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The Box That Time Forgot, Pt. 1: The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack
Last week, I drove home and as I passed my front door, I saw a large cardboard box. Now, I haven't received a package this size for a good six months--ever since I stopped ordering from DiscountComicBookService. The reason has nothing to do with them--they do a fine job at heavily discounted prices. The problem is that in this economy, and with a mortgage, two kids in various sports, bills, and all the other stuff the average parent spends money on (let's not forget beer), I realized I had to cut back on the heavy preorders. I basically had to force myself not to pay attention to the Diamond catalog and all the tasty treats coming out, and just read other reviews and trust friends, and maybe Amazon.com recommendations, for the good stuff coming out. And it's worked out pretty well, actually. So it was with a mixture of curiosity and actual dread that I saw that package, with the telltale blue Diamond logo on the side, because I was worried about some unforeseen expense.
As it turns out, this was all stuff for which I'd already paid. Not only that, the books within were all ordered quite some time ago, from almost a year ago, August 2008, up to about March 2009 (publishing date, so I wouldn't ordered it in January). Once I determined there was no new credit card charge (the total for these books is $147, which would have been a very light month in the "old days"), I was glad to have them, but looking at them now, in my current financial situation (not really that different but I'm just a bit more awake now), it strikes me that many of the books I would probably choose not to order today. And of course, it's not like I even noticed I didn't receive them before.
And no, I'm not sure why DCBS took so long to fill these various orders. I can only assume they were letting them pile up in a Chris Allen bin, waiting to add them to a new order that never came, and finally someone decided to just ship them and free up the space, or something.
So without further adieu, let's get on with the first one I read. After this, we'll just keep going with the normal reviews.
The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack
By Nicholas Gurewitch
The Perry Bible Fellowship began as a college newspaper strip, then went on to newspaper syndication, and its final resting place appears to be an online archive. I say final tentatively, but for the time-being it appears that Gurewitch is not doing new strips, and the website references two film scripts he cowrote. Indeed, that bit of news shouldn't be too surprising to readers of the strip or this book--especially this book--as the roughly eight years of strips within represent a restless creative spirit and growing ambition. The earliesst strips are crudely drawn, and the gags are often just as crude, though funny--lots of penis envy, sex, death, and the cruelty of the universe and/or humanity, that humanity often represented as white shapes with dot eyes and a simple line for a mouth.
Gurewitch sticks with these themes, and even the rudimentary people, as his work goes on, but he keeps growing as an artist: what looks like some charcoal etching on page 47, computer tones on 49, and from about 82 on, the coloring becomes more lush (and often in beautiful pastels like children's books to better contrast with the dark humor) and the drawing more painstakingly detailed. Gurewitch's themes are the same but he finds more ways to express them, getting further into absurdity (human figures with everyday objects like rolled coins or scissors become a recurring motif), and he looks further from the everyday world and anthropomorphism into mythology and popular culture. Could an M&M (Colonel Sweeto) be a double agent? Is that Neptune or just a pedophile? How could button-eyed Raggedy Andy be a peeping Tom? Sometimes the grind of the regular strip means that Gurewitch offers up something as easy as a variation on the much-parodied Babe Ruth Story scene where Babe has to hit a home run for the sick kid in the hospital, or a particularly unrewarding series with '30s gangster movie characters, but more often than not, Gurewitch brings the goods, and even when the gag isn't that great, the art often saves it (plus he delivers some killer parodies of Edward Gorey, R. Crumb and Shel Silverstein). Page 166 on, or about the last fourth of the book, thankfully represents the highest ratio of winners to not-so-much, so the reader can go out on a high note. Afterwards, there is a thoughtful interview with Gurewitch on his creative process and other matters, as well as a selection of orphaned cartoons, ones finished but not published, for various reasons as described by Gurewitch (too soon after 9/11, too wordy, not funny enough, bad premise, etc.).
As consumers/readers/fans, we too often want an artist to keep giving us the more of the same. Certainly Gurewitch is a first rate gag cartoonist, and more of the same would be welcome. But he's such a good artist, and with such a fertile mind, that anything he chooses to explore is probably going to be pretty interesting.
As it turns out, this was all stuff for which I'd already paid. Not only that, the books within were all ordered quite some time ago, from almost a year ago, August 2008, up to about March 2009 (publishing date, so I wouldn't ordered it in January). Once I determined there was no new credit card charge (the total for these books is $147, which would have been a very light month in the "old days"), I was glad to have them, but looking at them now, in my current financial situation (not really that different but I'm just a bit more awake now), it strikes me that many of the books I would probably choose not to order today. And of course, it's not like I even noticed I didn't receive them before.
And no, I'm not sure why DCBS took so long to fill these various orders. I can only assume they were letting them pile up in a Chris Allen bin, waiting to add them to a new order that never came, and finally someone decided to just ship them and free up the space, or something.
So without further adieu, let's get on with the first one I read. After this, we'll just keep going with the normal reviews.
The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack
By Nicholas Gurewitch
The Perry Bible Fellowship began as a college newspaper strip, then went on to newspaper syndication, and its final resting place appears to be an online archive. I say final tentatively, but for the time-being it appears that Gurewitch is not doing new strips, and the website references two film scripts he cowrote. Indeed, that bit of news shouldn't be too surprising to readers of the strip or this book--especially this book--as the roughly eight years of strips within represent a restless creative spirit and growing ambition. The earliesst strips are crudely drawn, and the gags are often just as crude, though funny--lots of penis envy, sex, death, and the cruelty of the universe and/or humanity, that humanity often represented as white shapes with dot eyes and a simple line for a mouth.
Gurewitch sticks with these themes, and even the rudimentary people, as his work goes on, but he keeps growing as an artist: what looks like some charcoal etching on page 47, computer tones on 49, and from about 82 on, the coloring becomes more lush (and often in beautiful pastels like children's books to better contrast with the dark humor) and the drawing more painstakingly detailed. Gurewitch's themes are the same but he finds more ways to express them, getting further into absurdity (human figures with everyday objects like rolled coins or scissors become a recurring motif), and he looks further from the everyday world and anthropomorphism into mythology and popular culture. Could an M&M (Colonel Sweeto) be a double agent? Is that Neptune or just a pedophile? How could button-eyed Raggedy Andy be a peeping Tom? Sometimes the grind of the regular strip means that Gurewitch offers up something as easy as a variation on the much-parodied Babe Ruth Story scene where Babe has to hit a home run for the sick kid in the hospital, or a particularly unrewarding series with '30s gangster movie characters, but more often than not, Gurewitch brings the goods, and even when the gag isn't that great, the art often saves it (plus he delivers some killer parodies of Edward Gorey, R. Crumb and Shel Silverstein). Page 166 on, or about the last fourth of the book, thankfully represents the highest ratio of winners to not-so-much, so the reader can go out on a high note. Afterwards, there is a thoughtful interview with Gurewitch on his creative process and other matters, as well as a selection of orphaned cartoons, ones finished but not published, for various reasons as described by Gurewitch (too soon after 9/11, too wordy, not funny enough, bad premise, etc.).
As consumers/readers/fans, we too often want an artist to keep giving us the more of the same. Certainly Gurewitch is a first rate gag cartoonist, and more of the same would be welcome. But he's such a good artist, and with such a fertile mind, that anything he chooses to explore is probably going to be pretty interesting.
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