Today on the site, Joe McCulloch is here with his usual guide to the Week in Comics, highlighting the best-sounding books new to stores. Spotlight picks this time include Michael Tisserand's much-anticipated George Herriman biography and a new collaborative effort from Stanislas Barthélémy and journalist Laurent Rullier. Joe also writes about a Disney comic by Lewis Trondheim, Nicolas Keramidas, and Brigitte Findakly.
The album is technically part of a line of artist-driven Mouse comics at Glénat, with additional contributions by Régis Loisel (who's done work for Disney's animated films) and "Tébo" (also the writer of Keramidas' Alice au pays des singes series with Glénat) -- along with a book by Bernard "Cosey" Cosendey that IDW also plans to release -- but really it's part of Trondheim's continuing project of summoning works and traditions from comics' past and making them his own.
However, I am at a disadvantage. For one, I've not read what I suspect is this book's closest relation, the 2010 Spirou et Fantasio sub-series album Panique en Atlantique, which Trondheim wrote for artist Fabrice Parme with purportedly similar throwback flair. Moreover, I *have* read this very good review of the Mickey book by Jonathan Bogart, whom I fear has plumbed all the depth this piece has to offer. Of particular note, Bogart reads the book's central conceit -- that the comic we're seeing was not really created by Trondheim & co., but found by them in a hidden stash of regional European Disney comics from the '60s, serialized at only one page per issue by anonymous talents -- as a means of re-framing Mickey Mouse and all his baggage as something suddenly native to the small-format serialization of Franco-Belgian children's comics: a truly BD Disney at last.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—Reviews & Commentary. James Yeh reviews Richard McGuire's new book of New Yorker spot drawings/comics for the Times.
As in his loudly (and deservedly) praised 2014 graphic novel “Here,” McGuire’s singular, virtuoso approach to storytelling is again the star. Whereas “Here,” with its static living room scene and bold leaps forward and backward in time, explores a simultaneous vision of space and history, “Sequential Drawings” takes a more playful, spare and gag-like approach, wordlessly shuffling between imaginings of the secret lives of diner condiments (“Scenes From a Table”) and stylish insects (“Insect Fashion”), inventories of funny hats (“Hats”), obstructed faces on the subway (“Subway”) and ice (“Ice”).
—Interviews & Profiles. Robert Newman profiles Drew Friedman.
Years ago it could be a little nerve-racking if the phone wasn’t ringing with work as much as I’d like, but now I basically decide what I want to create. I make my own hours and for the most part decide what I want to work on. The solitude isn’t a problem because my MacBook is right by me at the desk, so I’m never really alone for too long—I’m always connected with my fellow travelers, that is, if I wanna be.
The New York Times interviews Zunar.
I’m facing so many laws three laws have been used against me so far. But one thing I keep in my mind — one very, very important thing — is that the biggest enemy for anyone in the world is self-censorship. For me, talent is not a gift but a responsibility. People ask, do I have fear? Yes, I have fear, I’m human. But responsibility is bigger than fear. So I don’t want to really think what the government will do next to me. I just concentrate on what I’m supposed to do. That can help me continue and draw more cartoons. If I start to think about law, I start to think about prison, I start to think about government action, I will definitely start to practice self-censorship — and this is no good. So I will draw as usual.
The most recent guest of the Process Party podcast is Rina Ayuyang.
—Misc. 2dcloud has launched a Kickstarter to fund their fall 2016 lineup, including new books from Sab Meynert, Tommi Parrish, and Jake Terrell.
We've been using Kickstarter as a mechanism for pre-orders and curated book bundles since 2010. This is our 8th Kickstarter. It's been a powerful tool allowing for discovery, discussion and distribution.
Our Kickstarters are simply put, how we keep the lights on for our company. Think of them as NPR style fundraisers operating as a way to sell small curated book bundles.
This is the final week of the Kickstarter to fund a new documentary about the aforementioned Drew Friedman.
For years, artist Drew Friedman has chronicled a strange, alternate universe populated by forgotten Hollywood stars, old Jewish comedians and liver-spotted elevator operators.
Vermeer of the Borscht Belt is an in-depth documentary tracing Friedman's evolution from underground comics to the cover of the New Yorker.
Friedman grew up in the New York literary scene of his father, writer Bruce Jay Friedman, but he was more at home with the Three Stooges, Car 54 and MAD magazine. Vermeer of the Borscht Belt traces fifty years of American popular culture through the unique lens of Drew Friedman.
