DIVE DEEP INTO THE WORLD OF SMALL PRESS SELF PUBLISHED MINI-COMICS in this recently released chunky hardcover contains 848 pages of mini comics by Copacetic stalwarts Ron Rege, Jr., Marc Bell and John Porcellino along with Leonard Rifas, Justin Green, Gary Arlington, Mark Connery, Jim Siergey, Larry Rippee, Richard Krauss, Bob Vojtko, Par Holman & Clark Dissmeyer, Matt Feazell, Matt Howarth, Steve Willis, Ronald Russell Roach, Edd Vick, Bruce Chrislip, Brad Johnson, Tim Corrigan, Macedonio Garcia, David Miller, Colin Upton, Robert Pasternak, David Lee Ingersoll, Roberta Gregory, Dylan Williams, Eric Reynolds, Molly Keily, Blair Wilson, Jim Blanchard, Chris Cilla, David Lasky & Jim Woodring, Leela Corman, David Heatley, Laura Wady, Fiona Smyth, Karl Wills, Onsmith, Travis Millard, Mark Campos, Nate Beaty, Peter Thompson, Carrie McNinch, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Andy Singer, Noah Van Sciver, Kelly Froh, Aaron Norhanian, Max Clotfelter, Marc J. Palm and more!
This 88 page collection of short works by Ms. Corman is the first or her works -- that we are aware of, at least -- that is printed in full color. It's great to reaching out in many new directions, artistic as well as thematic. The stories here range all over the map -- both physical and emotional -- and present windows on worlds that most readers will be new to. The stories contain personal, historical, mythical and political themes, with a special focus on Egyptian life, and all strive for empathy with their subjects.
You Are Not a Guest is a very nice edition, collecting of Leela Corman's lushly painted, water color, short comics, beautifully printed on paper that has the look and feel of watercolor paper (including the cover, which is printed on extra stock). It provides an experience approximating that of reading a bound set of the original art. Nice.
| softcover | 72 pages | 8" x 10" | full color |
"In You Are Not A Guest, Leela Corman is in a no holds barred wrestling match against Trauma set to the tune of an antifascist punk band. She leads us into the heart of her personal tragedies: the death of her daughter, and her family’s history in the Holocaust, but in not sparing the reader, she gives us her power. These are 'wounds that never heal', but she provides us with a roadmap of the changed place beyond sorrow, a cosmic song that reaches beyond time and space to comfort us. I am deeply grateful for her fearless work." — Lauren Weinstein
"Corman's stories show us how contending with history and loss can heal as well as it can haunt. She gracefully dances us through past and present, revealing how inextricable pain can be from the full experience of being alive." — Vanessa Davis
"Leela Corman is an exemplary tour guide through these labyrinthian stories of sub and hyper consciousness, the deep humanity of her voice holding us safe amid the dreamlike beauty and horror of her artwork. Her stories navigate some of the darkest territories of the human condition with love and courage and a wicked gallows humor." — Thalia Zedek, musician, Thalia Zedek Band, E, and Come
Set in World War Two era Brooklyn, Victory Parade is a full length graphic novel work of historical fiction, beautifully executed in watercolors that successfully evoke the era. It follows the lives of a group of women doing welding work at the Navy Yard, work that before the war would have been done almost exclusively by men. Primarily focused on Rose, her daughter Eleanor and a German-Jewish refugee, Ruth, there is much more going on here in the lives of these women than welding, including Ruth's foray into the world of wrestling! We are also given an up close and personal look at the experience of liberating a concentration camp through the eyes of Rose's soldier husband, Sam.
But the real star here is Leela Corman's lushly expressive watercolor art, which is well served in both reproduction and presentation in this sturdy, 10" x 11" full color hardcover volume. You can see a good number of full pages at this online exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery, HERE (first scroll down a bit, then you can scroll right – or left - by clicking on the arrows on either side of each image).
All that said, as may be gleaned from the cover image, this work's title is not without irony, to say the least. The story told here is by turns angry and dark and contains more than one note of despair.
