Michael DeForge’s comics veer dramatically from book to book, from absurdist slices of life to tales of uncanny transcendence. His latest, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero, follows the adventures of the title character as she eschews human society for a surreal life in the forest; strange hijinks do, in fact, ensue. In advance of his upcoming New York appearance–March 29th at Rough Trade–I spoke with DeForge about Sticks Angelica, his tour with Sadie Dupuis, and more.
Paul Tremblay on the Post-Apocalyptic Comic “Legend”
This week brings with it the release of the first collection of Legend, a new comic from writer Samuel Sattin and artist Chris Koehler. Legend follows a group of dogs in a postapocalyptic landscape that has been altered in a host of terrifying ways; it’s a fascinating spin on the genre. Sattin is also the author of a pair of novels, The Silent End and League of Somebodies. Today, we’re pleased to be publishing the introduction to the first Legend […]
Slices of Life, From Punk Beginnings Onward: A Review of Ben Snakepit’s “Manor Threat”
Since 2001, Ben Snakepit has drawn an autobiographical three-panel comic strip every day. Initially he self-published these comics in zine format before they were anthologized in book form. At the start of his fifteen-year (and counting) run, Snakepit was less grounded/more aimless than he is now. Back then, he played in more bands, burned through apartments, smoked way more pot, drank himself sick. These elements are still present in Manor Threat – a hardcore pun on the Austin suburb he […]
“Biography With One Foot in the Fantastic”: A Review of “The Incantations of Daniel Johnston”
The fist time I read The Incantations of Daniel Johnston I was stuck at San Diego International Airport on my way to LA. Airports are great places to read because they give you time, but they’re also awful places to read because you’re briefly uprooted and thus vulnerable; you’re in a non-space where people come and go at an accelerated speed and where you momentarily embody a floating signifier. The Incantations of Daniel Johnston struck me as a perfect read […]
Writing Comics as a Novelist
It’s three thirty in the morning and I’ve been up with Chris Koehler, my former professor, and the artist and co-creator of Legend, for the fifth night in a row, trying to match his capacity to function as a night crawler, as we drive towards the rapidly approaching deadline of our next issue. Legend is our debut comic book about dogs and cats attempting to rebuild a world humans destroyed. And let me tell you, after days with little sleep, […]
The Uncanny and the Cyclical: Reading Mark Beyer’s “Agony” In 2016
In his introduction to a new edition of Mark Beyer’s 1987 graphic novel Agony, Colson Whitehead invokes one of the bleakest of Saturday Night Live recurring characters: Mr. Bill. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Bill was a man made of clay whose adventures would largely involve him being mutilated in assorted ways by an assortment of adversaries, including the seemingly kindly and softspoken Mr. Hands. A similar blend of eager optimism and soul- and body-crushing misadventures can be found in Beyer’s […]
“That Decade Hit Me Hard and Stuck”: An Interview With Brian Chippendale
Puke Force, the new graphic novel from Brian Chippendale, is one of the most gloriously surreal comics you’re likely to read this year, with riffs on everything from low-rent superheroes to the bleaker side of social media to violent obsessions. Between this and the release late last year of Fantasy Empire, the latest album from his band Lightning Bolt, it’s been a good year for those who enjoy the often-riveting end products of Chippendale’s aesthetics. In advance of his appearance at […]
Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá on Literary Adaptations and “Two Brothers”
Over the last decade, the comics made by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon have run the gamut from surreal spy stories to contemplative takes on life and death to unorthodox superheroes. Sometimes, the two have collaborated on their own projects, including the collection de:Tales and the deeply moving Daytripper; they’ve also worked with writers like Matt Fraction, Gerard Way, and Michael Chabon. Their latest work, Two Brothers, is an adaptation of a novel by Milton Hatoum; as the title suggests, it […]