Floating Point

Reset #1 Peter Bagge 2011 Dark Horse   Peter Bagge first got famous in the 90's with his epic creation, HATE, starring an angst-ridden cast of grunge hipsters in Seattle, and later Jersey.  I couldn't help but be blown away by the pacing, acrid dialogue and hilarious situations that struck way to close to home even now as a struggling bohemian with a bad temper and a drinking problem. However it is 2012, and Peter Bagge has decided to try his hand at other subject matter, which is science fiction and midlife crisis.  I read the first installment of this which was handed to me by a friend in Oakland, CA with the warning of "It sucks."  A lot of artists get softer in their old age and want to do work that either perpetuates their previous modus operandi in a watered-down way or takes a turn in an awkward way... I feel that this story is the latter.  Chris Ware and Dan Clowes switched up their subject matter to themes personal to them as they got older, an...

Alien Invasion Volume II 2012 Lala Albert, NYC http://plslala.blogspot.com/ Self Published   While in NYC, I was given this Zine by the artist Lala Albert at a private comic book sale near Chelsea in Manhattan.  The cover was a day-glow reference to our lost adolescence.  I first encountered her drawings in Vice Magazine a year or two ago.  The eyes and the Anime faces were a mysterious combination of artistic concentration and utter kitsch that were fascinating and hilarious... She also did quite a good job with her piece that appeared in Happiness #2 this year, a Zine printed in NYC by Leah Wishnia.  http://happinesscomix.tumblr.com/ Initially I assumed her work to be done by a 19-21 year old male.  The subject matter never varies.  The women are waif-like and always sport the grotesque, reptilian eyes.  The consistency of this theme, application and prolific output speak of maturity which conveys the irony. The naked woman th...

MMMNNNRRRGGG comics, Portugal Published June, 2011 44 pages, 6.5 x 9 inches soft bound, two colors This book was mailed free of charge to me by the enigmatic Portuguese publisher MMMNNNRRRGGG.  I was immediately drawn to its effective use of artistic sensibilities that referenced ancient Greek imagery in an Art Deco/Nouveau context; probably Aubrey Beardsley.  There is however a modernist simplification of those styles, the hatching and meticulous rendering are traded for minimalist washes of pink and careful line work, which evoke at times Japanese Ukiyo-e or the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein.  The group responsible for this book is a collective going by the name of "Empirio."  One of their members is photographed here.  (Hey, good lookin'.)  That visual style, old and new, tasteful and reductive, is a good way to describe the content of this book, which is indeed a manifesto, a documentation of a group's beliefs and ideals.  In 2012 it's qu...