Fantagraphics’ Blab
collections contain some of the most striking pieces of art created in recent
years.  It is rooted in comic book art, but it has very little to do with
superhero stories.  Rather, these 27 or so contributions are in an amazing
array of styles.  The book is 120 pages plus the cover, so each artist has
about 4 pages each, but some take just one, while others are much longer: Matti Hagelberg’s
"Hard-Boiled Nekkonen" is 25 pages and Monte Beauchamp’s
"Striking Art" is simply a selection of early matchbook cover art in
12 pages. 

The front and back cover, as well
as four pages called "Pharmaceuticools," are by Camille Rose Garcia.  These
pictures look like they are done over flowered wallpaper, not completely
covered over.  A little boy pats a half-tortoise, half-snail creature with
"Ritalin" written on its shell.  A girl hangs upside down from a
trapeze, holding a maraca with "Prozac" written on it. Her hair drips
down like paint. Like many of the other images in the book, it’s both bizarre
and slightly surreal, and it’s also disturbing.  Both the children have dark
eyes and look drugged.  There is more text in the inside  pictures by Garcia:
in one, a similar girl, now dressed in black, hangs in the air, and a caption
reads, "Well don’t despair, don’t feel blue, get hip to Pharmaceuticools! 
They’ll turn your world from drab to bright, & free you of your mental
blight€¦"

On just one page is an amazingly
intricate drawing by Reumann and Robel called "Blabworld"; there is
too much to describe and even a long list would not convey much sense of the
visual experience.  Like so much art by the mentally ill, the page is covered
with drawing and there’s also some vertical symmetry. 

In contrast, a far more formalized
and minimalist story by Greg Clarke is
"The Forlorn Fungus."  With four cells per page, and large white
borders, there is an elegance to the tale of Hervé, a 28 oz white truffle who
travels from Italy to America going from owner to owner.  It’s a funny and
sardonic piece.

Other pieces are far more angry and
political.  "Weapons of Mass Destruction" with dark and quite ugly
art by Sue Coe and poems and other writing text by Judy Brody.   The themes
concern human violence to other humans and animals, and chronicle abuses of
around the world .  Enfer-De by Blanquet is a
two-page spread with a far more fantastic themes, showing a hellish scene with
large animals fighting.  It’s disgusting and funny. 

One of the most memorable pieces is
another two pager, with the story of "The Piccolo Midgets" by Laura Levine.  Four midget brothers
migrate from Germany to New York in 1901 and make their living as a variety
act.  But in 1924, one of the brothers became depressed and killed himself, and
soon after one of the other midgets died.  Levine combines painting with
newspaper clipping on wood.  It has a home-made feel and portrays the tragic
and weird tale sympathetically. 

As a whole, this is a remarkable
collection of art.  If there’s a theme that unifies it, it is the myths of
American life shown from a critical and curious perspective.  They deal with
race, war, gender, rock and roll, and science fiction.  Other artists included
are Tom Huck, Bob Staake, Spain, Juan Soto
and Marcelo Rodriguez, Willem Rosenthal, David Sandlin, The Clayton Brothers, Marc
Rosenthal, Hoey and Freund, Doug
Allen, Baseman, Jonathan Rosen,
Larry Day, Noah Woods, David Goldin, Mark Landman, Minus and Despretz, Peter Kuper, Fred Stonehouse, and Tim Biskup.  It’s work that deserves
to be widely seen.

Link:    Fantagraphics
Comics

© 2004 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities Division
and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is
also editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is
on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: ArtAndPhotography