Frank Ritza Papers Book

Odd book. Collier mixes extensive sketchbook sections with a meandering autobiographical story (sections of the story are separated by long sketchbook chunks; the story sections end with statements like "continued on the 48th page following"). The relevance of the title does not become clear until the final few pages of the book, when collier finally discovers art by the eponymous figure in a small Ontario town and gets interested in the artist. As slice of life memoir, the story is fine but not exceptional. The sketchbook section is fascinating for its range of materials. The Crumb influence on Collier practically bellows at one form every page--not that that is a bad thing necessarily, but it is fascinating to see an artist so thoroughly absorb the influence of another artist. Fans of autobio and of Canadian comics should check this out.