Kus! mono #11: This Year Is Next Year's Last Year by Christopher Sperandio
This Year Is Next Year's Last Year takes classic old school public domain comics – that look like they're largely from the 1950s, but maybe also some from the '40s and/or early 60s – and remixes them in all their newsprint saturated four-color glory in high quality scans repurposed via newly created (by Mr. Sperandio, we can only assume) text approriately rendered in a digital recreation of Leroy Lettering (or a close approximation therof) to create a caustic comics satire of the sad state of affairs that is the USA today. Everything is printed just right and really delivers that old school comics feel. Also on hand are equally caustic reworkings of comic book advertisements, gift listings and an apocryphal game journal all recreated in the appropriate manner. A real treat for the comics æsthete.
Here's from the publisher:
"An angry spirit searches for answers and purpose in Trumpworld. This Year is Next Year’s Last Year exorcises the tortured specters cycling through the contemporary psyche, countering corruption and death with defiant sarcasm. Mail-order magical objects and the rules of an ancient board game round out this treatise on inevitability."
Christopher Sperandio, born in Kingwood, West Virginia, has lived in Chicago, New York, Mexico City, Berlin, and Hong Kong. Sperandio maintains a daily drawing practice on Instagram @pinko_joe. Sperandio is a professor of art teaching comics and art at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Specs: A5 (6" x 8"), 68 pages, full-color, perfect bound. Printed in Latvia on FSC certified paper. ISBN 978-9934-581-72-4
ONE COPY ONLY
S! #49 'Chaos', December 2023
Cover: Noemi Vola (Italy) Contributors: Aidan Koch (USA), Bohdana Zaiats (Ukraine), Christopher Sperandio (USA), Dzelde Mierkalne (Latvia), Gina Wynbrandt (USA), Ivo Puiupo (Portugal), Jurijs Tatarkins (Latvia), Kaspars Grosevs (Latvia), Karlina Marta Zvirbule (Latvia), Konig Lu. Q. (Switzerland), Lukas Weidinger (Austria), Majenye (Venezuela), Mikkel Sommer (Denmark), Mogorosi Motshumi (South Africa), Noemi Vola (Italy), Oskars Pavlovskis (Latvia), Pauls Rietums (Latvia), Walker Tate (USA), xozusia (Latvia), Zane Zlemesa (Latvia).
Format: A6, 164 pages, full-color, perfect bound, environmentally friendly Munken paper.
