Clement Baloup’s gorgeous and moving stories of the Vietnamese who settle in America
INDIE VIEW: From monkeys and men to myths and marks
Mini Kuš! #69: Maud By Marlene Krause Kuš Komiksi This recent entry in the long series of wildly inventive and artistically-experimental little booklets from Latvia takes on the life of tattooed woman Maud Wagner, who became a sideshow attraction around the turn of the century. Wagner was originally a trapeze artist until she met tattooed […]
Review: Weegee biography captures the big picture
Let it be said upfront that in this more enlightened time, legendary photograph Weegee is not the kind of person that is given a lot of sympathy. He is, to put it in current vernacular, “problematic.” His most famous period of work, the period covered in this biography Weegee: Serial Photographer, had him combing the […]
Review: The Bursting Beauty of Niki de Saint Phalle
When the biographies of so many celebrated male artists are revealed as chronicles self-destruction where the subjects too often allow themselves to become awash in their weakest points, this biography of painter and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle is refreshing. It’s not only that her story provides a counterpoint to the tortured suffering fetishes presented […]
Review – The Riveting Biography of a Compelling Journalist in Joe Ollmann’s The Abominable Mr. Seabrook:
Joe Ollmann’s The Abominable Mr. Seabrook is a riveting read. An incredibly compelling portrait of a man whose life is the very definition of “larger than life” turned into an engaging page turner under the expert hand of Joe Ollmann. I found it was difficult to put this book down once I started reading it. The […]
Review: Daniel Johnston biography sets a whole new standard
As biographical graphic novels go, you’ve never read anything like The Incantations Of Daniel Johnston, a poetic, frenetic dive through the mind of the singer/songwriter, using it as a filter through which the larger strokes of his life are presented. What results is unstable, sympathetic, confused, and damned. For those who don’t know, Johnson long […]