The Cross Hatch Dispatch 2.8.10
[Above, Dustin Harbin takes on pizza and pop art. Below, totally heavy dispatch.]
The Cross Hatch Dispatch | bheater February 8, 2010 | 
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Interview: James Sturm Pt. 1
Arriving in spring of this year, Market Day marks James Sturm’s first major solo work since founding the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT. Though set in a turn-of-the-century Eastern European market, it doesn’t take too much digging to surmise that the book is as much a comment on life as an artist in modern America as anything that might have affected the lives of artisans 100 years ago and half a world away.
Sturm, now a father of two, clearly invested much of his own life into the story of a rug weaver forced to make a choice between his art and his growing family. Happily, however, the author seems to have largely avoided such forced choices. In 2001, Sturm moved his young family to Vermont. Three years later, CCS was opened in an abandoned department store in downtown White River.
All the while, Sturm has been steadily releasing titles, including 2007’s children’s book, Saitchel Page: Striking Out Jim Crow, and last year’s Adventures in Cartooning, a how-to book co-authored by two CCS students.
The Lady’s Murder by Eliza Frye
The Lady’s Murder
by Eliza Frye
Self-published
Eliza Frye has an overwhelming talent for constructing beautiful images. I sat next to her at APE in 2009 and was totally awestruck by her work. Dumbstruck even. Still, fans kept flocking to her table, chatting her up, and I wondered ‘How does anyone know what to say to someone whose artwork is so goddamn gorgeous?’ Fandom is an art all its own, I tell you.
Her background as an illustrator and character artist comes across strongly in projects like The Lady’s Murder. In it, she takes a rather sexy poem from S. Albert Chatman and uses his idea to build a bony story structure from which her gorgeous art hangs lush and wild.
Tags: eliza frye, the lady's murder
Reviews | smorean February 4, 2010 | Comments (1)
Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
Copper
By Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix
At the close of Amulet: Book One, there’s a clear sense that the reader is standing on the cusp of something huge—author Kazu Kibuishi has offered up mere hints of the world he plans to explore over the course of his story. The sheer possibility of scope is reason enough to be compelled to pick up further volumes of the story, and—along with Kibishi’s stunningly rendered fantasy artwork—has led artist like Jeff Smith to declare themselves big fans of his work.
The expectation of such scope is also something a detriment upon picking up Copper. Where much of Amulet’s appeal lies largely in Kibuishi’s slow but steady reveal, Copper’s stories subscribe to a form of storytelling akin to that of the syndicated strip. Each story in the book presents a new universe for the titular boy explorer and his worried but obedient talking dog, Fred. And then, after a page or two, that window is closed and our protagonists are back at square one in a new world.
Reviews | bheater February 3, 2010 | Comments (0)
Column: Box Brown’s Dear Pencil Pal #1
When written correspondence became “snail mail,” the letters section in the back of comics sort of fell out of favor. A few comic artists still do it. John Porcellino and Alec Longstreth come to mind. But, there was a time when it was standard practice to include a letters section in comics. In reading these comics I am often tickled to no end* when I recognize the names of the people who have sent in letters to my favorite comic artists.
When I saw Sandra Oh, actress of Arli$$ fame (also some pretentious wine movie called Sideways), in an issue of Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve, I thought it might be clear evidence of the moment Drawn and Quarterly made it to the mainstream. But, looking even further back in D & Q’s catalog I found a letter from famed doctor and Robin Williams’ eponymous movie character Patch Adams in a Chester Brown comic. But, these people aren’t celebrities to me. Comic creators are.
Creator of The Aviatrix and Kramer’s Ergot contributor, Eric Haven’s letter was featured in a Chester Brown comic, Yummy Fur #29. I came across this after reading a different Chester Brown comic, though. In Underwater #1, there is a letter from Eric Haven. But it turns out that it’s a completely different guy, says the comic artist Haven:
“I remember seeing that letter when the issue came out and being shocked that there was another Eric Haven in the world reading Chester Brown’s comics. I attempted to contact this other Eric, but was only able to reach yet a different Eric Haven in Rochester Hills, MI. I can only imagine what this third Eric thought when I tried to explain why I was calling him…”
These letters clearly serve a purpose for the creator. I know that fan mail (and alternately “hate” mail) can effect an artist profoundly. Haven says, “[He's] glad [he] wrote the letter. It’s nice to praise a creator if one is moved by their work… especially in a field where there is no monetary reward.” But as a fan of both Eric Haven and Chester Brown this letter serves another purpose for me and presumably other fledgling cartoonists. It serves to strengthen the connection of all cartoonists. And, a fan letter from another cartoonist is probably one of the highest honors a cartoonist can achieve.
Features | bheater February 2, 2010 | Comments (9)
Interview: Eddie Campbell Pt. 4 [of 4]
“With the Alec book,” Eddie Campbell tells me in the fourth and final part of our interview, “I’ve made something very elastic. At the end of the book, you still believe it’s me, even though I’ve thrown some outrageous curve balls.”
Campbell’s masterwork, Alec, not only helped define the comics diary strip, it helped explore the genre’s elasticity. Alec is largely autobiography, sure, based on Campbell’s life as an artist, but it’s also a work that flirts with plenty of fictional devices, as the author utilizes anything he can pull from his bag of tricks to present the story the best way he knows how.
It’s something that Campbell says he still struggles with to some degree, working with real life stories that test the boundaries of the comics medium.
Interviews | bheater February 1, 2010 | Comments (0)
The Cross Hatch Dispatch 2.1.10
[Above, MK Reed goes cross country. Below, the ever-stationary Dispatch.]
Guest Strip: Blake Sims
Blake Sims has lived his whole life in Southern Kentucky. He currently attends Western Kentucky University and has been known to wear his hair long and reckless.
Sims has self-published his comics since high school. His early books were memorable for their large 8.5″x11″ format. With his latest mini, Rapscallion #5 he’s scaled down the format a bit to the standard, more affordable, quarter fold but hopes to print large again someday.
Expect the next issue of Rapscallion soon, which will be a faux-tabloid style comic. I can’t wait. In the meantime, check out Sims’ blog for more action, adventure and comedy.
Guest Strip | smorean January 29, 2010 | Comments (1)
Market Day by James Sturm
Market Day
By James Sturm
Drawn & Quarterly
“How would all of this come together as a single rug?” Mendleman asks himself, wandering through the bustling rows of his local market, in search of some place that might purchase the hand-woven goods slung over his should. At this moment, it becomes clear that Market Day is more than simply a story about a struggling craftsman in early 20th century eastern Europe. It’s the story of an artist—an allegory, really, for the seemingly perpetual struggle of the artist community. It’s a struggle which author James Sturm—and, likely nearly every other 21st century cartoonist—has no doubt grappled with at some point in his career.
The next two pages form a spread, in which the market’s bodies and buildings melt away, forming a rug pattern. Mendleman draws the inspiration for his craft from the world around him, and his reward is the admiration of his peers-it’s a currency that serves little use when there is a pregnant wife to support at home—one whose physical shortcomings assure that she’ll never be able to contribute meaningfully to the economic well-being of the couple’s growing family.
Reviews | bheater January 27, 2010 | Comments (1)
Interview: Eddie Campbell Pt. 3 [of 4]
What does one do when he wants to extend his portfolio beyond “pursuit and revenge fantasies?” If that person is Eddie Campbell, the answer is simple: draw inspiration from real life. In Alec, that inspiration comes from a very personal place–largely from Campbell’s own life. Though even in that largely autobiographical work, seeds can be found in outside sources, be it in the lives of friends, family, or colleagues.
Interviews | bheater January 26, 2010 | Comments (2)
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