Today on the site, Anya Davidson has an in-depth look at Brian Chippendale's incredible new book, Puke Force. I'm so pleased this project came to fruition, and happy to have been a part of it. Brian is on tour for the book, and you can catch him tonight in Toronto at The Beguiling and tomorrow at Desert Island. Here's a bit from Anya:
In his fourth graphic novel, Puke Force, Brian Chippendale bravely tackles the perils of modern American life. The book begins where the action in his earlier book, Ninja, left off. In Ninja, a group of friends and the titular ninja fight to prevent an evil arms manufacturer from setting up shop in their beloved city of Grain. Chippendale drew the book in the wake of the gentrification of Olneyville, his neighborhood in Providence Rhode Island, and I assume Grain to be an alternate universe manifestation of that city. The oversized pages of Ninja writhe with dots, dashes and lines. Characters rendered in thick brush strokes emerge from dense thickets of very fine line, to dizzying effect. Reading it again, I was overwhelmed by the sheer density and cinematic scope of that book. Panel backgrounds often remain static while characters traverse them, calling to mind animation as much as classic cartooning. On one page I counted fifty individual panels. It’s one of those comics that, in its ambition and urgency, seems to have practically erupted from inside its creator.
Elsewhere:
Well, tomorrow I'm opening an exhibition of 40 years of Gary Panter's publications at Printed Matter. This is unfortunately the same time as Chippendale at Desert Island. Ah well. We'll all be wherever we are not in spirit.
Links: A nice local profile on Chicago's Quimby's Bookstore. And the ever naughty British magazine Viz has been cut off from Facebook.
