Showing posts with label Lisa Hanawalt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lisa Hanawalt. Show all posts

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Robert Boyd's Book Report: I Want You

Robert Boyd


 This episode of my ongoing series (which will continue at least until I get a new day job) is about I Want You, the new book (reprinting old material) by Lisa Hanawalt.  It's a collection of her 2009 series of comic books, also entitled I Want You. I reviewed an issue of I Want You back in 2010.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival Was Less Fun Than I Would Have Liked

Robert Boyd

This weekend I flew into New York to visit the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival (aka the BCGF) for the second time. I loved it the first time, so I had high hopes. Things went wrong right from the start, though. My hotel, down in the Meatpacking District, had been flooded. Although they had light and heat, the elevator and the wifi were still out. The former was a drag (especially after long days spent on my feet), but the latter was crippling. I was expecting to be able to post from the road, and now I couldn’t. I had lugged my heavy lap-top all the way to New York for no reason. My mood was soured.

I got in Thursday night and spent all day Friday gallery-hopping with a friend, first in Chelsea (the Trenton Doyle Hancock show was a standout—I’ll have more to say about it later), then over to Brooklyn to check out some of the shows associated with the festival. But we didn’t look at the schedule closely and realized we were early for two of the exhibits. They were still hanging work when we showed up.



B.ü.L.b. at Beginnings Gallery

The B.ü.L.b. show at Beginnings Gallery, however, was up, but disappointingly contained no original art. The visuals were mostly uncut sheets from their various publications.




B.ü.L.b. is a design studio/comics publisher from Switzerland. Their website is in French, but you can read their manifesto in an approximation of English here. One thing they create are little boxes with several tiny accordion fold comics in each. These comics, the 2[w] collection, are done by the very best art comics artists all over the world and printed by silkscreen. They are lovely objects. The boxes started with “A” in 1997 and they have been heading steadily toward “Z”—they are on “Y.” I propose that they continue the 2[w] series employing other alphabets—Greek, Russian, Arabic, etc.



Some 2[w] comics boxes with a Jim Drain comic in the foreground

I think the satellite art exhibits were new this year. Working with galleries in Brooklyn, the BCGF arranged to have several solo and group shows for a variety of the guest artists. The tricky thing with something like this is timing. If you have all the openings on the same day as the show, it is impossible for visitors to attend them all. But if you spread them out too far, it may be impossible for artists to attend both their opening and the festival. Also problematic was that the gallery spaces were spread out pretty far. It wasn’t convenient to get from one gallery to the next. I suspect that if you are from the neighborhood, it’s not too bad, though. My lack of familiarity was a handicap here.

I got back to my hotel Friday night dead tired, but happy having had a very entertaining day looking at art. The one bad thing was that my dogs were barking. Twelve hours of walking had done a number on me.

The festival opened its doors at noon on Saturday, but the panel discussions started at 11 am. Instead of having the panels at  Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, they conducted them several blocks away at The Knitting Factory, a well-known music venue. But it turns out that the Knitting Factory is quite small. It was completely packed for a discussion between Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware and Richard McGuire (whose story “Here” Chris Ware claimed changed his life). The Knitting Factory seemed far less spacious than the big open floor of the church where these discussions had previously been held. But that space was no longer available. There were now two floors full of exhibitors.

You could see how popular the BCGF was by noting how many people were hanging around outside the church.



Just some of the people at BCGF

I felt like an old fuddy-duddy compared to these hipsters. But I'm resigned to that. I entered the church and the cool air of outside instantly turned palpably warm and humid. The crowd was so dense that the air was stagnant and redolent of sweat. This is the kind of atmosphere one associates with mainstream comics festivals, with their immense numbers of nerdy fanboys. I was surprised to encounter it here.



Don't yell "Fire!"

I have been to several alternative comics festivals in the past, including the BCGF two years ago, and I had never seen one this crowded (and hot and sweaty). Even with twice as much space devoted to exhibitors, trying to move around was next to impossible. Browsing was a completely unpleasurable experience. I was interested in buying original artwork, and I saw some for sale--for instance, at Lisa Hanawalt's table--but the environment was unconducive for that kind of purchase. I want to spend a little quality time with a piece before I buy it--spread out the artist's portfolio and carefully flip through. This was impossible.

Now I'm being totally subjective here. If I put myself in the shoes of an exhibitor, I imagine the festival was an exhausting but utterly rewarding experience. I suspect tons of books, comics, mini-comics, and pieces of original art were sold over the course of the day. Exhibitors who traveled to be here (and some traveled all the way from Europe) might have made back their travel costs and even made a profit. Likewise, the people putting on the festival must have been thrilled by the crowds. But they ruined the experience for me. I bought some books, some of which I may review later after absorbing them a bit, but I did this as quickly as possible and got out of there as fast as I could. I returned later in the afternoon to see if the crowds had thinned out, but if anything, there were even more people.

Consequently, I spent most of the day at the Knitting Factory. The festival had a series of interviews and panel discussions there. A discussion on sexuality in comics was marred by inarticulate panelists (to the obvious irritation of the moderator, Karley Sciortino). However, that was followed by a completely delightful Q&A of New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast conducted by Richard Gehr. People who are funny on paper are not always funny in real life, but Chast was an exception to this rule. She commented on the differences between hip Brooklyn today versus the resolutely unhip Brooklyn she grew up in.

Tom Spurgeon, publisher of The Comics Reporter and former editor of The Comics Journal, was moderating a panel with Tim Hensley, Charles Burns and Anouk Ricard called "The Narrative Collage." He confessed to me that he had no idea how to approach this subject with these artists, and asked for advice. We discussed it a little bit, then went in. The place was again packed--all the seats were filled, and many people were sitting on the floor or standing.



Even Gary Panter was forced to sit on the floor. As the panel began, I realized that Spurgeon had been having me on. He was very well-prepared, and had a series of questions for each of the artists that related their work to the central theme. The artists, on the other hand, were not quite sure how to approach the subject. Cartoonists are often reticent about their own work, as if there is something slightly vain about talking about your work. I often decry artists statements in this blog, but one thing they do is force an artist to develop a way of speaking or writing about what they do. Cartoonists, who exist largely outside the world of grants and residencies and who therefore rarely have to write any kind of statement about their work, end up being relatively inarticulate.



Tim Hensley, Charles Burns, Tom Spurgeon, Anouk Ricard

I was particularly disappointed in Tim Hensley, an artist whose work I perceive as being fiercely intellectual, marrying modernist literary concerns with post-modernist strategies of appropriation. See his book Wally Gropius: The Umpteen Millionaire, for example. He was unable or unwilling to address the complexities of his work, coming across instead as a naive artist who wasn't totally aware of the effects he was achieving. But I don't believe that's really true. I suspect he wasn't comfortable discussing the work this way.

I had an invite to an after party, but I was too pooped to go. Over all, it was not a great festival for me. I attribute 75% of this to my own personal circumstances--I tried to cram too much stuff into the weekend and ended up exhausting myself (and reminding myself that I'm not 25 anymore); I was staying at a terrible hotel that was too far from the festival; by the day of the festival, I had walked so much that my feet were aching; etc.

However, the crowding is a real issue. The festival has outgrown Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. It needs to be in a location with larger floorspace (and wider aisles) and better climate control. The panels need to be held in spaces larger than the Knitting Factory so that Gary Panter can watch one without being forced to sit on the floor. The problem is that larger spaces cost more money. But I think that problem can be solved by charging a modest admission to the fair. Given the enormous crowds I saw, the demand is there.

Why is this festival so crowded? Spurgeon told me that all the alternative festivals are crowded these days. This kind of comics--"art comics," broadly speaking--have a large devoted following, but bad distribution. Some of them make it into stores--cool comics stores like The Beguiling in Toronto or Austin Books and Comics, and alternative bookstores like Quimby's in Chicago or Domy in Houston and Austin. But none of these venues carry the selection that I saw at the BCGF. These smaller alternative festivals provide an alternative distribution route for many self-publishers. And for fans, a show like this is the only time they will be able to see a lot of this work. That BCGF is so popular is a great achievement. But the next step for the BCGF should be to improve the experience for the average visitor.

(For a far less sour and more complete report of the festival, read Tom Spurgeon's post.)

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Monday, December 20, 2010

Comics I Got in Brooklyn, part 6

Robert Boyd


 Chris Day, Second Contact cover, 2009

I got two books of a series by Chis Day.  Missing the first book, Marginal Ecstasy, and the third, Moribund '74, one might get a bit lost trying to make sense of them. But these aren't designed for making sense--they are yet more of those fuzzy-area publications. Is they comics or artist's books or both? Second Contact has an introduction that implies that it is a comic in the sense that it appears to be part of a story. The introduction reads:
This book contains images of, from, pertaining to the statue realm. A half reality. Our reality was burned. Few arrived here. In this realm things may change in an instant or never at all. What is flesh may soon be stone.
But the pages that follow don't tell any kind of comprehensible story. Instead, you get images like this:



 Chris Day, Second Contact page 8, 2009



Chris Day, Calf: Scenes From a Marginal Reality cover, 2010

This is the fourth book of the series. Both of the ones I picked up featured silkscreened covers on colored cardstock with photocopied b&w interiors. You can't quite see it in the scanned versions, but Day has carefully chosen a red carstock and a blue silkscreen ink that are almost the same value, which gives it a psychedelic, vibratory look.



Chris Day, Calf: Scenes From a Marginal Reality p. 12, 2010

Some of Day's imagery, like this one, reminds me a lot of Houston poster artist Give Up. The dark imagery and the high-contrast drawings/photos recall Give Up's posters. It has kind of a heavy metal vibe to it.



Lisa Hanawalt, I Want You #2 cover, 2010

Lisa Hanawalt is one of the most interesting artists that I discovered at this show. She's someone whose name I had read but just never read until now. I'm glad I did. Her art and comics combine absurdity, surrealism, disgust, and humor. A lot of her pieces remind me of classic 70s National Lampoon in the way that they combine a kind of gnarly obsession with bodily functions (and with bodies in general) with a dry, absurdist tone.



Lisa Hanawalt, I Want You "How to Flatter a Person" page 3, 2010

The fact that these pieces often feature numbered lists also recalls the Lampoon. This is a kind of humor that I don't see too much in comics today because cartoonists are often stuck on the idea of presenting a narrative. But formally, there is no reason that a comic can't be a list of things. Lists are especially good for humor, and they are also really good for magazines (where you have multiple short features). And that is what Hanawalt is doing with I Want You. It can be described as a one-artist anthology, but I think a better way to think of it would be a one-artist magazine. It's what Dan Clowes used to do with Eightball (and he even included lists, like "I Hate You Deeply"). Pete Bagge's Neat Stuff was structured this way, as well.



Lisa Hanawalt, I Want You "Extra Egg Room" page 4, 2010

But all her pieces are not straightforward humor pieces. Occasionally she dives right into out-and-out surrealism as in "Extra Egg Room." These bizarre stories (usually starring either He-Horse or She-Moose) also have their own absurd humor, but the real charge is the completely strange drawings.



Adam Higton, Yule Bringer cover, 2010

Adam Higton's booklet Yule Bringer is not a comic but a series of drawings. A bunch of jolly, cartoony figures inhabiting a dense dark woodland, they remind me a bit of Moomin. Moomin combined with prog rock. I found some photos of Higton online, and he looks perfect.



Adam Higton, Yule Bringer pages 13-14, 2010

His drawings are lovely and magical and fun, perfect for a cold winter's night, listening to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn or Jethro Tull on the headphones.



Tin Can Forest, Baba Yaga and the Wolf cover, 2010

The team of Tin Can Forest (Marek Colek and Pat Shewchuk) produced Baba Yaga and the Wolf, which is absolutely one of the most beautiful things I saw at the Brooklyn Festival. Based on Slavic folklore, it has a story of sorts about a man who beheads his brother and exchanges bodies in order to wed the girl he desires. However, he didn't realize that his brother was a werewolf. When he falls ill from guilt, his wife seeks Baba Yaga, the legendary witch, to cure him. Telling the story this way makes it seem much more straightforward than it actually is. It is being told to a young girl by her great-grandmother. The narration, however, is likely to come out of anyone's mouth (as indicated by the word balloons).



Tin Can Forest, Baba Yaga and the Wolf page 5, 2010



Tin Can Forest, Baba Yaga and the Wolf page 12, 2010

For example, the word balloon here is still the great grandmother speaking, even though it seems to be spoken by this utterly irrelevant demon sitting by a camp fire. These little dislocations add to a fantastic, magical quality. It seems that after a long period of realism as an ideal for alternative comics, we're seeing a return of fantasy--with a particular emphasis on folklore and fairy tales. (I wonder if cartoonists are influenced at all by Kiki Smith in this regard?)

Appropriately, I end my reviews of the comics in my Koyama bag with a great one from Koyama. But I still have some graphic novels from the festival to review, so stay tuned.