sink the ship due to characteristic moronity, being the cue for a truly sad story about Binks Senior's disappointment with his son, and having sacrificed true love and happiness merely in order to have an heir. It shouldn't be surprising, I suppose, that Millionaire wrings such emotional weight from computer-designed merchandising, given what he does with inanimate toys in the Sock Monkey comics.
Next best is Gilbert Hernandez' "Young Lando Calrissian" story, which is a straight-forward boys' adventure about a charming scam-merchant in an SF milieu, not relying on franchise knowledge at all. This is what the Star Wars comics in the '70s and '80s should have been like! (And may well have been, for all I know.)
American Elf
In which the first five years of James Kochalka's Sketchbook Diaries are
compiled into one bulging volume. I always wished they'd do the books as wee
368-page hardcovers - ie resembling real diaries - but even retaining the
four-strips-a-page format of the comic-format collections, this thing is big
enough to cut off all bloodflow to your dick if you're reading it in bed with
the book in your lap.
That's if there's any left after the opening pages; I love the diaries, and the first glimpses of them in Dee Vee were what started to convert me from "Kochalka is a micro-talent with greater interest in talking himself up than improving his art, and belief that childishness is a substitute for creativity" to "Kochalka is a brilliant cartoonist with occasionally poor impulse control." The mixture of immaturity with pathos, angst, joy, love, and philosophising from day to day in the diaries gives them their strength, but he doesn't do himself any favours by opening his first adult book to be put in front of a mainstream audience by taking advantage of colour signatures to print unbearably twee full-page drawings of himself as half-human half-elf in washed-out blue.
Still, anyone who flips past the glossy pages gets almost 2000 comic strips to form a broader judgement from. And by the time they get to the second colour section in the back, a double-page spread of photographs of cakes that his wife has made comes off as a lot more charming.
lessons on taste from Rupert
Tee hee. The Daily Terror has run a story lambasting Triple J for using an image of the World Trade Centre, during its intact days, in an online graphic about a promotion... but then they've illustrated said story with an image of a plane crashing into the second tower while the first one is on fire.Liza Minelli was his first nomination
John Darnielle makes the case: Wiley For PresidentIf "Cabaret" would make kick-ass inauguration music, how much more awesome would/will it be on the day that the first black president turns out not to be Blowfly but some English guy: not only the first black president, then, but the first British president since Washington! Somebody tell me what's not to like: they inaugurate Wiley, the speakers blast "Here comes Wiley, my name's Wiley, I ate all the pies," everybody's happy. The nation is embroiled in scandal months later because of Wiley's great fondness for killer hydro bud? Not to worry: Wiley appears before a joint session of Congress, sings "Pies," all is forgiven. If Richard Nixon had written "Pies," he would still be President today, even though he's dead. Vote Wiley: he ate all the pies.
I don't know what town sign you'd use
BESTIALITY
I've had relations
With hamsters and dalmatians
I've made passes
At donkeys of all classes
And if your squirrel is grey
I won't turn it away
And if your goat is brown
It and I can find some common ground
Bestiality, young and warm and wild and porky
Bestiality, your laws do not apply to me
A specialist magazine comes in the post from Sweden
I always get a wrist ache when I read them
I knew a farmer once who played
With his piggies in the glade
I said "But some things are really best left unspoken"
But he preferred his livestock out in the open
Bestiality, plump and pink and wild and furry
Bestiality, your laws do not apply to me
I'm sure that everybody knows how much my doggy hates me
I take him out most every night because he looks incredibly tasty
I feel a total jerk
Taking my badger into work
I'm getting weighed down
With all this information
Safe sex doesn't mean no sex
It just means buy yourself a big alsatian
Stop playing with your pets
Or you'll end up down the vets
I look like Johnny Morris (A zookeeper who presented animal shows on British TV)
I love a penguin and her name is Doris
Bestiality, cold and damp and wild and scaly
Bestiality, your laws do not apply to me
Bestiality, come shear and snog some sheep with me
Bestiality, we can be what we want to be
(Billy Bragg via Porky The Poet via Ade via the V)
