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Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

Suttree by Cormac McCrathy, 1979. Rating: 9.25 out of 10.

Critics have compared it to Cannery Row and Huckleberry Fin. Which is valid.

Suttree is set in the slums lining Tennessee’s main river during the 1950’s. Prevailing themes are of loneliness and endurance against unforeseeable negativity, much like Cannery Row. But it is darker and far more graphic than the predecessors. The main character buries his only son and then nearly dies of BLEEDING ASS typhoid.  

And yet it is light hearted and hilarious. The most memorable side-character is Horragate, the “country mouse” turned “city rat”. He’s 18 and takes his first shower ever in jail after being caught fucking a farmer’s watermelons. When the city offers to pay one dollar for each dead bat found during a rabies scare, Horragate tries to cash-in using a sling shot, poisoned meat, and a raft devised out of two automobile hoods.

At times the style is way over done, to a point that could drive away any determined reader. Thankfully this all too ambitious language is balanced by perfectly down to earth prose that leaves behind barely decipherable passages describing light and shapes.

At nearly 500 pages, Suttree is an ultimate example of Anti-Climax.

The novel avoids setting the stage by stringing together numerous medium-length stories. Together they have a fleeting linear course based on lose connections among significant holes in narration; while keeping each tale a formidable strength of it’s own, the theme of courage against all odds prevails. McCarthy sculpts a fine mini-climax at least every 50 pages, and he keeps you laughing in between all of them. 

I wholeheartedly disagree with the popular notion  that this is the saddest of McCarthey’s novels. While it certainly isn’t cheery, the only thing keeping this from being so depressing is the fact that Suttree’s past is never fully explained; because there is no detailed events given for the reader to connect the dots, all one has to go on is that Suttree is living meagerly in the slums rather than with his wife or family.

One of Suttree’s most redeeming qualities is the dialogue. McCarthy is expert #1 on the conversations of»> Blind men, thieves, beggars, misfits, workers, whores, children, all young/old and even ageless, wonderfully depicted in their efforts to stay afloat in the slums of an American city. 

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random strip: Bill Cosby spoof (Cracked Magazine)

The story is intended to be episode #1 of Bill Clodsby's brand new show. The strip's intro features Bill educating us on his doings since cancelation of the classic 80's sitcom which brought him a level of fame that's enabled his slew of lucrative product endorsements. Such profitable conduct is why Clodsby's new character is named  "Holiday-Inn Mucous" (because the networks wouldn't allow Bill's original suggestion, "Holiday-Inn Jello-Pudding"). 

       Following this cursory set up, Bill is seen being interviewed for an organ-transplant delivery job. His first assignment is to transport a dying patient's new heart, but Clodsby fouls up immediately by reciting for his boss a  45-minute story which is cut "short" by a phone call declaring that the patient has died.

      Somehow Bill is given a second chance that he of course fails at due to his inevitable slow pace and proneness to story telling. Except this time it is a liver which he complacently decides fry up for dinner. 

        Bill is arrested and sent to jail half way through his spontaneous meal. Upon arrival, he dives into a 5 hours story that causes his bunk-mate to die of boredom and with that, the warden sees a money saving opportunity. The strip ends with Clodsby as the jail's latest cost-effective method of execution. 

        A friend lent me this coverless copy of Cracked Magazine. Its not at all my cup of tea; the humor is fairly tasteless and quite like Family Guy's constant dependence on obscure and desperate pop-culture references (proving to be my only way of estimating the time period >> mid-to-late 90's);;;although it has one or two straight forward narratives, the style often has a short attention span >> large illustrations where the margins are half hazardly crammed with jokes. However, hidden deep within is a true GEM entitled "Clodsby" : A searing on parody Bill Cosby. I laughed myself to tears initially. Some of the charm waned for me upon a second review. However, this perverse insult to the comedian's Alzheimers is well-written enough that I do consider it worth sharing. 

*****Based on this one strip, I have a shred of faith left in Cracked. If by any slim chance you're able to say what year or decade was the magazine's prime, I'd be very grateful for the recommendation. 

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Triangle&Rhino /split with/ Bert

Junebug Bong Compass. C-16. 2011. Madlantis Records.  Both sides throw their own brand of rowdy and the two balance out superbly between T&R's intricate  percussion+electronics , v.s. Bert's organic crop of slow pounding bass buzz. 

Listen @ bert.bandcamp.com. 

You said we we're seeing an Earth concert. This is more like some skanky rave.

T&R --- opens with about 2 scorching minutes of horns battling against sirens and whistles. Matt finally breaks the tension with his (always) incredible drumming,  swarming into the mix by propping up a crooning key board. A damsel in distress awakes from a drug-addled stupor. The swirling key's stretch out this creepy texture before morphing into a smooth, low drone. Such jazzy, hip-as-shit drum work is cut up and accented by a series of swift oscillations; they rise, glide, fall and return along side Matt's periodic cymbal slam to remind you >> nap time isn't here yet....An intermission of cymbals and tones usher in one last crawling, waltzy swagger, strutting sleepily through a haze of squeezing weezing synthetic wails, creating what becomes a semi-relaxed closer.

Bert's first of two is an all out earth quake::: A Real heavy hitting, deliberately simple drum&bass assault that oozes and undulates, taking its sweet time to support desperate yelling vocals. This drawling buzz for the first minutes, lots of cymbal and no guitar-lick required for the purely atmospheric wall with short-lived peepholes where a pounded snare-drum grounds us again for the holiest blare. Then, GREAT SCOTT!, the catchiest instrumental, a calming aftermath from the previous tornado. "New?", the closer, could pass for a long lost Tar b-side. She starts alone with a clean bass line, Bert's heavy buzz rolls in over a driving beat. After maybe 3   break downs and build ups, they go back to chugging one last time, except they shut it down with a key board cherry on top of this boiling, creamy center. 

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Matter Summer Special by Philip Barret

2006, Sparkplug Comics

Matter Summer Special is by far the most visually dynamic comic I own. Measuring at 3 by 4 inches, the borders of each page serve as a panel and drawn within each is what other artists would naturally separate into multiple shots.

Having more than one scene overlapping each other gives Matter Summer Special a real sense of movement. Somehow the artist manages to keep both the speech and the sequence of events from clouding up the individual pages. 

On top of this unique visual style of story telling, the plot is hilarious, although difficult to summarize. I'll do my best.

Two pot loving buddies, Bruce and Mate(?), are in mid-joint when they start to talk about the police infiltrating the 1960's hippy movement.  

When the guys run out of pot and money, they sign up to be test subjects in a synthetic pot trial. They can't seem to catch a buzz on the fake dope until Bruce smokes a joint so big that it sends him into a  different dimension. Having smoked all their "pot", he realizes that the only way to save Bruce is to utilize a flaky skin condition to roll a joint out of his Hand-Dandriff in hopes that theres enough of the stuff embedded in it. 

Its such an odd and lucid plot that I really can't do it much justice. 

Clocking in at about 60 pocket-sized pages, Matters Special is a must have for anyone in search of something fun and  different. 

ps - one or both of the friends are Australian, which makes it all the more entertaining to read their bantering. 

www.sparkplugcommics.com

www.blackshapes.com for more from Philip

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I Want You #2 by Lisa Hanawalt

Rating 8 out of 10 Hanawalt's humor is low brow, and although she's clearly developed her own idea of whats "funny", its pretty unintelligent and strives to be shocking without much reason other than for the sake of being shocking.  However, she conveys her sub-par ideas rather uniquely. More on humor and narrative below.

Lisa displays two distinctly different styles of not only illustration but also narration. Art-wise, half the pages are utterly dazzling, precisely drawn and heavily detailed when it comes to hair/fur and patterns on clothing or hardwood floors, and also atmospheric backgrounds. Despite how much I hate seeing animal heads on human bodies (in fact, when I think of annoying art, this is one the first cliche's that come to mind), Lisa's touch is seriously impressive, even if her humor and imagination is limited. 

Because these are strictly based on  black and white line work, it can be difficult to read but is jaw dropping for the most part. 

I assume that her other style is water color, maybe colored pencil, or perhaps gouche?

Here is an average display of Lisa riffing on an idea. I Want You #2 is comprised mostly of short lived topics that she expands upon for just a page or two at a time. In these cases, an idea will be written at the top, such as "bad pets" or "bad sandwhichs", followed by a series of lewd drawings combined with captions, and each pair serves as a punch line. In the above example, I'd laugh my ass off if it were simply an entire spread of different dog-breeds with middle fingers at the snout. 

Very few, but some of the jokes are realistic and based on socially awkward realities;

(one nicely done, anxiety-ridden story is "How To Get a Hair Cut", with the notable moment of a girl getting her hair washed and fearing that the hair dresser might break her neck)

All in all:::: Its good craft with okay writing. 

The unconventional use of text seriously resonates with me. 

If anything, Lisa Hanawalt is thinking outside of the box but she doesn't quite realize it yet. Published by Pigeon Press, 2010. www.LisaHanawalt.com

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Aviatrix #1 by Eric Haven

Aviatrix is comprised of about 5 mini-stories revolving around two central characters. 

The less complicated of these two appears to be your  average token middle-aged, balding, slightly out of shape white guy. 

The other character is an action-packed, super hero aviator woman. 

In the final story she saves the guy from a......giant dripping demon monster thing? 

But before that, the fat white guy has a slew of hilarious little tales. 

First, he gets diarrhea while on a date at this girl's apartment. The twist here is that the woman is about 4 inches tall and she nearly dies from the fumes pouring out of her bathroom. 

His next story is a 4 page saga appropriately titled "Its okay, I'm wearing a tie!", in which the only dialogue is the man shouting the title over and over while doing insane things. 

First, he's speeding through traffic, and when pulled over by a cop he fights him and manages to kick the gun from the cop's hand, all while yelling "Its okay! I'm wearing a tie!"

In the finale he crashes into the river and is eaten by a shark. 

An amazing debut from Eric Haven. Published by "buenaventura press" in 2009. 

Great illustration, varied panel sizes but still very well written and easy to read, fabulous two-page spreads. 

I love it and hope that theres more out there and more still to come. 

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Lincoln Washington: Free Man by Benjamin Marra.

Rating 10 out of 10. 

This comic is crazy right from the get-go; On the cover we see a muscular, angry black man gripping a broken noose and he's surrounded by hooded KKK members.

And his name is Lincoln Washington!

In the store I saw this cover, skimmed through the pages really quick and was sold. 

When I got home and read it, my expectations were surpassed. 

The story is elegant and simple but with some very gory fight scenes; 

shortly after abolition, enslaved muscle-man Lincoln Washington escapes and brutally kills his former master. 

From there, a busty white women appears at his door step, complaining about her abusive husband, wanting the black man to make sweet love to her. Lincoln sends her away. Out of resentment for being turned down by an ex-slave, the woman smashes her own face with a rock and tells the towns people that she's been raped. 

Even a hoard of pissed off, pick-axe swinging red necks aren't enough to take down Lincoln Washington: Free Man. 

The illustration is fabulous, the panels are all equal in size which makes it easy on the eye, it reads smoothly, has just the right amount of gore and humor, great twists and turns to the story. 

This appears to be issue number one and I can't find a release date anywhere, so I'm really looking forward to researching further works by this Benjamin Marra.

((((published by "traditional comics"))))))

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Tobacco Road by Erskin Caldwell, 1932

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Incinerator by Michael Deforge

Rating 9 out of 10. This one is really weird. The main character, Slater, begins with no arms, that tiny bald head, long legs, and the torso of a "beagle" (obviously shaped liked Snoopy).

By the third page, Slater is mugged and laying face down in a gutter before being rushed to the hospital. He awakes to find that his torso didn't survive, and now his little head sits directly atop his thin pelvis. Depressed from the loss, Slater's therapist sends him to a support group which turns out to be attended entirely by his family, minus the mother. See, Slater's mother was a dog, and the family suffered a series of break-in's after removing the "beware of dog sign", and they began the support group out of trauma from their home's new vulnerability. Slater's confidence returns and then sky-rockets when he gets new arms implanted below his tiny head. He gets a girlfriend and everything is looking up. I would rate it a 10 but the third-to-last panel, which I wont bother describing,  is so confusing and out of place that it nearly spoils the entire experience. Otherwise, a fabulously strange comic. 5.5 by 8.5 inches. About 20 pages. Published by Secret Headquarters www.SecretHeadQuarters.com www.KingTrash.com