<<•>> edited by Marc Sobel and Kristy Valenti <<•>>
The feature attraction of this chunky softcover are the extensively researched timelines and character bios for both the Locas and Palomar universes; long time L & R readers will be reminded of characters and events that they had forgotten all about – or at least hadn't thought about in years – and relative newcomers will be clued in to the depths and riches that await them in the pages of Love and Rockets. In a way, The Love and Rockets Companion is a bit like a family album, one in which readers can immerse themselves and discover their place in and connection to the comics family built around Love and Rockets that has thrived for over thirty years now. In addition this volume includes extensive interviews with los hermanos Hernandez – including two new major interviews conducted specifically for this volume and appearing here for the first time! The wraparound dustjacket is printed on extra heavy stock and folds out into a poster (the sticker is removable), while the reverse side depicts the Locas and Luba family trees. This jam-packed volume is a Love and Rockets collector's bonanza!
Fanta sez:
"In this issue, Gary Groth conducts a career-spanning interview with Y: The Last Man comics artist Pia Guerra about her turn to editorial cartooning and future projects. John Jennings explores the vision behind the graphic imprint Megascope, devoted to "rediscovering powerful speculative work by and about people of color." Jennie S. Law interviews Civil Rights activists Jennifer Lawson and Courtland Cox about their ingenious strategies — comics pamphlets about gaining political power, going undercover, mass meetings — to register voters in Lowndes County circa 1965. Nicknamed "Bloody Lowndes," 80% of its population was Black, yet only two Black people were registered to vote. Also: a gallery of Frank Leet's one-panel cartoons illustrating Don Marquis's (Archy and Mehitabel) verse, a conversation with Alex Graham about self-publishing a 400-page graphic novel, a Rob Guillory (Chew, Farmhand) sketchbook, an original comic by Meg O'Shea, and more."
FROM THE ARCHIVES
ONE COPY
Career-spanning interview with Eddie Campbell by Dirk Deppy; plus appreciations of / essays on Campbell's work by Deppy and Rob VOllma
Junko Mizuno interviewed by Kristy Valenti
Classic comics reprint: 36 pages of the hellishly critical editorial cartoons of Art Young, with prefatory essay by Noah Berlatsky
much more
Here's a great issue of The Comics Journal, co-edited by Austin English ad Kristy Valenti. While the centerpiece of this issue is Gary Groth's 110-page illustrated interview of Gerald Scarfe that jprovides an in-depth overview of his close to 70-year (!) career, there's plenty more on hand here as this issue runs a jam-packed 300 pages.
The highlight of this issue for us here at Copacetic is the conversation between Lale Westvind and Aidan Koch, moderated by Austin English. It's amazing, don't miss it!
Also on hand is RJ Casey's interview with up-and-coming cartoonist, Juliette Collet.
Then there is the achance to explore the work of a couple artists whose work is somewhat hard to come by: an eight-page comics story by Allee Errico, "'You Get Me Closer to God': Explaining Music to Dogs" along a twenty-page excerpt from the sketchbooks of Jess Johnson.
This issue's "Blood and Thunder" is particularly interesting, as it deals with what is perceived as the tenuous state of the market for comics aimed at adult readers which includes a notably insightful response from erstwhile Pittsburgher, Audra Stang.
And there's plenty more.
There is a bountiful preview of the issue up at TCJ.com, HERE. But if you want the hard copy to have and hold, don't wait too long, as TCJ has a low print run these days, and this one is going fast (the bookstore distributor is already sold out and we only have a handful of copies, so don't say we didn't warn you).
