I'm sort of back from a sort-of vacation. A vacation from this site, at least. So I welcome myself back with Eddie Campbell, here today reviewing Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life.
The title I take to be a no-confidence vote in the concept of tomorrow, which might be ironic since the style is forever finding hope and a passing joy in details such as the way the author observes to her own healthy fleshiness. The back cover blurb helpfully leads us to believe it is a ‘coming of age novel.’ While this cannot be said to be untrue, the term always leaves me with the feeling that I just witnessed some ‘potted thinking.’ It implies a coming to terms with the expectations of the adult world. The whole project, again, is at odds with this. There’s a feeling that the protagonist would as soon set it, the conventional world, on fire, though the author may be more accommodating. There is a rejection of the organization of the world, from organized faith to organized crime. It is about the pursuit of nihilism as a route to integrity. Ulli Lust has the intelligence to look at her life and make a book of it.
Elsewhere:
Tim certainly has been thorough in my absence, and even attempted a mean-spirited rant. He's just too good a person.
Here's Rob Clough with an excellent analysis of New School, probably my vote for most-ambitious and rewarding comic of the year so far.
So I have a few things here... It's our friend Abhay on writing about (or, rather, not writing about) the art in superhero comics.
Dean Haspiel pens a tribute to Howard Chaykin.
The VQR on non-fiction comics.
I liked Simon Reynolds' book Retromania. Here's an application of it to geek culture.
