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[Comics Import Amsterdam - or CIA Comics]

Knew we had a thread for this type of thing. So here I am on my holidays in the Netherlands and managed to blag a visit to a comic shop while we were in Amsterdam - I mean I want for 2 but that was over optimistic and to be fair we were in Amsterdam so its not like there is a gazillion other super fun things to do.

So anyway if you are ever in the city check out Comics Import Amsterdam - or CIA Comics for short. Its just by The Anne Frank Museum... which it could be suggested is a more significent thing to visit but I've been there before, so... ANYWAY. CIA comics I popped in and spent a glorious 45 minutes in the most incredible comic shop I think I've ever been to. The place is a mess, but I just spent the time chatting to the wonderful owner Charles who is simply lovely and a delight to talk to. The fella has over 2 MILLION (!!!!) comics in his shop (with a door with loads of sketches on, I recognised the one by Will Simpson which was my opening conversation piece and that seems to get him really talking). He has another million in his own personal collection.

He's a font of knowledge and seems to know everyone and everything. We chatted for the whole 45 minutes I was in there and frankly I'd have spent the day there chatting quite happily.

Now to be fair its next to impossible to look through most of the stuff unless you have like 2 days BUT even the stuff I was glancing at as we chatted unearthed some AMAZING deals. I got a hardcover collection of Gilbert Hernandez - which is really hard to get these days for 20 Euros - cos it had a bit of damage on it! I checked he was sure and he said it was fine. So I picked up a couple of other bits cos I felt I should he was giving me such a good deal on the book and he gave me a massive discount on those as well. At which point I stopped looking as I felt guilty.

Such a great shop, if you are in Amsterdam really check it out. If you like Marvel and DC take plenty of money as you will find some AMAZING stuff. He did tell me if I brought the kids next time he'd take them in trade... I'm going to discuss it with missus YNWA... I mean we have two so that makes one spare right... right...

...oh and two gorgeous dogs roam the comics and and so lovely and like a fuss. They sit on the comic boxes as you flick through and lick your face if you let them. Charles offers to make them stop but I love dogs so I just played with them!

[PART 3]

PART 3

Where to find it

Both mini-series are available in two neat trade collections. Though strangely It looks as if only the first is available as a collection digitally. 'Cult of Dogs' is available as single editions though.

As ever the aftermarket will also help you out. I imagine with a bit of patience you'll be able to pick these up for bobbins. It amazes and frustrates me that a writer of the quality of Mark Russell doesn't seem to reach massive audiences, nor have Netflix clamouring after him rather than Mark Millar. So while you might have a wait to find them, I'm sure when you do there's won't be a clamour driving up prices.

Learn more

No Obligatory Wikipedia page for this one. And to be honest not a load of information out there.

There are a few video interviews with Mark Russell, that I've not had time to watch so you'll have to cross your fingers and plunge in! Mind Mark Russell is always good value and fascinating to listen to so you should be fine.

FanBoy Nation has one.

As does Comic Watchers

Apart from that you'll have to rely on place like Good Reads for folks reflections. Or a Google search will get you some okay reviews.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[PART 2]

PART 2


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

It's a quality that is so perfect for Mark Russell's satire. Mark Russell makes worlds that on the surface feel perfectly nice, often filled with people who will face you with a smile, as they plan to stab you in the back. The characters that Russell creates can utterly lack self awareness, or awareness of the motives of those that surround them. Things hide unnervingly under the surface in Russell's stories. These aren't the worlds of dark shadows with grim and gritty rain soaked streets, in Russell's worlds the dark underbelly hides in plain sight, often bathed in sunshine, under apparently cloudless skies.

It's this quality that Steve Pugh so perfectly brings out in his art. Everything feels normal and appealingly rendered, but it has a slight twist, an ugly turn to hint at what lies beneath. In his aspect of his art Pugh is such a nature fit, the perfect partner for Russell's work and in part it is this that elevates Billionaire Island above many of Russell's other works.

Now it's fair to say that I love pretty much all of the Mark Russell comics I've read and I've read pretty much all of them, only Red Sonia was enough to put me off picking up one of his comics. So while I'm discussing Billionaire Island specifically here and finding reasons to pull this story to the near the top of the Mark Russell pile (but there are more to come) in some ways it acts as a proxy for all of the wonderful comics he produces. It's not that I think I'd specifically add another comic to this list ahead of Billionaire Island on a different day - though I can't rule that out entirely. Rather that these comics so perfectly encapsulate what he does at his best and so much of what I love here can be said for other series he writes that haven't made this list... in short just read all Mark Russell's comics!


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

What Billionaire Island exemplifies in the context of Mark Russell always producing sharp, funny, biting satire is our role in society's folly. While its targets are common with so many Russell stories, the rich and entitled. Those in power who are so detached from the greater society that feeds their greed that they are often almost sociopathic ... well actually they are often literally sociopathic. What Billionaire Island does so well is remind us of our role, or culpability in allowing those in power to rule over our own downfall.

He bravely flags that the rich and powerful are the easy targets, the soft hits. We are all responsible for allowing that to be happen. The common person he so rightly wants to see supported and defended has a role to play in their fate. We can sit passively and by doing so allow those that desire it to have the control and power, they crave. The power we seem to willingly give them and only we can really grant them. He's like Wagner in that respect. He will mock the Judges, he'll pock fun at the crazy ideas that are passed as entertainment in Mega City One, but he'll never let us forget that it's the majority that sit mollified in front of the screen allowing the sad craziness to pass as entertainment.

Mark's Russell satire picks its targets so well. It exposes and attacks with rampant furor those that are directly responsible but he reminds us the reader that is easy to look up at the 'enemy' its easy to point fingers and shake our heads in contempt at those who lead the world into dismal times. He also never lets us forget to look to our side as well as up. To look in the mirror, to question if those that led us, lead us to things we dislike, or even despise, why do we let them lead. What are we doing to change things or are we passive victims allowing ourselves to wallow in our righteous anger, self satisfied that we know who is doing us wrong, yet often lacking the self awareness, or courage to see our role, all our roles, in allowing it to happen.

Mark Russell's comics are brave, not in attacking the rich and powerful, they don't care about a few satirists pocking fun at them and their abuse of power and privilege. No Mark Russell is brave as he is not afraid to remind his readers of our responsibilities... while making us laugh with glee, he sinks his teeth into our subconscious and quietly whispers

"Be better."

He adds that ugly twist on the lips of our own smiling faces, he plants the dark sad awareness behind our glee filled eyes.

That is why I admire this comic so much. I admire it while I have a wonderful time reading it, while I laugh and chuckle. While I grin at brilliantly realised characters, enjoy the wonderfully reflective worlds he creates and I recognise and am able to critique our society that he nudges just enough to the right to make me feel safe. He also makes me realise that the glimpse of hope I catch in his chilling dark humour rests with me and the changes I can make, that he makes me think about.

Mind I'll still link to Amazon below won't I damn it!


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

Billionaire Island brilliantly encapsulates the very best qualities in Mark Russell's work and Steve Pugh realises it with supreme skill. It's almost the perfect Mark Russell comic... well except for the couple that are still to come!

[PART 1]

Still travelling, still having problems posting my entries in one go... let's see what happens this time...

PART 1



Number 90 - Billionaire Island

Keywords: Mark Russell, satire, greed, darkly humourous

Creators:
Writer - Mark Russell
Art - Steve Pugh
Colours - Chris Chuckry

Publisher: Cartoon Books

No. issues: 12 to date
Date of Publication: 2020 - 2023

Last read: 2023

We return to the satirical world of Mark Russell with arguably the most Mark Russell of Mark Russell comics as in


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

he teams up (again) with Steve Pugh to target his ire at the mega-rich. More significantly our society that hangs onto their coat tails not only affording them the ability to despoil our world and culture, but admires them for it and looks to them for guidance and even salvation. Billionaire Island feels to me like the quintessential Mark Russell comic for a number of reasons. Its targets, its wit, its grim depressing world view saved by a slice of hope, but not least of all Steve Pugh's pitch perfect art. I'm going to reflect on that art in a second and why it's so central to this particular Mark Russell story finding a place where others, all very good, haven't.

First though let's cover some basics. The series has seen two 6 issue minis. The first sets up a world in the near future where environmental collapse has hit the vast majority of the world hard and society hangs on by its finger nails. I say the vast majority as the super-rich continue to look after themselves and have retreated to a luxury island away from global bedlam and continue to live out their luxury lives. Even more so. As the rest of the world hangs on, unfettered by needs and indeed laws of others the rich can do what they want. Just as long as their bank balance always has at least 10 digits. If it drops below that you are cast out to survive amongst the rest of the 'poor'.


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

As might be imagined, people without wealth look on in desperate envy and many try to slip onto the island. Even living on the scraps from the billionaires can be a living... though, as we learn, not always good for your mental health. Their desires unchecked the rich do what the privileged will and that in itself would be satire enough. The isolated self importance and self interest of the rich has almost predictable consequences as the series develops. The series digs deeper however asking important questions about how the rich get rich and the whole of society's permissive, submissive acceptance of this.

The second series picks up a couple of years after the end of the first. Society has fallen into even deeper despair. Billionaire Island ... well isn't what it was... I'll not give away too much and the world will look to anyone for hope and inspiration. As the US President falls victim to the state of the world their indulgence of the rich has led to, the world needs to turn elsewhere for leadership. Where better than the owner of Billionaire Island, who inherited the island at the end of the first series.

The only trouble is that it just happens to be a dog...

...and he's gone missing.

So various groups set out to find Business Dog - not the one from Squid Bits sorry Eamonn, who'd of thought a list of top '100' comics would have two characters called Business Dog in it!?! Anyway Competing groups vie for Business Dog and other interested parties seek to further their ends as the world collapses around them. The second series dares to push the ideas of the first even further and is arguably even better. Both are superb stories in their own right as well.


Copyright - I think Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

So back to our opening question, why does this story stand out so much, when compared to so many fantastic Mark Russell satires? As there will be plenty of time to discuss Mark Russell as we go through the list and only one more chance to discuss Pugh, let's start by focusing on why his art is so perfect for Mark Russell's work and how he elevates this series.

Steve Pugh is probably best known in these parts for his art on Strontium Dog 'Monsters', though he has done some other bits and pieces in the realm of Tharg. He's worked largely in the US market though, I know him particularly for a run he did on Animal Man with Jamie Delano. His art is sublime, smooth, meticulous, bold with fantastically twisted page design that never loses sight of the need for clarity of storytelling. His style is utterly distinct and carries a fragile confidence that's difficult to pin down. It feels complex and comfortable at the same time.

There's a specific aspect to the way he renders characters though that I want to focus on as to why his art works so well with Mark Russell and it touches on the contradiction in his art I've hinted at above. Steve Pugh produces beautiful work, it sits easy on the eye, and yet there is a slight unease, or discomfort hidden, nagging away. Steve Pugh has a beautiful, smooth line, yet his characters carry a twisted edge that hides a deliberate, exposed, ugly undertone in the beauty. His character acting feels almost perfectly natural and well realised, yet... yet... somehow it also feels slightly forced and dishonest. There's a dark motive on the lips of so many smiles, ugly intent hidden behind sparkling eyes.

It gives his art a distinct and deliberate queasy quality that is hard to pin down, difficult to quantify but absolutely there and impossible to ignore.

Kurt Vonnegut my favourite author. I really do a re-read, its been too long.

[Why I hate Saturn]

On a tangent. While on me holidays I've just read 'Why I hate Saturn' and it BRILLIANT. Might well be another addition to the already bulging list. I'm going to have to get a better collection - by 30th anniverary collection with Cowboy Wally doesn't get close to doing it justice. Any recommendations as to the definative version?

I've still got my old Piranha Press edition and I don't think any of the reprints have surpassed it. I know Baker's released a deluxe edition ("with rarities", which I think is the script for the TV pilot that was never made), but I think that edition's page size is smaller

Cool - I have a compliation of the 'deluxe' edition with Cowboy Wally Show and while I Hate Saturn isn't pretty good, the smaller size and some typos don't do it justice and Cowboy Wally is pretty poorly printed. I loved I Hate Saturn so will try to get that in the original Piranha Press editon (wonder what they go for). If I stumble across a better Cowboy Wally all good, but not as fussed by that one.

Talking of the Phoenix, mini-Solo greatly enjoyed their April Fools issue.

The Spoons issue last year was a masterstroke. Mini-IP was young enough that it did actually catch her out. She was ready for this year's gag, but appreciated their dedication to all things egg. I bloody love that comic. During the rare occasions I get to see it. (Mini-IP sometimes takes pity on me and suggests I read Bunny vs Monkey or something. But I haven't read No Country in weeks now.)

Yep continues to be a delight. No Country is very much on formand continues to be brilliant. I thought the egg gag was a little too close to Spoons Monthly BUT given that was pure fried comedy good I can forgive them!

The boy is getting to an age where he doesn't read it with quite the same gusto as before. The Girl long since stopped. But when the time comes I'll be carrying on the subscription cos I love it too!

[Dredd]

Late prog review as I read this a couple of days ago. Key things that stood out to me are:

Dredd - its just so okay. Its fine but at the moment just isn't doing anything that we've not seen a hundred time before.

I loved Full Tilt Boogie week to week, but now its ended I kinda think, oh is that all. It'll be interesting how it feels on re-read to see if it holds together. Looking forward to this one coming back.

Fun to have Aquila back - as I recall this will be a last horrah?

Indigo Prime and Proteus Vex remain wonderful AND we get Brink back - result.

Good Prog.

[Why I hate Saturn]

Yeah I've often wondered if Case Files 1 is such a big seller as so few folks enjoy it enough to follow up on later volumes (though I guess they don't do too bad!). Its a pretty weak volume as I recall. Whether reading an episode a week would help I don't know?

Glad there are a few folks who enjoyed Krazy Kat here as it does have such a great reputation I'd be surprised if there wasn't I guess. I must give it a go at some point in small doses at that seems to be a well supported idea.

As for Asterix and Calvin and Hobbes being serialised short you can consume in great big gulps - there are the exceptions that prove just about ever comic rule! And will both appear much, much later on this list - which I don't think is giving too much away.

As for Nemo in Slunderland I have a post planned about that too... but which way??? We'll have to see.

On a tangent. While on me holidays I've just read 'Why I hate Saturn' and it BRILLIANT. Might well be another addition to the already bulging list. I'm going to have to get a better collection - by 30th anniverary collection with Cowboy Wally doesn't get close to doing it justice. Any recommendations as to the definative version?

Speaking of Cowboy Wally I'm half way through that too and its good, but for me not close to WIHS.

[PART 2]

PART 2

I had a similar, but different experience with E.C. Segar's Popeye. I loved it when I first read it in the giant volumes Fantagraphics put out a few years ago. But after burning bright I realised I was running out of steam and quickly got bored. I quickly exhausted the things I could get from it. With Krazy Kat I didn't even get that far. This leads me to another thought that makes me tempted to give it another go.

In one a video I watched in the series Jim Rugg mentions that we can make the mistake of reading these old strips, once presented as snippets daily, in great gulps now as they are collected in large lovely volumes we want to read in one go. That's not how these comics were designed to be read. The slow pace of the one strip a day is built into the design and repetition of the ideas (as I see them). Instead Rugg suggests even in these bumper volumes we should ration ourselves, read a page or two a day. Allow that to sit and settle in our minds before charging ahead. Read them slower, as intended and that might enrich the experience.

That idea appeals to me. I think I should maybe give it another go. Try again, after all there's clearly a heck of a lot here to be loved. Then again maybe I should try to force it. It's okay not to get on with comics other, many others, see as a classic. If it doesn't present ideas, even if you might like these ideas - or the idea of those ideas... I'm stretching this aren't I, even if you might like the themes others see in it if it's not presented in a way that allows you as a reader to easily get to, or in a way that challenges you to get to them in a way that's enjoyable. That's fine, that's okay. We can't and shouldn't all like the same things and sometimes however much you might want to love a series its best just to shrug, except it's not for you and move on. There's far too many great comics out to burn too much energy liking something just because you feel you should, or folks you respect do. They aren't you, aren't seeking the same things , don't have the same reference points or experience to bring to their reading so there is no reason to expect to like the same stuff.

To do otherwise is just smacking yourself on the back of your head with a brick!

[PART 1]

PART 1

Not on the list - Krazy Cat

So while we're talking about newspaper strips I think this is a good time to explain a little as to why one of the strip widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest of all time doesn't make the list. Join me as I just don't get



And we learn why it is okay not to love, or even particularly like one of the best regarded comic strips of all time.

Krazy Kat, or occasionally known as Krazy and Ignatz is an American newspaper strip that ran from 1913 to 1944 - yep a massively impressive run. Produced by George Herriman the series details the adventure of Krazy Kat of the title and his love for Ignatz, a mouse who he loves. Alas all Ignatz seems to want to do is throw bricks at Krazy's head. In Between the two is Officer Pupp, who loves Krazy and tries to stop Ignatz brick throwing antics.

For over 30 years.

Okay, okay it's clear that there is more to this series. A LOT more! Beyond the simple concept and absurdist humour there are layers of meaning and themes. The nature of love, the shifting nature of self and environment, lessons in life in general. It is widely regarded as the first serious 'art' comic. It plays gleefully with its language and the comic form, really experimenting with what can be done with the page and how the comic form can explore so much more than its simple outer dressing would suggest.

But look I don't get on with it so while I don't normally link to external pages and thoughts on a series in these 'not in' entries I think in this instance it's important as I know I'm missing a whole lot about what makes this comic so great and so important. For a better overview of the strip there's great these videos out there if you fancy, for example

Matttt has a brilliant examination of both the strip, its ideas and themes and very significantly the sad history of its creator George Herriman.

There's plenty more out there if you search but these two give a real favour of how well regarded these comics are and the ideas it plays with.

And I just don't get it, and to be honest that's fine, it's absolutely fine. I mean it's on me, it's clearly nothing to do with the quality of the work. What I'd like to explore is though is why that is and why that doesn't make me a bad reader of comics.

I first read Krazy Kat maybe 20 years ago when I picked up a lovely Taschen Books collection of the stories from a book seller who came into the Library I worked at the time. I was just getting back into comics but even then I was vaguely aware of Krazy Kat and how well it was regarded, so I snapped up the book with glee and excitedly read it... and it bounced right off me.
I couldn't break into the old world language and pattern of dialogue. The art, while having a certain charm, was rudimentary and didn't appeal to me at that time - I was mainly reading mainstream superhero stuff as I broke back into comics. Unlike Liberty Meadows which I was heavy into on that return to comics, its ideas were front and centre, they weren't straightforward. Its references are oblique and lost  to 2004(ish) Mr YNWA in the mists of time. I just wasn't ready for it.

Even though I got nothing from it I determined to keep it. After all, even then I knew I should like it, I'd heard of it even back in the day before my wilderness years. I'd keep it and return to it. Which I did maybe 10 years later. I was trimming down my collection... or realistically getting rid of old stuff to allow space for new stuff after moving house. I'd been back into comics for 10 years. My reading was starting to shift again so surely this time I was ready for it.

Nope.

Nope.

Once again it bounced off me. Maybe for the same reasons, it certainly felt like the same reasons. I could now see more in the art. It was undoubtedly foundational for sure, but in being foundational I could see works that had built on those foundations and built better. The language and themes still felt so of a bygone age... well cos it was from a bygone again so no real surprise there I guess. Again I wanted to like it, possibly even more so I thought my reading had developed so this time surely... but nope my reaction was much the same.

This time I decided I didn't have to be a slave to my desire to like it. If I didn't like it, I didn't like it, was trimming down and so it had to go and go and it did - very readily I should note folks who got on with it fought long and hard over it on an ebay auction site... they new better than me!

Or did they. It really doesn't matter that I don't like it. I come to reading with my needs and my expectations and however much smarter, more comic 'literate' folks love this stuff doesn't mean I should or I'm any less of a reader for not liking it. It didn't meet my needs. On my second read I do wonder if that in part was shaped by my initial reaction. That first impressions count and my hadn't been positive and maybe that was lodged in my mind. I'm not sure as I've returned to numerous comics over the years, as I've changed as a person and so reader, and liked stuff more, or often less. So I think I can re-read things with an open mind and reevaluate. I just think that I'm immune to the charms, wit and insight of Krazy Kat.

In part I think that might be as it does feel so routed in its time. It feels odd and inaccessible to me. I get this with a lot of classic fiction. I don't get on with Charles Dicken, Bronte, well pretty much any prose literature before the 21st century (Mark Twain being a notable exception, there are less examples as well). Sometimes the style of a period, the thought process that went into things, the insights that feel so universal to others, or at least the way they are expressed, just don't work for an individual reader. That is the situation with Krazy Kat and me.

It's not the ideas and themes I don't get per say, that others do see and relish, it's the execution that doesn't allow me to see those themes and ideas clearly in the work. There will be exceptions we will get to much later in this list where the things I look for aren't obscured for me by the passage of time. 

Maybe my problem is that I'm looking for relatively (okay, possibly insanely) obscure stuff like IDW's reprints of the Star Trek Gold Key and TV21 strips or Titan's third Flash Gordon book.  Sort of stuff that didn't have a massive print run in the first place and has now dropped off the radar.  I've nearly completely Boom Studio's Do Android Dreams in hardback and that has been a challenge too.

Oh christ yeah that sort of stuff can be a mare to find once its gone. All helps generate the FOMO... the exact type of thing that meant based on comments here and a quick bit of research I've just won ALL 8 volumes of Goodnight Punpun in one go rather than try it out first!

-that said, I can stomach Cho's women far more than J Scott campbell, who seems to relish the back-breaking pose and weird pixie face style of superhero art.

Oh ain't that the truth. There's a number of artists who seem to do countless covers in that style and I really don't get on with it at all.

Its also interesting that I'm a lot less put off by Adam Hughes stuff than Cho's and I'm never quite sure why that is. I find Hughes work nearer Amanda Connor and while it can get a little sigh worthy it never quite puts me off as much as Cho's. There's something more... teenage giggles about Cho's work for me. Art huh so stupidly objective!

Duuuuuude. Beautiful writing!

Errr thank you, that's a lovely thing to say but I quite sure I don't deserve it. I don't even begin to think my writing as anything other than me sneezing things out of my brain in as painless way as possible. Given some of your bits I've read - I've read your Carrie Fisher piece don't forget! - you know how to write!

Nice one. As ever with Hibernia ordered as soon as I heard about it.

Well as luck would have it I had an evening of chorin' so had time to listen to the return tonight and wow its great to have you back and on such fine form.

Thanks for answering the questions from last time. As it happens I'm currently pestering this board with my 'Completely self absorbed Top 100 comic runs you need to read' a list that has at this point 137 runs, series, comics in it - ahem. Now its a countdown and after having completed my latest re-read - yep I did a complete Dante re-read since while you were on a break! - I can confirm that you'll likely be done before I get to Dante in the list BUT atno.99 is Elektra Assassin(assuming you are including that when you say Elektra Saga?).

But just so you know I'm not just 'blowin' smoke up your ass' I also write posts about stuff I'm not as big a fan as many and in a week or three (soonish anyway) I'll be talking about Uncanny X-Men in that context - yike!

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=49476.msg1111789#msg1111789

Way and indeed hey.

That is fantastic news. Hope you've all been keepin' shiny and wonderful!