Reviews for Comics Journal Summer 2002 Special, Vol. 2

The average rating for Comics Journal Summer 2002 Special, Vol. 2 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-03-10 00:00:00 James Koonce "I thought my parents wanted to kill me," says a surprisingly lucid Jim Woodring. "Actually, that might have been true." The creator of the audacious FRANK cartoon led a life tortured with hallucinations and apparitions - and yet, the surrealist backgrounds and characters featured prominently in his work is, according to the man, "pure craft." There is nothing further beyond each pointy-tipped psychedelic mound or Glatified dwelling skillfully injected into each panel of work. It's just for look and atmosphere. Can that possibly be true? Perhaps. At least, if it isn't, Woodring is not telling. That, however, is acceptable - given that he had divulged so much of himself throughout the interview already. A man can't give away all of his secrets, can he? Especially not the incomprehensible, illogical ones. Within The Comics Journal Summer 2002 Special, an oversize paperback coffee table book, are many other specimens of artistry from other creators (Robert Crumb, Johnny Ryan, Sam Henderson, John Porcellino, et al.) giving special focus to music and musicians. Some features interpret song lyrics, either from actual or self-created songs. Others look into the effects and styles of various musical genres, and their impact upon the artists' lives, their personalities, and their own artistic output. Also featured are reprints of the long-forgotten W. E. Hill's Among Us Mortals, a full-page Sunday newspaper piece from 75 years ago, which were never collected in their entirety from that day to this. French bande-dessinee artist Lewis Trondheim is given a platform to discuss his own work and influences. And several of The Comics Journal's regular contributors give - as can be expected - verbose, opinionated, pretentious analysis of the likes of Li'l Orphan Annie, Harvey Kurtzman, and King Aroo's Jack Kent. While some of these articles prove challenging to get through (thanks, in no small part, to the grandiose verbiage selected by several of the columnists), they each prove in some way to be rewarding. Opinions aside, there is a lot of fascinating material to be extracted from the passages and observations. For instance, while stopping short of "explaining the jokes" of bizarre caricaturist/cartoonist B. Kliban, writer Timothy Kreider provides possible readings of several of his one-panel works, insofar as to raise a curtain on a previously indecipherable punch-line. As a whole, this special edition does not make itself indispensable - but one would be remiss to allow the Woodring interview and King Aroo reprints (along with a few of the other articles) to slip on past, unread.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-12-12 00:00:00 Judith Coode Glaring error on the publication of DROPSIE AVENUE. It was published in 1995, not after 9/11. The book is okay, but this is certainly not the biography that Eisner deserves.