Did I say I was going to read 60s Marvels for the rest of the week? Why do you even listen to me anymore?
How about weird British undergrounds instead?
I picked this comic up around the same time I bought my Heavy Metal collection, just before moving to Calgary. It's an infuriating comic. Not for any particular content-related reasons (though David Noon's strips in the comic are mildly racist - not uncommon for an underground, and ironically presented - Edit, Jan 2018 - Not that this is accusing Mr. Noon, who left a really nice comment, of being racist - more that the ways we talked about different ethnicities has changed significantly in the last 40 years.), but because of its size. It's just a bit too big to fit into a magazine box nicely, so it currently resides on my bookshelf with all of the oversize books I have. I know, I know. And you think you've got problems.
The content of the comic is pretty much what you might expect from an underground, though it's more reminiscent of the American stuff from earlier in the decade than the contemporaneous stuff that people like Art Spiegelman were putting out at the time. The strips in this comic are like glimpses into someone's dreams, or like those mornings where someone tries to explain a dream to you, and it makes no sense of course because it's a dream, but there is somehow an internal consistency to the "story," if we can call it that. More specifically, there's a Hunt Emerson story in here called "Jacket" that looks like it leapt from the pages of Krazy Kat, which really is quite wonderful, and then the buxom lady on the cover up there shows up in occasional panels to offer a surreal commentary on the action of the strips. There's a chilling, and I do mean chilling, story of self-loathing and body anguish by Pamela Reeves, the sole text piece in the comic.
I'm making no promises as to what's coming tomorrow. It's so much more fun that way. Onward!
3 comments:
I've been accused of being sexist ( in those days everybody was - those were different times )
but I've never been remotely racist. Interesting comment re. dreams , I've never thought of
my comix work like that but there is probably some truth in it. You should try Moon Comix 3-
by far the best in the series (still a difficult size though !). Best, David Noon
Thanks for the comment, Mr. Noon. My apologies for the racism mention, and I've amended the post above. I think, like you note for sexist behaviour, the ways we can and do talk about different ethnicities/genders/whatever has shifted significantly in the last 40 years. While I'm always interested in how a comic is talking to me now, it's also always interesting to see how they were talking to their readers in their own time as well.
Thanks for the amendment Tom. Lots of British comix were a difficult size. Why? Beats me....
David
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