#chris oliveros

[riylcast]

Episode 625: Chris Oliveros

In 1989, a 23-year-old Chris Oliveros founded a quarterly publication that grew into one of the world’s most respect independent comics publishers.

In 2015, he left the company after 25 years, in order to focus on his own work.

Oliveros released The Envelope Manufacturer the following year, chronicling the titular character’s financial and mental struggles in a changing world.

Earlier this year, D&Q released Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, which delves into a fascinating an oft-overlooked chapter of Quebec history. Transcript available here.

[graphicpolicy]

Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? Revolution in 1960s Quebec is interesting Canadian history

Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? Revolution in 1960s Quebec is interesting Canadian history #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel

It started in 1963, when a dozen mailboxes in a wealthy Montreal neighborhood were blown to bits by handmade bombs. By the following year, a guerrilla army camp was set up deep in the woods, with would-be soldiers training for armed revolt. Then, in 1966, two high-school students dropped off bombs at factories, causing fatalities. What was behind these concerted, often bungled acts of terrorism,…

[tvshowscouples]

If you love Declan&Lori (Kyle XY) and you want reblog or like,this is the link of my reblog couples :)

thank you!

[burins]

I wrote up half of my Eisners roundup back in May and then my arm crapped out profoundly. But here is the rest of my thoughts about all the comics and graphic novels I read this year, of which there were many! As usual particular faves are bolded.

JAN

Delicious in Dungeon v6-12

FEB

MAR

The Chromatic Fantasy - HA

I think that if you are following me you will probably like this book. Great stuff on gender and sex and religion in a deeply fun art style. (Best I can describe it is the really trippy bits of Alice in Wonderland.)

Gleem - Freddy Carasco

Fluid, delightful linework.

APR

A Guest in the House - E M Carroll

E M Carroll has been doing some of the best horror comics in the business for about a decade and this continues the streak. Twisty, turny psychological horror

MAY

Where I’m Coming From - Barbara Brandon-Croft

Collection of Brandon-Croft’s wonderful 90s newspaper strips about Black womanhood. 

Roaming - Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Love letter to being messy and gay and young in the city.

Local Man v1-2 - Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs

This is a fun little deconstruction of comics tropes. Inga, the love interest slash female lead, is the best part of the comic.

Danger and Other Unknown Risks - Ryan North and Erica Henderson

Great story, great characters, great art. What if you were in charge of preventing the second end of the world, and also your mentor figure was SO dubious, and also you had the world’s biggest, cutest dog?

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam - Thien Pham

First of a number of immigration memoirs nominated for the Eisners. The storytelling here is excellent; the art wasn’t my personal favorite.

In Limbo - Deb JJ Lee

I always have such a hard time judging memoir comics, but I think this walks a good line between gesturing at and directly portraying its fairly heavy subject matter, and the art is stunning.

Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century - Adrian Matekja and Youssef Daoudi

Probably my favorite thing I read in this batch. Lyrical, poetic art that plays with paneling and pagination to incredible effect. Does not shy away from the everyday brutality of either boxing, racism, or Johnson’s personal life. 

Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali - Marc Bernardin

I read this right after Last on His Feet and boy did it suffer for it. Unfortunately, this is just an entirely forgettable bio of Muhammad Ali. 

Sunshine - Jarrett J. Krosoczka

I wish I liked Krosoczka’s art. This did make me cry but it’s a memoir about working at a camp for kids with cancer, so it would be pretty hard for it NOT to.

Blackward - Lawrence Lindell

This would have been a perfectly serviceable 2010s-era webcomic. Not everything needs to be a book!

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics

Graphic anthologies are deeply hit or miss for me but this one was extremely solid!

Frontera - Jaco -  Salcedo and Julio Anta

Excellent story about the violence of the border, deeply undercut (for me) by a very jarring ghost subplot. 

A First Time for Everything - Dan Santat

Sweet little story about a class trip abroad with glowing art. 

Shubeik Lubeik - Deena Mohamed

I'm so bummed I couldn't hear Mohamed speak at MICE because I LOVED this. Uses genies as a vehicle to explore the fault lines of class and politics in Egyptian society. 

A Boy Named Rose - Gaëlle Geniller

Lovely art but this was entirely nothing. Remember Teahouse? This is that but sfw and also without any narrative tension. 

Comics for Ukraine

Almost universally bad, with the exception of "Talking to a Hill."  I think sometimes the medium of superhero comics is not the one with which to tackle every issue, 

Parasocial -  Erica Henderson and Alex de Campi

Tense paneling, solid art, I didn't care for the ending of the story. 

Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? - Chris Oliveros

This relies almost entirely in first person accounts, which I like as a device for exploring who gets to claim historicity, but it means that the actual narrative is kind of incoherent. 

The Great Beyond - Léa Murawiec

My other favorite from this batch! This is a story about celebrity and fame and being remembered, but the art is some of the most fluid and expressive stuff I've seen in years and the creativity of the conceit keeps it from ever feeling run of the mill. 

Memento Mori - Tiitu Takalo

I am pretty down on illness memoirs, but I liked this more than I thought I would. 

Swan Songs - W. Maxwell Prince et al

This collection of stories about endings was going to be a winner for me and then the final comic was SO bad it soured the whole experience for me. 

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story - Sarah Myer

This (like a lot of the comics in the teen category) did make me cry! The art is a little too scratchy for me at times- it's intentional, but not always deployed to best advantage. 

Phantom Road v1 - Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernández Walta

Is this basically Alice Isn't Dead with a guy as the driver? Well, yes, but it is good. Lemire always nails creeping dread and Hernández Walta's art is ominously flat in an excellent way. 

Black Cloak v1 - Kelly Thompson and Meredith McLaren

Compelling story undercut by webtoony art that's way too cute for the fantasy noir vibe of the narrative. 

My Girlfriend's Child v1 - Mamoru Aoi

It's always kind of wild to me to see a completely bog standard teenage pregnancy narrative get nominations like this and then I remember that most people making these nominations do not like, know a lot of people who were pregnant as teens. 

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons - Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda

This is simply not very good art or story. 

The Cull v1 - Kelly Thompson and Mattia de Iulis

The story here is really intriguing! I wish we had a little more time to get to know the characters before getting thrown into Plot but it's real solid. I don't always love this hyper realistic 3D rendering but it works for the story. 

The Summer Hikaru Died v1 - Mokumokuren

I could wish that the translator hadn't rendered all of the dialogue as weirdly southern but this is a really good gay rural horror. Came back wrong simply hits! 

Mabuhay! - Zachary Sterling

Cute! Didn't really slam me but I would have had a lot of fun with this as a kid. 

Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir - Pedro Martín

This was both lovely and deeply felt and also laugh out loud funny. 

Saving Sunshine - Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan

Extremely sweet sibling story. 

Fire Power v1-4 - Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee

The Good Asian v1-2 - Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi

Eden II - Kenny Wroten

This has great moments and is also deeply irony poisoned. I would love to read a weird queer comic by someone who was not Online. Also I could not tell any of the characters apart, because they were all thin white-presenting people from fake Seattle. ALSO the speech bubbles were so clearly added in after the fact that it was often difficult to tell who was saying what. I'm not a purist about speech bubble rules or anything but I gotta be able to tell what order to read your dialogue!

Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy - Bill Griffith

The frame narrative is solid, but the best part of this was just the actual Nancy comics included within.

The Horizon v1 - JH

This is just apocalypse torture porn tbh. 

Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood - Sam Machado

Here's the thing. I think there are compelling arguments for animal rights. I would also like to see us put that same kind of energy towards ensuring full rights for people first. Also the art and writing here are simply not very good.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons - Kelly Sue deConnick, Phil Jiminez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott

I wasn't sure I would love this because of my noted Picky Feelings about feminist Greek myths but I liked it more than I thought! The art is phenomenal.

Superman (2023) v1 - Joshua Williamson 

The annual is what was nominated, but the single issues are the actual stars of this trade. Williamson does a really solid job of situating Clark in community.

Wonder Woman (2023) v1 - Tom King

I find the story pretty grating (why does Diana need to be fighting the entire US government?)

Poison Ivy (2022) v1 - G Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara

YAY we love an ecoterrorist getting her due. Takara's art leans full Annihilation. 

My Picture Diary - Maki Fujiwara

This suffered in comparison to last year's alt-manga diary comics from a similar era, Talk to My Back, which was one of my favorite books of the year. Fujiwara's art is very stolid and pretty simplistic and while it works for the subject matter it wasn't my favorite.

River’s Edge - Kyoko Okazaki

This is SO messed up! We are right in the violence and emotional mess of teenagerhood. 

The Yakuza’s Bias v1 - Teki Yatsuda

This gets a little one note by the end of the collection but yakuza falls right into Kpop stan culture is such a funny premise that I didn't mind.

How to Love: A Guide to Feelings and Relationships for Everyone - Alex Norris

This is much cuter and more charming than I thought it'd be.

The Talk - Darrin Bell

Bell is best known for his political cartoons and this brings the same kind of incisive political wit to a longform piece while adding a great deal of empathy.

Transformers (2023) v1 - Daniel Warren Johnson

I am so sorry to DWJ who did his very very absolute best to make me care about Transformers. The art and writing are great I just don't go here. 

Kill Your Darlings - Ethan Parker and Griffin Sheridan

Pretty mid dark fairytale.

PeePee PooPoo - Caroline Cash

Diversity win this lesbian alt comic is just as annoying as the straight ones!

Superman: Lost - Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan

Ugh. Superman: Lost was one of my favorite takes on Superman and Lois last year and I still think the first like… five issues are phenomenal. As soon as we get the weird infidelity/assault/pregnancy narrative I was out. 

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees - Patrick Horvath

I simply hate cutesy animal horror. 

The Devil’s Cut, edited by Will Dennis

I know I read this but I have no memory of it. My notes say I liked it, and I'm generally in support of DSTLRY and creator-owned comics as a concept.

Marvel Age #1000, edited by Tom Brevoort

Deeply masturbatory.

JUN

Deep Cuts - Kyle Higgins et al

I liked this so much it was my end of the year staff pick! It's hard to do comics that really capture the collaborative and improvisational feeling of a good jazz session but this anthology absolutely does.

Somna: A Bedtime Story - Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay

Tula Lotay's art is absolutely gorgeous but I was kind of bored by "what if a Puritan housewife was fucking the devil." 

Watership Down: The Graphic Novel - James Sturm

I think these rabbits are too cute to really capture the horror of Watership Down.

Delicates - Brenna Thummler

It's really difficult to tell a story about a kid who is bullying someone else and have it land sympathetically for both parties and Thummler manages it with an uncommon emotional depth.

Buzzing - Samuel Sattin and Rye Hickman

OOF this hit me right in the psych kid feelings. Very sweet and really captured the feeling of the complicated family dynamics that surround kids with mental illness.

#DRCL midnight children v1 - Shin’ichi Sakamoto

Insane choice to make Lucy Westenras a bishie.

Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise - Tradd Moore

Did not think I would ever be rooting for a Doctor Strange comic but this is the kind of psychedelic universe bending art I would love to see more of from his whole character premise!

Bea Wolf - Zach Weinersmith

Absolutely delightful adaptation of Beowulf for children. Weinersmith really captures the feeling of the old English language in a story about a bunch of little kids defending their treehouse.

HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth - Gou Tanabe

I don't feel qualified to examine the choice by a Japanese artist to adapt a story about Lovecraft's fear of Chinese and Pacific Islander genes entering Massachusetts. I haven't read much actual Lovecraft but did we all know it was that racist? I mean, I knew he was racist but my god.

The Monkey King v2 - Chaiko Tsai

EXCELLENT adaptation of Journey into the West! I couldn't get v1 in time for voting but the art and the pacing here are just so much fun.

It’s Jeff! - Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru

This is extremely cute but it is ultimately just a cute animal comic.

Earthdivers v1 - Stephen Graham Jones and Davide Gianfelice

I hope you don't need me to tell you Earthdivers is good. It's good.

Birds of Prey (2023) v1 - Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero

I was so dubious about this one that I ended my yuri zine piece talking about it. And then it was in fact really really good. The team dynamics are excellent here and the art is perfectly suited to it (except for one issue with a guest penciller where the art is execrable.)

Shazam! (2023) v1 - Mark Waid and Dan Mora

Waid and Mora are sort of the DC powerhouse couple at the moment and I know that at any minute Mora is gonna switch to only doing covers, which will make me very sad. This was way more fun than I expected to have with a Shazam comic but the kids here are delightful without being cutesy and Waid does a great job balancing Billy being a real character and also a believable hero.

Four Gathered on Christmas Eve - Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Becky Cloonan, and James Harren

Becky Cloonan's was the story that was nominated in this but unfortunately I didn't really care for it. 

Spa - Erik Svetoft

This was hard for me to read because it is just body horror from start to finish. I think it runs a little long but as far as the horrors of capitalism and the tourism industry go it doesn't get much better than this.

JULY

The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists

Really, really good cartooning and storytelling. Vermont is not really what you think of as the front lines of immigration but it's a farming community!

Green Arrow (1988) v1-9 by Mike Grell and others

Honestly the highlight of these for me is that the scans on (website redacted) maintain the letters pages! Grell's Green Arrow tackles a lot of capital I issues with mixed results but I do enjoy seeing the attempt. And it comes off a lot better than Batman comics of a similar vintage that attempt the same thing.

Robin (2021) v1-3 - Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, and Roger Cruz

Honestly? Delightful. I love to see Damian come into himself and I love to see his cute little romance and I love to see him reading shoujo manga.

AUG

Are You Listening? - Tillie Walden

Tillie Walden always hits!

Hunter x Hunter v 1-13 - Yoshihiro Togashi

Sometimes you read 38 volumes of manga in two months after watching 130 episodes of the show and listening to hundreds of hours of podcast about it. And that's just what HxH does to you. It's normal, and fine.

The Yakuza’s Bias v2 - Teki Yatsuda

The bones of the premise are starting to show - I think this really would have been better as a single volume. Still very charming but probably not gonna pick up any third volume.

The Boy Wonder (as it came out) - Juni Ba 

BOY WONDER COMIC OF ALL TIME! Wonderful take on Damian wonderful art wonderful Al Ghuls.

SEPT

The Summer Hikaru Died v2 - Mokumokuren

Hunter x Hunter v13-38 - Yoshihiro Togashi

OCT

The Concierge At Hokkyoku Department Store, v1 - Tsuchika Nishimura

What if working retail was not a horror show but was instead deeply fulfilling for everyone involved? This can only happen in a world where the customers are animals. 

NOV

Iris: A Novel for Viewers - Lo Hartog van Banda and Thé Tjong-Khing

The gender of this is kind of crazy (derogatory) and it could not more clearly be from the 60s. I don't think I'd recommend it but I don't regret reading it as like, a historical document.

Space Mullet - Daniel Warren Johnson

DWJ really doesn't miss. This is a very classic grungy space noir in the vein of a Cowboy Bebop or an Expanse but I liked it quite a bit despite being made to feel sympathetic for a space Marine. 

DEC

Nightwing (1996) v1-3 - Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel

Flush! Those! Blood pressure! Meds! Is Nightwing 96 a good comic? Who can say. Babs is there and Dick Grayson is experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion deep in his #failgirl 20s so I'm having a great time. 

[valleygirlintelligentsia]

5, 9, 25

What genre did you read the most of?

Most broadly, literary fiction. More specifically, experimental and influential books by and about trans people.

Did you get into any new genres?

I read three graphic novels (Ducks by Kate Beaton, Welcome to St. Hell by Lewis Hancox, and Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? by Chris Oliveros), and each time I read one I remembered I don't really read graphic novels because I don't like them.

What reading goals do you have for next year?

I want to read more, and get through some of the books I've been wanting to read forever.

[vexinglyvague]

I once again forgot to do my annual best of the year list until after the new year. It’s like an annual tradition at this point. Okay, round up time/ my personal best of 2024 list:

Best book of 2024: Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?: Revolution in 1960s Quebec by Chris Oliveros (technically a late 2023 release, but it didn’t get to read it until 2024) (honorable mention: Park Bench by Christophe Chabouté, a 2017 release I was lucky to read this year)

Best recipe of 2024: Dougdoesdelicous’s 80/20 Chinese steamed fish (honorable mention: same creator’s rice cooker Hainanese chicken recipe)

Best serious skit/web series of 2024: The Sandwich Family (series at 40 parts as of posting) by Caroline Easom on TikTok, addressing the issues of family influencers and the impact on children raised in influencer households

Best comedic skit/web series of 2024: Laundering by Erika J. Algard on TikTok (about a fictional laundress in medieval England. Technically started in 2023, but really took off in 2024. 64 parts as of posting)

Best continuing web skit/series of 2024: Hell’s Belles by Sea.Ya.Later on TikTok (581 parts still available on TikTok as of posting). A breakout hit from 2021 which has only continued to grow. The first book in the series (the prequel to the web series), For Whom the Belle Tolls, was published digitally on December 30, 2024 and is near the top of my to be read list for 2025

Best song of 2024: Dangerous by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, TROY, and the cast of Epic the Musical (honorable mentions: Two Minutes Notice by Sam Haft & Andrew Underberg, performed by Alex Brightman for Helluva Boss; Loser Baby by Sam Haft & Andrew Underberg, performed by Keith David and Blake Roman)

Best album of 2024: Epic: The Ithaca Saga (Official Concept Album) by Jorge Rivera-Herrans and the cast of Epic the Musical (honorable mention: the Hazbin Hotel original soundtrack with music by Sam Haft, Andrew Underberg, and various artists)

Best Console Game of 2024: Little Kitty Big City by Double Dagger Studio on the Xbox Series X (honorable mention: the entire Hidden Cats series by NukeArts. It’s so soothing)

Best Mobile Game of 2024: Solo Leveling: Arise by Net Marble (honorable mention: Balatro by LocalThunk)

Best show of 2024: Hazbin Hotel (honorable mention: Delicious in the Dungeon)

Best movie of 2024: Deadpool & Wolverine (honorable mention: The Wild Robot)

Best app of 2024: A Kinder World by Lumi Publications Pty Ltd

[deplumesetderaisons]

Défi lecture 2024, 100 livres en une année

1. Le vent parle encore, Michel Jean

2. Qimmik, Michel Jean

3. La nature exposée, Erri de Luca

4. La Main cachée, Jean Royer (r��cit)

5. Mourir pour la cause, Chris Oliveros (BD)

6. Dédé, Christian Quesnel (BD)

[smashpages]

In the fall of 2023, D + Q plan to release a new book by Chris Oliveros titled Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, which is about the Front de libération du Québec — or in English, the Quebec Liberation Front, a socialist movement aimed at removing the English from Quebec in the 1960s.

Read more

[beautifulfaaces]

Chris Olivero

Facts

October 15, 1984

American actor

Filmography

Davis [NCIS: Los Angeles: 2014]

Declan [Kyle XY: 2006-2009]

John [Boston Public: 2003]

Bill [Alien Arsenal: 1999]

Appearance

Brunette

Blue green eyes

1.88m

Roleplay

Playable: teeenager, young adult, adult

[nudesreadingminicomics]

‘the Envelope Manufacturer’ by Chris Oliveros

Well looks here, its 'the Envelope Manufacturer' by Chris Oliveros.  It was something like 15 years ago that I picked up the first issue of this abandoned, redrawn, and re-issued as a graphic novel comic book and was like "holy cow, the guy who runs Drawn and Quarterly made a comic book!" And picked it up and gave it a chance.  At the time, especially as it did have as much of the dream like feels and the drifting camera and sudden scene change elements I was kinda worried that the book was just gonna be some Clyde Fans knock off.  That's mainly because when you pick up this book (or its earlier incarnation) you see the D&Q aesthetic in spades.  

Its really quite admirable, the way this guy nails it and obviously knows exactly what he likes and how to do it.  I imagine running a comic book company doesn't leave much free time for drawing and making comics but by damn it doesn't seem it matters at all because this book has the style, story, and maturity of any of the authors that Oliveros has been publishing regularly these fifteen years.  This book reads as though he was just another artist in the D&Q roster regularly churning out books with the best of 'em.  It is a real treat to see a "first book" come out from someone who is well into middle age.  Though it doesn't seem he went up the usual ladder of self published minis, appearances in low budget anthologies, picked up for a monthly strip in an underground newspaper, regular comic from an indie publisher, and into graphic novel "I'm a real author" superstardom it is obvious that even though one isn't drawing regularly as long as one has both hands lovingly inserted into the industry that still counts as practice because, again, this is an actual really-dealy comic book.

So, yeah, every book D&Q has put out makes a lot of sense in the context of this book because we see the style he likes and the style he's been supporting all those years; that European tiny feet and big hands stuff about the minutiae of the day to day intellectual and subdued graphic novel of the Canadian kind.  And its really cool and satisfying to read this one and really get to know the author and what he digs and right away, in this new incarnation, it is clear it is not just a Clyde Fans knock off.  

A different author might have really took of on the idea and made something twice as many pages long and twice as slow but Oliveros neatly packages this thing together in a perfect tale of a failing business and just all around failing.  Even as the days of the skyscraper seem to be more and more less about the titans of industry and more about polo shirt and khaki wearing business casual bosses running pools of data entry it seems that North America will never lose its "falling man" obsession of the suited and tied businessman hurling himself from the 20th floor of the business building in a final desperate finish to his failed life of chasing success.  And so 'the Envelope Manufactuer's main character is of that type but its put together in such a nice amount Alzheimer's mixed with Hudsucker Proxy and the just right amount of old timey and modernity thrown in that we get a cool 'man's man' tale of a dude at the end of his rope so much that in crisis all he can do is hallucinate and all those around him can do is keep plodding on in the day to day because thats all they know how to do.  

And its drawn so neatly, so keenly, and packaged in a perfectly small size that makes this thing really sing of a lovingly crafted and self published gift from the author to us that I must recommend you buy a copy right away.  #theenvelopemanufacturer #chrisoliveros #drawnandquarterly #comix #graphicnovel

go to drawn and quarterly to find the book: https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/

and join my patreon for all sorts of insanity ranging from uncensored images to short films to live shows to tour diaries to podcasts and more: https://www.patreon.com/shfb

[menudomaniatotal]

Siguenos en Facebook => MTBMenudomaniaTotal

menudomaniatotal.blogspot.com

[librarycomic]

Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels edited by Tom Devlin with Chris Oliveros, Peggy Burns, Tracy Hurren, and Julia Pohl-Miranda. Translations by Helge Dascher. Drawn & Quarterly, 2015. 9781770461994. 776pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781770461994?partnerid=34778&p_bt

If you're looking for a comics anthology to brighten your involuntary days at home or a book to introduce you to a wide range of independent creators with bodies of work you can start reading NOW, look no further. In fact, you'll probably love the front cover and spine (plus front endpapers) by Tom Gauld. He and Pascal Girard, whose work can also be found inside, draw the best bookstores and libraries.

The book opens with a section on the history of Drawn & Quarterly that includes old photos featuring questionable haircuts of famed comics creators that will make you laugh, particularly if you frequent the better sections of comic conventions. Then it's comics, lots of excellent comics! Alongside and among are reminiscences, tributes, and appreciations of the publishing personalities and the talent, my favorites being the one of Seth by Lemony Snicket and Aaron Cometbus' essay about John Porcellino. You don't have to read everything, you don't even have to read it in any order, and it's so diverse in tone and style you probably won't love it all, but there's so much great work inside that it won't matter. Depending on how widely you read, it's full of amazing comics by everyone you've heard of (if you already have great taste) or amazing comics from all of the indy creators you're about to discover (GET YOUR HANDS ON A COPY NOW!). D&Q has introduced me to so many artists whose work I love: Doug Wright, Adriane Tomine, Michel Rabagliati, Lynda Barry, John Porcellino, Guy Delisle, Tove Jansson, Brecht Evens, Jillian Tamaki, and more. And there were a few folks I'd never heard of; how is it I'd never seen a comic by Diane Obomsawin (aka Obom)? I loved the deadpan Greek mythology by her so much (it starts with Zeus seducing Callisto) that I ordered everything by her that's available.

And because I've heard that kettle bells are sold out all over the US, I want to point out that at 776 pages you can probably use this anthology as a weight for a variety of exercises.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Elkhorn

Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner joined forces as Elkhorn in 2013, Sheppard on 12-string and Gardner on 6-string. Together they’ve made a string of gorgeous duet albums on Feeding Tube and now Beyond Beyond Is Beyond records, while supporting the growth and scholarship around American Primitive guitar playing in a variety of ways. Sheppard, in particular, has been active in organizing the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival and documenting players including Glenn Jones, Nathan Bowles, Chris Forsyth, Ryley Walker and others in video. Their latest album, The Storm Sessions, comes from a snowed-in session in Brooklyn when a cancelled concert turned into a prolonged and graceful meditation on the possibilities of guitars and guitar-like instruments.  In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “… a tribute to filling in the quiet spaces that have arisen unexpectedly out of chaos and disappointment, but which are, themselves, very peaceful and beautiful.” Drew Gardner contributed this list.

I put this list together with the thought of talking about some music that overlaps with elements of The Storm Sessions. There are several shared elements at play in these records: songs using longer durations that unfold in suites, improvisation, the blending of several genres-sounds-traditions, gradual development, the use of calm/blissful moods, and players who tend toward letting the music guide the playing.

Mary Lattimore —The Withdrawing Room, “You’ll Be Fiiinnne”

The Withdrawing Room, harpist Mary Lattimore’s debut album, unfolds beautifully with delay-soaked harp mixed with bubbly psychedelic electronic textures courtesy of Jeff Zeigler. Lattimore knows how to use patience to build a feeling of calm tranquility and often walks her harp figures beside a stream of contrasting ambient sound. She glides though different sound areas without trying to push the songs around, letting the music be. The results are lovely and dreamy.

Maya Youssef —Syrian Dreams, “Queen of the Night”

Maya Youssef is an expert player of the maqan, a traditional Middle Eastern plucked instrument in the zither family. She grew up in Damascus and now lives in England. Defying the tradition that only men could play it, she has innovated the maqan as a solo instrument beyond its conventional use in larger ensembles. The instrumentation on Syrian Dreams is maqan, percussion, cello and oud, the textures of which blend into sets of suites that seem to tell many stories. This is a record of original compositions of Middle Eastern music that seamlessly incorporate the sounds of flamenco and jazz. Somehow Youssef’s group also reads like a freak folk chamber band. She’s unafraid of the healing power of music, and she connects her compositions with both the ancient and the difficult recent history of Syria.

Sunburned Hand of the Man—Headdress, “Shitless”

Gloriously lo-fi collage-ist space jams, cohesive in their disjointedness. Like GBV, the low fidelity makes it more intimate. As with most of their catalogue this is a head-trip and also a lot of fun. This record puts all the myriad things they’re capable of into perfect balance: uniquely fried “Massachusetts dub,” comical Dadaist prank-chants, slow loose funk grooves with all kind of friendly space debris orbiting around. Each song has at least three different genres melting in and out of it, and it all sounds like a party. They don’t order the tunes around, they let what’s happening happen. There’s plenty of improvisation here, but without a big demand for the guitars to need to get anywhere—what a relief. They’re happy being where they are, floating over the rhythm section and soaking in the cascades of color, relaxed and weird-blissful.

NNCK—Qvaris, “The Doon”

NNCK went to great lengths to secure certain freedoms, especially freedom from fame and freedom from commerce. Those freedoms are put to great use here and the result is a floaty ego-differed collective texture and with a groove and a vibe. It feels like all the players are steering the boat. Everyone is thinking about the total sound and the overall flow. Everyone’s in charge and no one is. They improvise and move from zone to zone, sound world to sound world. There are trippy drones, ritual percussion, and calm, bizarre and soothing textures. The songs sound like they’re improvised in a way that allows them to be self-assembling/self-disassembling ensemble music. It sounds like life forms are evolving. The various combinations of different elements create a lot of variety as the landscape scrolls by. Need some dilating texture-walls shifting into a bonus of damp squishiness? You got it. Need some mescaline-fueled post-rock? You got it. Rustically glowing biomechanical insects morphing into autumnal haze? Yup. Malfunctioning alternate-dimension windchimes into Dada kabuki Muppet theater? Cannabinoidosaurus Rex chill out wedding music into Martian organ grinder swing winding up at third-pot-brownie-surf-rock? You get the idea. There’s something for everyone. All the song/soundscapes flow through these ecosystems with a “how did we get here?” effect. The players find different windows in the soundscape. It never feels crowed. Sonically occupying the space they’re in, they let the music become itself rather than trying to control it.

Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society—Mandatory Reality, “Finite”

I first heard this record last year in the Elkhorn tour vehicle while Jesse and I we were driving from the Milwaukee Psych fest to Chicago. It turns out that being stuck in a car for several hours moving at twenty miles an hour in a white-out is the perfect context for experiencing this music. There was something about the slow speed, the need for concentrated attention, and the monochromatically unfolding landscape that really enhanced the experience of the music. Abrams’ use of slow tempos, repetition, long durations, gradually shifting textures and cycles of chords and melodic figures was perfectly mirrored in the snowy drive. He allows the music to repeat and unfold without needing to rush in contrasting sections or motifs. It’s patient and languid and mesmerizing. Done in real time with no overdubs, it blends several sounds beautifully: minimalism, Gnawa music and modern Chicago free jazz. At times it feels like a radically becalmed Braxton Ghost Trance piece transmuted into something like the spacious Tabla Tarang playing of Pandit Kamalesh Maitra or the straight 8ths of Gamelan music with John Luther Adams-style long tones stretched over it. When we arrived in Chicago the snowstorm had abated after the long drive, and as I stepped out of the car into the slush I felt refreshed rather than exhausted.

Pauline Oliveros with Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis—Deep Listening, “Lear”

Deep Listening was improvised with no overdubs using just-intonation accordion, trombone, didgeridoo and voice in a cistern in Washington State that once held two million gallons of water. This space featured a natural forty-five-second reverb. As dolphins know, reverb is a kind of image—information about space in sound form. On this record the players, the environment and the instruments all combine to become intertwined into one system. I’ll let Oliveros say it: “The Universe is improvising and we have evolution, so improvisation is always happening.”

Cul De Sac—Immortality Lessons, “Blues in E”

Cul De Sac featured Glenn Jones on electric twelve-string guitar before he turned to solo acoustic music. The band played improvised instrumental rock that crossed over several genres: Krautrock, psych-rock, surf-rock and American Primitive. This record was recorded live at a college radio station in one take under less than ideal circumstances and it’s a great example of turning lemons into psychedelic lemonade. This music flows and develops in suites, using various groove/dissolve/solo patterns than unfold with an expansive vibe. Everyone in the band is thinking about the whole arrangement, not just the parts. It’s genre blending, full-band texturing and rewards repeated listening. One can only hope for a reunion one day.

Marisa Anderson—The Golden Hour, “In the Valley of the Sun”

The Golden Hour is a record of solo fingerstyle electric guitar improvisations recorded straight to tape. It sounds like she’s doing variations on open themes and the results feel modern/spontaneous and composed/traditional at the same time. She has a warm, woody guitar tone, often tastefully overdriving the amp in a lush manner, using a nimble rhythmic gait. This works as psychedelic guitar music and at the same time resonates with the old American music traditions she’s connecting with. Her blend of genres is country blues, country and western, and folk, put together in concise songs that always have a coherent flow of ideas with sometimes subtle hints of deconstruction. She’s not afraid of the pleasures of meandering. This is music that sounds like it’s dreaming through guitar history as a kind of meditation.

Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain—Rag Madhuvanti, Rag Misra Tilang, “Rag Misra Tilang”

Shivkumar Sharma plays the Santur, an Indian box zither, not unlike a western hammer dulcimer. Sharma is credited with bringing this folk instrument, normally associated with the Sufi music of Kashmir, into Indian classical music. Indian music involves several of the elements I’ve been discussing in this list: long duration, improvisation, and drone. There’s something about the cascading overtones of Sharma’s Santur playing that reads as especially psychedelic, unfolding in undulating patterns using his knowledge of tabla rhythms. He wasn’t afraid to risk innovation and prove that a folk instrument could be used for high art. This album is mesmerizing, beautiful, and rejuvenating.

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

“…improvised live with signal generators and enough tape delay to confuse you straight into happiness. It’s as thick and buzzy as electronic music gets…”

HALANA #3  1998 (page 73) CHRIS RICE, Editor

PAULINE OLIVEROS review by IAN NAGOSKI

HALANA magazine, still paying the domain bill atwww.halana.com

in the 21st century, Ian Nagoski operates the excellent Canary Records, a treasure trove of lost soul music from a time before this, for instance: To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman​-​American Diaspora, 1916​-​30; Ecstatic & Wingless: Bird​-​Imitation on Four Continents, ca. 1910​-​44; Near Eastern Music in NYC From the Metropolitan​​​-​​​Kaliphon​​​-​​​Balkan Labels, 1940s​​​-​​​50s, Vol. 3: Bulgarian, Greek, Jewish & Turkish Performers, etc…There are many individual jewels up at the Canary Records bandcamp or just buy the whole shebang for $97.35 (as of 3/20/17)!

[fluxuslaphil]

Tumblr Piece (Table of) Contents for Readers

Essay No. 1 Total Freedom Andrew W.K. parties with John Cage by Andrew W.K.

Essay No. 2 Thinking about Dick Higgins (Excerpt) by Ken Friedman

Essay No. 3 Fluxus: Historical Origins and Contemporary Resonances by Natilee Harren

Essay No. 4 Dangerous Music in Dangerous Times The Heartbreaking Prescience of Dick Higgins

Essay No. 5 Six Events by Ken Friedman

Essay No. 6 On the Making of Salad by Martin Sartini Garner

Interview No. 1 JELLY COVERS RYOKI IKEDA

Interview No. 2 La Monte Young and Jung Hee Choi in conversation with Christopher Rountree

Interview No. 3 Interview with Annie Saunders by Steve Marsh

Score No. 1 Impossible Score, 2018 by Fred Schmaltz

Poem No. 1 FluxConcert by Fred Schmalz

Playlist No. 1 Celsius Drop: Fluxus Special by Frosty with Christopher Rountree

Event No. 1 Compositions 1960 #10 to Bob Morris by La Monte Young

Event No. 2 Commitment Booth / Commitment Anthology (for Hope) by Christopher Rountree

Event No. 3 Instruction No. 2 (Please Wash Your Face) by Ben Patterson

Event No. 4 Europeras by John Cage

Event No. 5 Drip Music (Drip Event) by George Brecht

Event No. 6 Sonatas and Interludes by Chris Kallmyer

Event No. 7 Sticks from Prose Collection by Christian Wolff

Event No. 8 Karaoke by R. B. Schlather

Event No. 9 Nivea Cream Piece by Alison Knowles

Event No. 10 Draw Circle by Yoko Ono

Event No. 11 Apartment House 1776 John Cage

Event No. 12 Stones Pauline Oliveros

Event No. 13 Wounded Furniture Alison Knowles

Event No. 14 Laundry Piece Yoko Ono

Event No. 15 One for Solo Violin Nam June Paik

Event No. 16 Sonata for Melons and Gravity Ken Friedman

Event No. 17 Variations for Double Bass Ben Patterson

The LA Phil in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute will explore the avant-garde Fluxus movement through performances, installations, symposia, and printed materials during its 2018/19 Centennial season. This site serves to document and contextualize Fluxus Festival events through essays, interviews, photos, and videos.

Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber