Johnny Hiro
By Fred Chao
Adhouse Books
On a whole few entire mediums have been forced to fight as uphill a battle for legitimacy as sequential art. The past quarter-century has seen a number of breakthroughs in the battle, of course, with graphic novels of various stripes racking up lauds from academics and practitioners of high art and literature alike. In the process, however, one fundamental aspect of the art form has, perhaps, more often that not been sacrificed in favor of critical recognition: fun.
In the oft self-serious world of alternative comics, that once-essential cornerstone can prove rather elusive, and while we’d certainly be the last to decry graphic novels for being “overly serious,” it’s important not to lose sight of the humor and adventure that first drew so many of us to comics in the first place—both qualities that Johnny Hiro possesses in spades.
What artist Fred Chao has created with this volume is a rather graceful balancing act, focused a 20-something food service employee with little in the way of long-term career planning (in those respects a rather stock character in an independent comics scene so often focused on the insular troubles of their creators), who is rather clumsily thrust into adventure scenarios that often arrive in the form of real life manifestations of Asian pop culture—Hiro’s world is poplulated by giant lizards, Voltron-like robot teams, and samurai tech employees in business suits.
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[Above, Mara Lander's line-up. Below, the Dispatch's.]
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John Leavitt was sent my way by Molly Crabapple, with whom he’s authored two books, including most recently, Fugu’s soon-to-be-release graphic novel, Scarlett Takes Manhattan. In response to the original request for Subway Stories strips, he responded with the simple message, “Lesson One: Never do drugs you find on the F train.” Wiser words have seldom been spoken.
This isn’t that story , however—though it does involve some conspicuously-placed white powder–and a big wad of cash. For “Birthday Boy,” Leavitt borrowed a story from his friend Howard Des Chenes.
Leavitt’s work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Press. In his spare time, he is not a choral composer. You can check out more of his work here.
Those artists interested in submitting a strip to the Subway Stories series, please drop us a line at dailycrosshatch@gmail.com.
[Subway Stories #1: Raina Telgemeier]
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In the seven or so years since she leapt headfirst into the world of alternative sequential art, by way of an SPX anthology, Melanie “Minty” Lewis has become an instantly recognizable name in amongst the San Francisco indie comics community. Four issues of P.S. Comics later, the artist’s fruit and terrier pals have become a staple of ‘zine racks throughout the Bay Area.
With the recent publication of a Secret Acres anthology of the same name, Lewis seems primed for recognition on a wider scale for stories that balance the unreality of anthropomorphic animals and produce with simple tales of daily human existence.
In honor of her first collection of stories, we sat down with Lewis to discuss her career as a graphic designer, life drawing classes, and why she doesn’t keep a sketchbook.
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[Above, Timmy Williams, Educational Spider-man villain?]
I know we’re right in the middle of The Great Celebrity Culling Of ‘09, but comics must be written about!
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[Above, the return of the animated Maxx (sort of). Below, liquid Dispatch.]
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In part two of our interview with cartoon art historian Craig Yoe. We discuss the roles that Fredrick Wertham, a Brooklyn-based gang of Jewish Nazis, and the Supreme Court judge who helped found the ACLU played in Joe Shuster’s post-Superman SM drawings.
[Part One]
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K-9lives is a dog/cat conjoined odd-couple who’s love hate relationship drives them to adventure and intrigue in a surrealist landscape. Its creator, Douglas Wilson, is a character animator gone comic artist. With a surreal imagination that couldn’t find a home in his 9-to-5 animation job, he turned to writing stories for independent projects. He is still applying his comics work to animation and has just released the first animated webisode of K-9Lives.
A K-9Lives book has also been released to coincide with the film. It’s available for £8 from Wilson’s online store.
Catch up with everything Doug Wilson creates via his website: dougwilson.co.uk
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Like many of the best—and worst—ideas, this one was born out of some half-buzzed conversation over a round of draft beers. We were telling stories. Subway stories. The strange events that unfold every night—often in the wee hours—in the subterrean tunnels that snake below major metropolitan areas.
Everyone in the city has at least one—some are funny, some are scary, some are just odd. But in a place like New York, where nearly all residents rely on public transportation on daily basis, they’re one of the things that bind us together.
We asked a few of our favorite indie cartoonists to share their subway stories with us, and have received some tremendous work in response. For the first round, we cast the net around New York, a city with vibrant communities of artist and underground dwelling weirdos. We’d love get more artists—and metropolitan transit authorities—involved, however. If you’re an artist interested in contributing a strip, please drop us a line at dailycrosshatch@gmail.com. We’ll happily send you the details.
Our first subway story comes from a long time Cross Hatch favorite (and fellow Queens resident), Raina Telgemeier. Telgemeier is likely best known as the artist behind Scholastic’s recent adaptations of those perennial favorite YA books, The Baby-sitter’s Club. The publisher has also set a 2010 release date for Smile, the long-awaited collection of Telgemeier’s terrific auto-biographic Webcomic of the same name.
Telgemeier has also created work for DC’s Bizarro World, the Flight anthologies, and the Del Rey published X-men Manga book, Misfits. Check out her strip, after the jump.
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I Saw You…Missed Connection Comics
Edited by Julia Wertz
Three Rivers Press
Missed connections ads are a mixed bag of emotions: they’re at once funny, sad, creepy, and inspiring. So perhaps it’s only natural that we should turn to them for inspiration and for the creation of great and strange stories. Still, it’s an idea I would never have thought of. Luckily, Julia Wertz did.
Wertz, the creator of the hilarious autobiographical comic The Fart Party, started to find herself obsessed with reading missed connections ads a few years ago, and was struck by the idea of creating comics based on them. She put a call out to fellow cartoonists and received an overwhelming number of submissions, which led to the creation of a mini-comic, which led to a book, appropriately (if unexcitingly) titled I Saw You…, published by Three Rivers Press. As with pages of missed connections ads in newspapers or on Craigslist, I Saw You… is eclectic in terms of the length of the pieces, their tone, and their approach to the assignment. It is also great. The diversity of the content, as well as the overall talent of the contributors, make it an extremely enjoyable read.
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Reviews | bheater July 1, 2009 | 
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