The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1702 - 1707: Catching Up

One of the things I've been talking with my therapist about with regard to my ADHD is, of course, tools to help one muddle through with this kind of mind. One thing that works for me, though I rail against it, is a schedule. I once joked to my wife that I had driven myself crazy by loving chaos but actually requiring structure.

This blog was one such, and I think it's important for me to make it so again. So, a catch-up, and then I'll start blogging again.

This week's theme was "Brown." I typed it into my database, and these were some of the comics that it suggested.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 81 - Incredible Change-Bots, July 2007

When I read Jeffrey Brown's work, I'm very often overcome with a feeling of identification. I don't know the details of his life, or how much of it he puts into his work, but I get the sense that he thinks, and more importantly feels, very similarly to how I do.

This book is a beautiful, zany, sort-of-critical-but-sort-of-not love letter to the original Transformers comics and cartoons (with a healthy dose of the Go-Bots thrown in), two series I grew up on. Brown's tale of the Change-Bots so neatly mirrors the original run of Marvel's Transformers that I think it would be virtually impossible to really appreciate this story without having read, at the very least, the original 4-part mini-series. We're treated to silly amounts of expository dialogue, waffling from characters about the sides they've chosen, and sublimely ridiculous relationships between giant, war-mongering robots and the unlucky humans who encounter them. In Marvel's series, this is played to an audience of children as little more than an advertisement (at least for the first little while), but Brown's commentary on the series is definitely looking at the kids who grew up on this stuff.

Which means that, while there's definitely love there, there's also a bit of criticism of how those original stories were handled. Brown wants us to know that those originals, with which we grew up, were written in such a way that we would never question the morality, the ambiguity, and the danger of a giant robot invasion of the planet. The rebooted Transformers from Dreamwave in 2002 did much the same thing, but with far less humour than Brown. I love toy-based comics from the 80s, though there's a part of me that wonders if I was programmed to like them because they were based on toys I craved as a child. I still search for Starriors, and am deeply affectionate for the 4-issue series from Marvel in the 80s. But from my adult (?) perspective, I have to question whether or not the stories are actually good, or if I'm suffering from the perspective of nostalgia and unfulfilled childhood want.

Wow. That was a bit deeper than I thought this would get.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1306: The Man Who Loved Breasts, 2008

I absolutely loved this comic. Three excellent short stories, suitably strange. They remind me of the sort of thing one might read in McSweeney's. I have a thing I do where, once I've known someone long enough, I can find the perfect comic for them. My greatest triumph was getting my Dad, notoriously anti-comic, to read From Hell. This comic would suit my good friend Rod down to the ground. I'm hoping I'll be able to find another copy.

I had a quick search on Robert Goodin, the party responsible for today's comic. He's got some other cool work you can see here, though the site doesn't look like it's seen an update in recent years.

The lead story in today's issue is a lovely little tale of a man who loves breasts. All breasts. And in his quest to find a job that has to do with what he loves, he becomes a custom bra designer. There's some genuinely affectionate moments between our protagonist and his clients, in which he tells them that although he will make a bra to help them achieve whatever look they'd like, they are perfect just the way they are. Given where a story like this could go, it's actually quite wholesome, almost like the old 50s nudist films (have a look for Nude on the Moon). And there's a lovely ending that I did not see coming. The second story, about a man with particular sexual proclivities trying to ask for an appropriate magazine at a sperm donation center, is hilarious.

Honestly, if you see a copy of this comic, I'd recommend getting it. It's funny and thoughtful, and well worth the investment of time and money.

More to come...