We're closing out the week with Joe McCulloch's massive tour de force review of UK indie anthology Mould Map 3, which gathers work by cartoonists such as Sammy Harkham, Simon Hanselmann, Aidan Koch, Blaise Larmee, and co-editor Leon Sandler, among many others. Here's an excerpt:
The terror of Mould Map 3, then, is the terror of options: of the necessity of change, and the uncertainty behind anyone's ability to guide it. I am reminded again of a Sammy Harkham anthology, this time 2011's Kramers Ergot 8, a book which all but palpably shuddered with anxiety and despair, surveying the path of comics with a regret born sadly of wisdom, and seeking, futilely, to imagine a future that won't merely reprise the ills of the past. It was comprehensively different from prior installments of that series, down to its physical characteristics: smaller in size; fewer artists; longer pieces.
The same is true for this book. Vols. 1 & 2 of Mould Map (“culture as the physical residue of civilisation and a virally exploding population,” per Frost) were 12- and 20-page pamphlets, 11.75” x 16.5” both, allowing no contributor more than two pages to deliver an image, a story fragment, a revelatory semi-fossil; anything. Editors Frost & Sadler drew inspiration from the zines and anthologies of Hendrik Hegray & Jonas Delaborde: Nazi Knife and False Flag, books of images which stood apart from the gnarled Gallic tradition of Le Dernier Cri by swapping out screen printing and other feats of hand-design for low-fidelity monochrome reproductions of color photographs and drawings that seemed less apocalyptic than severely drowsy. Frost & Sadler brought in heavy color as a unifying factor -- Mould Map 2 remains among the *loudest* comics I own -- but retained a scattered, enigmatic quality: easily dismissible, to be blunt, for those eager to have stories enunciated by their pictures.
Mould Map 3, however, adopts not the production characteristics of Kramers Ergot, or Nazi Knife, or LDC's pus-smeared Hopital Brut, but a properly mainstream Japanese art book: 8.25” x 11.75”, with heavy, glossy paper throughout (some exceptions apply). If you've ever bought anything luxurious from UDON Entertainment, particularly the anime/manga/gaming production art-flavored anthologies Robot or APPLE, you've basically seen Frost's & Sadler's approach here; even the 60 USD-ish suggested cover price is competitive with most of what you'll find on the applicable shelves of your local Kinokuniya. Where Mould Map 3 departs is in periodically inserting smaller booklets into the larger book -- a Le Dernier Cri trademark -- and marshaling all manner of attentive care after the reproduction of wildly varying visual approaches: some burning and fluorescent, others photographic, or heavy with slime.
Elsewhere:
—News. Irwin Hasen, Sheldon Moldoff, and Orrin C. Evans have been selected for the Eisner Hall of Fame, and the Eisners have announced the nominees and opened online voting for the next round. At Publishers Weekly, Brigid Alverson reports on an apparently declining manga market in France.
—Interviews. CBR talks to the founder of IDW, Ted Adams, on the 15th anniversary of his company. Bookworm's Michael Silverblatt speaks to Jaime Hernandez (and novelist Junot Diaz). The Hundreds talks to Night Business creator Ben Marra. Kiel Phegley interviews Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson about the company's stated intention to expand their creator-owned lineup. In the process, Phegley calls Dark Horse the "original home of creator-owned comics", which seems to ignore a lot of history before the company, but any emphasis on creator ownership is a good one.
—Reviews & Commentary. Matt Fraction breaks down a Miller/Mazzucchelli issue of Daredevil. Harry Backlund reports on Art Spiegelman's Wordless! stage show in Chicago for the online Paris Review.
