Via the New Yorker via Lisa Hanawalt.

This could be useful.

I think R. C. Harvey is on to something with his continual harping on the “visual-verbal blend” as the essence of comics. He means only a happy combination of word and picture, but I would go a step further and say that comics is a medium in which words function as pictures and pictures function as words. Chris Ware has described his work, or at least, the work he is striving for, as pictures that are read. Stories written in a language of pictures. In reality however, his pictures function as language, yes, but they also function as images. The pictures are not only read but also looked at. When readers approach a page of comics they often are a little unsure as to when to look and when to read. I say it is the tension between reading and looking that makes comics comics.

Boom.

Eddie Campbell’s new book, The Lovely, Horrible Stuff, coming in June from Top Shelf/Knockabout, looks like a good one.

What I see and read here looks like classic Campbell style. My favorite Campbell pieces are meandering ruminations, monologues, their content ranging from the personal, even uncomfortably personal, to the quasi-academic to the fanciful, delivered in a visual style in which occasional pasted-in photographic images (of course digital wizardry has now replaced the actual pasting not to mention the expressionistic use of zipatone) somehow, by the magic of Campbell’s hard-won design sense, blend harmoniously with drawings in which the artist’s hand, with its studied imperfections, deceptively scratchy, off-kilter, is always evident; and I am delighted to see him return to this form after a couple of (really excellent) books that were more str8forward yarns and one modernist short story (written by Daren White). Anyroad, as I said above, I can’t wait.

Jake Lawrence

American Elf by James Kochalka

I’m just going to put this here so I don’t lose it.

Goodbye to the extraordinary Mœbius a.k.a. Jean Giraud. A singular artist.

Idiosyncratic, whimsical, humorous, with a vision…“a” vision? hell, visions upon visions…that transport the viewer into a universe all the artist’s own…and, it goes without saying, he had chops for days. There ain’t many that can compare. In the field of comix, his only peers are Kirby and Tezuka.* You have to go to other arts to find many creators as prolific, as diverse, and as important to the development of their artform.

You don’t need to be a fan to understand the magnitude of his talent.

He makes me think of Louis Armstrong (I’m not saying Mœbius is Armstrong’s equal—I’m not completely out of my mind) because he made groundbreaking work, for decades! disguised as inconsequential pop and obviously had massive amounts of fun the entire time.

(Images are stolen from other thieves around the various internets. I assume they are all © Mœbius.)

STOÉ OREKO!

*Hergé, not Mœbius, is generally considerd the Franco-Belgian equivalent of Kirby or Tezuka because Hergé developed the style that evryone after him, including Mœbius, would build upon. Hergé is the starting point. Mœbius is generally considerd the most influential Franco-Belgian cartoonist after Hergé. However, Herge did not have the long, prolific, diverse career of a Kirby or a Tezuka. Mœbius did; hence the comparison. Boom. [Back]

Sarah Becan tells us about the Ramen Museum—yes! Ramen! Museum!—in Shinyokohama (south of Tokyo):

Let’s go to the lower level of the Shinyokohama Ramen Museum, where they’ve basically taken three levels of basement and turned it into a meticulous recreation of a block of Tokyo from Showa era 33 (1958), which was the year they invented instant noodles. There are movie posters, actors playing policemen and street vendors, fortune tellers, and, among other things, NINE ramen restaurants. The restaurants are all small versions of famous ramen restaurants from all over Japan, highlighting regional specialties and ingredients. It’s AMAZING. SUGOI.

I HAVE TO GO.