what is it good for

Illus: Joe Kubert Star Spangled War Stories #137 "War That Time Forgot" Page 4 Original Art (DC, 1968)

Last Sunday our Unitarian minister wrapped up a Veteran's Day service about homelessness among our Vets by admonishing the congregation to create a world in which we never go to war again.

With some discomfort I realized I don't believe such a thing is possible.

I once I did.

In part, I've been spoiled by stories. Good stories, true stories, real stories all have conflict at their heart. The best stories portray the transformation that occurs when that conflict is conquered and resolved.

Conflict originates in the struggle for power, something that, frankly, all of us should grasp for. Owning our own strength, claiming our will to power, is what makes us human and gives us the courage to find the capacity to fulfill the dreams that drive us forward.

But of course, conflict occurs when the will to power of an individual or an entity treads on the autonomy of others.

Conflict cannot be entirely prevented in world that honors democracy and freedom, because preventing conflict means squelching free will and freedom of expression.

War, of course, is conflict out of control; conflict that requires severe remediation; and is often driven by individuals who have exerted their will to power at the expense of others' right to live. War should be the last measure, always, but can we really imagine a world in which it falls out of our lexicon? Falls off our list of options?

What matters more, I realized with a start, having been raised to believe that a conflict-free world of peace is possible, having felt always that soldiers are doing something inherently distasteful, something ultimately shameful; what matters in a way that is more real to me now than dreams of an abiding peace ever were, is to ensure that when the fight comes -- because I'm sure now that it will come -- what matters is that it's a fair fight. [1]

A curious side effect of this realization is that my conflicted feelings toward soldiers -- the career guys who serve honorably and take their duties seriously, several of whom I'm proud to call my friends -- has been transformed into one of greater respect and deeper gratitude.

This idea that war will always be with us is old news to a lot of folks; it's a curious revelation to me because it contradicts my usual posture, and maybe it will shift again as I grow older and greyer and long for pastoral landscapes and quiet places full of courtesy.

As I write this, such a place seems hard to come by.


Speaking of fair fights: The original comic art of Joe Kubert, who inked Tor, Tarzan, and Seven Soldiers of Victory for DC Comics is on auction through Friday »

Also related: How a soldier is working for peace by fighting poverty (see The End (Jake's Story) at the top of the pile) »


[1] Granted: Given the current constructs of war -- in which the poor and disenfranchised are the most likely to die and the multi-national corporations are the most likely to profit -- there is much work to be done to ensure the fight is fair.

today's post in which my illustrative hero, Chris Ware, single-handedly saves print media by creating remarkable cover art

Illus: New Yorker 2 Nov 2009 by Chris Ware via @scottknaster
Two lovely covers by Chris Ware are currently on the newsstands. I explained to mr. hoo that Granta's measly $17 price tag will easily be recouped years from now when I sell my pristine copy (except for the spine breaks at the Stu Dybek short story) on eBay for hundreds -- nay, thousands -- of dollars.

Or maybe I'll just read the rest and keep my copy close.

I had the chance to see Chris Ware and Lynda Barry on a panel at the Printers Row Book Fair this last summer. (Forgive me: it's the Lit Fest now. still feels unnatural.) Would have blogged about watching the two of them alive in their friendship and their love of what they do if I hadn't received some bad news just as the session wrapped up that took the wind out of my sails.

Suffice it to say: I'm convinced that each is doing the best kind of service to the world, setting their imaginations loose to bravely make stuff up that, on contact with paper, ink and air, transmogrifies into that lovely thing called art that catches in the soft spot between the ribs, and cracks the heart open like an oyster to the ache and wonder and pearly stuff of life.

Thanks, guys. You rock.

p.s. They're coming back -- you can catch Chris Ware and Lynda Barry at the Chicago Humanities Fest. (Matt Groening will be there too.)

Illus: Granta 108 Chicago by Chris Ware

marmaduke explained

This, however, makes perfect sense somehow »


Both this, and the last one, via Web Zen

being & nothingness

I find myself transfixed by Garfield Minus Garfield »

And I'm not entirely sure why.

(If you figure it out, please to explicate. kthxbai.)

digital comics unlimited

Dude: Marvel Comics just came online »

Monthly subscription required. Bummer.

Although you can sample 250 select titles for free.

brb.

turnaround

It's pop culture commenting on pop culture commenting on itself. The question is getting the payoff on the joke -- that it's intelligent enough, smart enough, interesting enough where consumers go, 'Have I entered into "The Simpsons" or have I entered into advertising hell?'

Tim Stock, managing partner of Scenario DNA, commenting in today’s AdvertisingAge on 7-Eleven’s makeover for the month of July in which stores in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Burbank, Los Angeles, Las Vegas. New York, Lake Buena Vista, Seattle, Mountain View, Bladensburg, and Coquitlam, B.C. in Canada will become Kwik-E-Marts, featuring well-known goods from the Simpson’s series, including:

The store's frozen Slurpee beverage will be reinvented as the Kwik-E-Mart Squishee. The WooHoo! Blue Vanilla Squishees will come in 22-ounce paper cups with the fictional logo. Another surprise is that Simpsons' creator Matt Groening's Bongo Entertainment Group created a real comic book of Bart Simpson's favorite superhero, Radioactive Man, for sale during the promotion. The 32-page comic, numbered 711, will be wrapped in plastic and sell exclusively at the chain for $3.99.

And an aside: I met a fellow in Guatemala who lived in the U.S. for a while, whose happiest memories of the U.S. involved 7-Elevens. He went off at length about how they had everything, at any hour; how he loved the food, the Slurpees; how when he visited again, he brought home napkins with the logos, which he still kept safe and adored.

p.s. The transformation has already begun online »

Update: As of 25 July, the campaign has doubled store sales »

mexican manga

El Libro Vaquero: Odio en la Sangre is a roughly 5 inch square Mexican comic book that I picked up in Mérida on the Yucatan penninsula a few years back. It's jammed pack with passion, intrique, buxom beauties (like most comic books, there's a D-cup requirement for female participation), villians, and one blonde, blue-eyed, long-haired hero. Not to mention Spanish that I can understand, like ¡Te Amo! y ¡Maldita Bestia! and the occasional ¡Arrrggghhh!

Thought it would be fun to take the macro to it. Enjoy.

Mexican Manga slideshow »

being ware

chris ware at the mca
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

1. As a child, you were
a. sort of happy. b. not so happy.

2. To occupy your time, you like to
a. watch television. b. go to movies. c. draw. d. play video games. e. talk in weird voices into a tape recorder. f. read comic books.

3. The presence of members of the opposite and/or attractive sex makes you feel
a. weird. b. awful. c. terrified. d. hopeless. e. like killing yourself.

4. If you don’t like a comic strip, it’s because
a. it sucks. b. the cartoonist is an idiot.

5. If you don’t like a painting, it’s because
a. you don’t understand it. b. you’re ignorant of the history of art theory and art in general.

If any of these questions made any sense at all to you, you are now welcome to enter the exhibit. Please do not speak loudly, carry beverages, or scratch your initials into the plexiglass.

A «Quick Preparatory Quiz» from the poster-size brochure accompanying «The Public Exhibition of Original Cartoon Drawings, Preparatory Doodles and Printed Ephemera Selected From the Life Output Thus Far of the Juvenile Book Artist, Typographical Stylist, and Comic Strip Lobbyist Mr. F.C. Ware» now running at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

Chris Ware is the Flemish Master of comic art. Not only because he executes a scene the way they did -– by painting achingly small and vulnerable players against the big sweeping backdrop of the city in which they live –- but also because he gets that thimbleful of grief just right -– the thing that Auden wrote about --

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along

Ware builds a scene with exacting details and then occasionally telescopes it forward, back and sideways in time in Run Lola Run style. It’s wonderfully engaging, hard on the eyes, and takes hours to devour. Tough going for a museum show like the one that’s running at the MCA through (nearly) the end of August; better that you pick up one of his books and sit awhile.

so many splendid sundays

little nemo
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Right around Christmas time Sunday Press issued -- well here, let me let them tell you:

“Winsor McCay’s masterpiece, Little Nemo in Slumberland, as it has never been reproduced before. A magnificent hardbound volume of Nemo's best Sunday pages from 1905-1910, in FULL original size.”

This is no small thing -- full original size comes out to be 16x21 inches. I picked one up, chiefly on the recommendation of Chris Ware, one of my local heros (although now that the New York Times has picked him up for their Sunday Magazine he may well have moved, like his buddy Ira Glass, to New York, where they’ll love him less but pay him more. But let me check my facts on that before you quote me.)

About the book: it’s eye candy for the soul. It’s awkward, of course. It’s difficult to find a spot on the shelf for a book of that size -- I finally had to relent and display it on a small bookstand. (But that makes me nervous because I don’t want it to fade, sitting out in the light.)

The book itself is a piece of work -- the large-format puts it over the top -- but it’s McCay’s artistry that swallows you up when you peel back the pages -- both the detail of each individual panel and the flow of each panel into the next to create the entire strip. He's a master. And, as I understand it, one of the first to really nail this genre. (see: Understanding Comics for more about that -- the genre, I mean.)

If you have an interest in these things -- graphic novels, the way comics work, American artists -- run, don’t walk. Do this for yourself.

(Still on the fence? View some sample pages. And p.s.: The color fidelity of the pages shown online? Not even close to what you're gonna see in print. These shots are a little bit blurry, too. Doesn't do it justice.)