Four Color Comics

Best American Comics 2006

The not-so recently released Best American Comics 2006, guest edited this first year by the remarkable Harvey Pekar is a supremely enjoyable book & perfect gift for the casual comic lover in your life (serious comic lovers ought to already own a copy). This book is the very first in the series of annual editions edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore (& guest edited each year by someone super-duper famous in much the same way they put out the Best American Short Stories series).

While I have not, admittedly, actually read this entire book, I feel confident in reviewing and recommending it, because a) I read the first four comics in the book & b) know this is exactly the sort of gift I myself would love to receive and am a casual comic lover. Since this is a sort of gift-guide review of the book (think of it as a moderately interesting amazon.com review) I feel I’m allowed to make the call.

First off, the cover—In the butchered words of Benjamin Katz, (whose words are allowed to be butchered because he’s a fictional, squiggly character) “Once you see the cover, you know, you pretty well know what you’ve got”—it’s lovely. Blue-ly bound & a great spread of an enticing comic on the hardcover cover (no dust jacket). The very first comic in the book is “The Life of Onion Jack”, which I found to be one of the most enjoyable comic reads I’ve had in years. It’s hilarious and modest and fascinating. A refreshing look at the superhero genre, from the entirely opposite side.

The next two comics by Kim Deitch & Anders Nilsen are interesting but overblown, I think. They suffer from the insecurity inherent in the genre, feeling that they need to ‘say something deep’ to bring gravitas to the medium, rather than exploring a medium for what it is capable of and doing serious work within those areas. I do not, however, mean to dismiss the two comics entirely. “Ready To Die” and “The Gift” are well drawn, well written comics. They are interesting, insightful (particularly Deitch) and worthwhile, but the fact that they’re two of the first three collected in this ‘best of’ collection makes me wary of where the collection is going.

It’s not that I mean to say that the comic strip is incapable of dealing with serious topics, but I think these two strips suffer from wanting to “be” too much from the start. Instead of simply telling their story, I feel that both pieces begin wanting to prove something about the comic strip and what it’s capable of. They struggle to be a piece of comic art, before simply being a good comic. Nevertheless, the collection as a whole is definitely worth checking out.

American Elf

This is a bizarre collection of personal essays by James Kochalka written as an autobiography of a cartoonist who portrays himself as an elf. I have only just started the book, and it is bizarre and fascinating, but in just the first few pages I definitely get a sense that this (rather large) collection will be worth digging through.

The strips are somehow reminiscent of Jim’s Journal, in the daily minutia that they deal with, but the artwork is more serious and it’s not so entirely tongue in cheek. It’s hard to tell what Kochalka’s overall project really is here, or whether he has a big picture idea of this book at all (if not, I think that’s totally acceptable). The book also has an odd, lovely introduction written by Moby, for all you folks out there who just can’t take “Play” off your iPod yet.

Dr. Katz, Profession Therapist (DVD)

While not strictly a comic, this series is the most comic (in every sense) cartoon I’ve ever seen, and if you have a comic enthusiast in your life who doesn’t own (or even know) Dr. Katz, head to your local DVD dealer and see if they’ve got a copy. The first two seasons are now available on DVD (it’s not the sort of thing where you’ll miss out if you don’t see the pilot first) and the show is so unbelievable dry, hilarious, and squiggly, it’s hard to stand.

This show is almost perfect. It’s the tv show that I’ve waited my whole life to experience, but didn’t know I was waiting for. The regular cast performs the material so straight that the comedy is often tragic feeling, and Dr. Katz is a psychologist to the stars, so many of today’s (or last Thursday’s) biggest stars appear on the couch, including Jon Stewart, Ray Romano & Dave Chappelle (among many many others). This DVD will be the gift your comic enthusiast has always wanted, that they didn’t even realize they wanted.