Comics to Read: Daytripper

This acclaimed, wonderful, amazing comic series is a must read.

Set in modern day Brazil, this tale follows the life of Bras de Olivias Dominguez during different periods in his life.  Every chapter features an important period in Bras’ life and the consequences of his choices.

I was drawn to this book initially because of the creative team of Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba.  These brothers from Brazil have an original style that is unlike any found at the big two.  I had heard of them thru there work on Umbrella Academy (another quirky must read).  As artist’s they have a cartoony style and are not afraid to test the traditional borders of the comics page.  You can check out their blog sketches here.

In Daytripper their writing style reminds me of Junot Diaz or even Haruki Murakami.  They are not afraid to mix magical realism with raw human emotion.

I recommend checking this out.  You can find it at the SLCPL here.

Consequently if you are in the SLC area, I will be hosting a discussion of Daytripper on Oct. 6.  Details can be found here.  So come on down.  It should be good.

 

 

A Work in Progress

This time with yellow!

We had our second successful Sumi Ink workshop at Sweet branch library last Saturday. Here we present the photographic documentation of our (as yet unnamed) work, in progress:

It was a good time, all ages kind of day, with Michael Jackson on Pandora. Of course we love this sort of thing, but what about YOU, Salt Lake City Public?

Is this something you’d like to see more of?

-SC

Comic Confession

Comic Confession time.

I have never, ever, read a Judge Dredd comic.  I hang my head in shame.

In fact I hadn’t even heard of the character until that awful movie with Sly Stallone came out back in the nineties.  Y’know this one.

From what I’ve heard this movie adaptation did not go over well.

So when I heard that they were making another version that would be more true to the comic, I thought maybe this was my chance.  I’m interested in fascist political commentary in my comics as much as the next person.  After searching the interwebs I was able to find some help here and here.

The question is where do I start? Unfortunately here in the US (not to mention the western state where I’m located) it’s hard to get a hold of Judge Dredd or 2000 AD.  So I’ll have to wait a while but hopefully I’ll get to see what all the fuss is about.

 

 

This Year Ride A Bike

Local Zine Spotlight: Guide to Steel Bikes

For the month of September we are spotlighting this local zine from our Zine Collection on Level 2 of the Main Library.

Guide to Steel Bikes is a collage style zine with a lot of pictures and drawings. Based on information about steel and older components on road bikes, and a little ‘how-to’ mechanical information. It has multiple sections: one on steel as used in frame building, frame types and geometry, components and information about specific companies like Sun Tour.

It was produced by the Boing Collective which you can find out about here.

 

The Acme Novelty Library Volume 20: Lint

Comic readers rule #3:  You must read something or everything by Chris Ware.

Jordan Lint succeeds in business and fails at life.  He is selfish and uses the head between his legs more then the one on his shoulders. You probably won’t like Jordan Lint by the end of his story or pity him.  But why would you?  He sucks.

Author, Chris Ware is the Todd Solondz (director of Happiness) of the comic world.  You’ll learn more about the human soul and lose more respect for the human race by reading one of his books than by crawling through the slums of Los Angeles and…you’ll love it.

Lint is available for check-out!  Get it while its hot!

-Strange

Comics to Read: Daredevil #17

Not a big Daredevil reader? Neither was I.

I remember hearing everyone talk about how Daredevil was a badass and dark comic book character.  His best runs were written by favorite writers of mine such as Frank Miller, Bendis, and Brubaker.

So I picked it up and read it until Brubaker’s run ended.  And then swiftly dropped the book because Shadowland was lame.  However lucky for me (and really us all) a savior sat in the wings.  His name was Mark Waid.

Waid’s relaunch last year was a wonderful breath of fresh fun air for a titled that had stagnated under the weight of it’s own heaviness. Daredevil became FUN.  He smiled. He made jokes. He kissed the girl and saved the day.  It was delightful.

Also one of the things that Waid brought back was the concept of the flashback one-and-done single issue story.  These kind of stories used to be a regular occurrence back in the day.  It meant reader’s didn’t have to worry about continuity, or have read the previous issues.  You could pick it up randomly and enjoy a simple 20 page story.

Which brings me to Daredevil #17.  This single issue exemplifies everything that is making Waid’s run one to remember and check out.  If anyone was going to fill in for Marcos Martin beautifully it is Mike Allred.  His work on this issue is stellar.  I suggest checking out his other work here.

So even if you could care less about Daredevil.  I highly suggest grabbing this issue and giving it a try.  You won’t be sorry.

Find more Daredevil here.

Also more Mark Waid here.