FYC Replay: MOME with Gary Groth

Another installment from the series on indy comic anthologies I did for the Pulse, which - other than a couple more pieces - wound up my column "For Your Consideration" at that site. This particular piece was a bit daunting for me, as I was interviewing Gary Groth, whose extensive and thoughtful interviews in The Comics Journal are a definite high-point, for me, regarding comics journalism. And I was pleased to find how gracious Groth was with his time. Again, it continued to surprise me how forthcoming and willing to talk so many comic creators/publishers were and continue to be when I get a chance to meet them at conventions.

Enjoy,
chris

For Your Consideration: MOME from Fantagraphics

By Chris Beckett

FRONT PAGE:

Steven Grant has called it the best alternative comics anthology being produced today. With creators as diverse as Gabrielle Bell, Jim Woodring, Anders Nilsen, David Heatley, Jeffrey Brown, and others, MOME is one of the few books working consistently to push the boundaries of the medium while offering a platform for many of tomorrow’s renowned artists today. Come in and see what you’ve been missing, or become reacquainted with one of the best books out there right now.

The 411:

MOME

Edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds

Published quarterly

b&w/color

120-136 pages $14.95

Fantagraphics Books

What It Is (with apologies to Dave the Thune):

Despite comic books having been published for decades, it could be said the medium is still in its infancy. Dominated by adolescent power fantasies with the plethora of superhero books flooding the market, the maturity and diversity of subjects that should so readily be available within this artform – although growing –still accounts for the merest fraction of books offered each month. Despite having made many strides in recent years, built upon the struggles of master storytellers like Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Spain Rodriguez, Will Eisner, R. Crumb, Steve Ditko and others, the boundaries of the medium still seem terribly constricting. These giants of the field wished to create lasting monuments to the artform, something that wasn’t just throw-away fodder for young boys but could be enjoyed by adults as well. Working within corporate parameters – or outside of them as Crumb, Spain, and others did – they expanded the possibilities of comics as much as they were able, lighting a path for the creators of today. Thanks to the work of creators such as these, comics – and the more permanent format of graphic novels – are now a more accepted aspect of the literary landscape. But none of this would be possible if artists were not afforded an opportunity to experiment, to be given the chance to fail, but fail while aspiring to something better. One of the places where readers can witness comic artists experimenting and working to break new ground within the medium is the quarterly anthology from Fantagraphics – MOME.

Since its first published issue in Summer 2005, MOME has been a haven for readers seeking out new and exciting storytelling within the comics medium. Known as a publisher committed to quality, Fantagraphics includes in its catalog Los Bros Hernandez’s Love & Rockets, Joe Sacco’s Palestine, and reprints of George Herriman’s Krazy & Ignatz and Charles Schulz’s Peanuts among many others. It is well known that publisher/editor Gary Groth wants to offer only literate, thought-provoking comics that will challenge readers and their expectations of what “comics” can be. With the expanding acceptance of graphic novels within the wider literary world, this is one of the very few books exhibiting the myriad possibilities of this medium.

Some of the more experimental offerings within MOME have come from Anders Nilsen. One significant example is found in the second volume, published in Fall 2005. Titled “Event,” Nilsen takes readers through fourteen pages of repercussions threading out from an initial event of “What you said you would do” and the resultant failure to follow through on that statement. An understated comic narrative, Nilsen’s use of variously hued squares – representing at times the reasons for not doing this, time spent working to correct damage done, and the number of people affected, as well as most other aspects of the story – this tale resonates more than it might if he had created a “typical” comic. By utilizing images that are symbolic rather than representative and leaving said event unstated, Nilsen tacitly invites his audience into the story, almost forcing them to imprint their own memories of grief upon it, making the reader an active participant within the story. It is a wonderful example of how one’s expectations of comics can be overturned and utilized to create something more powerful.

These experiments with the form by artists like Nilsen, John Pham, and Martin Cendreda are given equal time beside the more traditional storytelling of Paul Hornschemeier’s “Life with Mr. Dangerous,” a serialized tale from the creator of Mother, Come Home, and that of Andrice Arp. It makes for an interesting mix of stories each time one reads a copy of MOME. Also offered within each volume is a creator interview conducted by Gary Groth. Known for his comprehensive interviews in The Comics Journal, Groth offers readers a window into the minds and creative journeys of these artists.

MOME is a book that showcases “indy” veterans like Jeffrey Brown and Jim Woodring, while also giving newer cartoonists such as Gabrielle Bell and Sophie Crumb a platform for their own storytelling, allowing them to learn their craft while offering readers a window into their artistic evolution. It is rare to find such an eclectic variety of not only storytelling approaches but artistic styles within the covers of a single book, but MOME provides this every time. Some might shy away from such wide diversity, but it is this “adventure into the unknown” that draws readers to a book such as this. Offering a window into the human spirit, the stories within each volume of MOME challenge readers with comics that carry more literary “heft” than the typical fare, and that is something to be applauded.

An Interview with Gary Groth:

Why comics? What was it that attracted you to this storytelling medium?

GROTH: I started reading them as a kid, so what initially attracted me were probably the pretty colors and spectacular stories of outsized characters. Now, it's how the medium can succeed at achieving genuine artistry; that's what it's all about as far as I'm concerned, how this hybrid form of words and pictures interprets life.

What was the inspiration for MOME, and why create a new anthology if the general consensus states that “anthologies don’t sell?”

GROTH: Successfully publishing Peanuts finally gave us a respite from running a million miles an hour just to stay afloat, and the space to think, and one of the things I'd wanted to do was to publish cartoonists of the latest generation that we'd been neglecting for half a decade. It's true that anthologies are a tough sell —or so it's been our experience— but if you play it right, you can publish one and not lose your shirt on it. They're important because they can be a showcase for the kind of artists who aren't prolific enough to establish a "brand" name and the anthology itself can create a unique energy around the ensemble — think of the best anthologies, Zap, Weirdo, Raw, and they were always greater than the sum of their parts. That's what we hoped to accomplish with MOME.

Other than the obvious – write and draw good stories – what is it that you look for in the stories included in MOME?

GROTH: I should point out that there are two editors of MOME— Eric Reynolds and myself. I can speak for myself and I can speak in broad and general terms, and even though our respective tastes overlap considerably, I'm sure Eric has his own take on this. The problem with answering this question, which is always asked, is that any answer sounds obvious and generic. That said, what I look for is an interpretation of the world, using all the tools and tricks and vocabulary of the medium to most imaginative advantage. The canvas can be minute and interior—as in Jonathan Bennett's work— or vast and politicized—as in Tom Kaczynski's stories. What's important is that the artist has a take on the world, realized with a degree of artistry. And that's different in kind than merely explicating or describing or transcribing the world as he sees it or understands it — it's different than journalism or sociology— because the imagination can get at something deeper or stranger or off-kilter in a way that a straight recitation of facts can't. Personally, I also look for potential, so it doesn't have to be an artist whose vision is necessarily fully formed, but someone who has that touch of insight and ought to be encouraged and cultivated — so, in a way, MOME is like an ongoing laboratory experiment.

Fantagraphics has solicited for the tenth volume of MOME, which leads one to believe that this has been a successful venture for the company. To what would you attribute the success of MOME?

GROTH: Consistency has been helpful — both qualitatively and periodically. I think we've proved that we can edit a thoughtful, interesting, diverse collection of comics that comes out almost four times a year and that this is something several thousand readers can look forward to.

Regarding the medium, comics seems to be at a tipping point where many companies are trying to figure out how to feasibly continue publishing single issues while also chasing the burgeoning book market that has opened up in recent years. Add into that the online market – specifically webcomics and illegal downloads of print books – and it appears that publishers need to be working toward a new business model. How is all of this impacting Fantagraphics, and where do you see the medium moving in the next few years?

GROTH: I hate this question because I don't know the answer. Right now, we spend most of our time concentrating on the 40-50 books we publish a year. I don't think books are going away but I do think they'll be augmented with different and varied delivery systems and that we have to keep up with those, whatever they turn out to be — paid downloads, digital books, whatever. I truly love books, the feel and the weight of them, their relative permanence (as distinct from digital files, which disintegrate in x-number of years); I suspect they'll be around at least as long as I am. After that, it’s my son's problem.

What future projects from Fantagraphics would you encourage fans to be watching for?

GROTH: In about a month, a gigantic 12 pound, 700-page monster will hit the bookstores: Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, the complete collection of Bill Mauldin's World Wart II cartoons — about half of which have never been reprinted since their initial printing in places like The Daily Oklahoman and Stars & Stripes. It took a year to put together and I'm pretty proud of it. Right now, I'm working on the Complete Humbug and have mobilized half my office to help — Jason Miles, Paul Berash, and Jacob Covey, who are all involved in organizing various elements of printed and original art, and designing the book. Humbug, you may not recall, was the 1957-58 satirical magazine published and owned by the artists themselves — Harvey Kurtzman, Arnold Roth, Al Jaffee, Bill Elder, and Jack Davis. It will include a 16,000 word interview with Arnold and Al conducted by John Benson, and other explanatory text. Another 2-volume set in a slipcase (like the Mauldin book). Our big, hardcover, career retrospective of Steve Ditko will be out in about two months: biographical text by Blake Bell and more top flight Ditko from the '50s to the '90s than you've ever seen in one place, beautifully designed by Adam Grano. Dash Shaw's 720 page family epic, Bottomless Belly Button, one of the most impressive graphic novels it's been my privilege to read, will be out in about a month. Josh Simmons slightly smaller, 96-page Jessica Farm will also be out in a month (or less).

FYC Replay: Postcards - True Stories ... with Jason Rodriguez

For Your Consideration: Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened

By Chris Beckett

FRONT PAGE: When Editor Jason Rodriguez stepped into an antique shop with his girlfriend, he had no way of knowing what was awaiting him. A year later, as editor, Rodriguez had compiled one of the coolest comic anthologies in recent memory – one where all the story seeds came from old postcards and the notes they carried. Click on in and discover the “true stories that never happened.”

The 411:

Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened

Edited by Jason Rodriguez

160pp. black and white HC

Villard Books

$21.95

What It Is (with apologies to Dave the Thune):

One of the coolest ideas for an anthology comes from Editor Jason Rodriguez, editor of the Harvey-nominated ELK’S RUN. Following his girlfriend into an antique shop one day, Rodriguez happened upon a box of old postcards. As he began shuffling through them, Rodriguez discovered he was being afforded a window into the lives of people long since gone. As his mind wrapped itself around this idea, he realized that therein lay the seeds for an amazing variety of stories.

Inspired, Rodriguez set to work buying postcards and listing creators he felt would do well with such a concept. Bringing together some of the biggest names working in comics – Harvey Pekar, Phil Hester, Ande Parks – with some of the hottest new creators like G.B. Tran, Micah Farritor, and Joshua Hale Fialkov, Rodriguez has compiled an entertaining mix of stories that are at times touching, exciting, and troubling – a great feat that makes for interesting reading.

The postcards used as story seeds for this anthology date, for the most part, from the early half of the twentieth century. With cryptic messages and half-truths embedded deep between the lines, the real stories behind these quick missives will never be found. But as inspiration for the writers and artists brought together by Rodriguez, they are diamonds waiting to be mined.

The emotional tenor of the tales offered in Postcards is of a consistently high caliber. One particularly poignant tale comes from the imagination of Phil Hester. Known more for his artwork – oft-partnered with inker Ande Parks, also present as the writer of a separate tale – than his writing, Hester writes and draws a tale based upon a postcard with the reproachful line “Someone from Adams Co. told the girls that you married a man who had a boy 12 yrs. old.” Expecting a story full of scandal and gossip, Hester surprises readers, including his editor, by molding a very different tale from the few lines left on the back of that card. Delving deeper into the possibilities offered, Hester reveals how happenstance following close on the heels of tragedy can lift a person out of the depression so readily available at a difficult time in one’s life. The main character, his mother drinking poison on the eve of the boy’s twelfth birthday, spies a woman dancing madly within the forest one evening. She seems possessed, but unexpectedly becomes the boy’s stepmother when his father marries her. Within months, the boy’s father passes on and he is left with this woman who suffers from the then-unknown Tourette’s syndrome. As they both work past their grief, the boy discovers a pure, maternal love from this former stranger, a love that shapes his life in unexpected ways, rippling down through the years as he watches his own family grow up to have lives of their own. It is a touching narrative elevated by Hester’s understated and evocative writing – a diamond among gems.

An earlier story within the book that plucks a wondrously full narrative from the sparest of lines is the piece offered by Tom Beland author of his own comic True Story Swear to God. This seed, a Valentine’s card from a secret admirer, offers little in the way of information, stating, “Don’t get brain fever trying to guess who this is from. Just think of apple cake and lemon slice and you’ve got it.” From these few words, Beland creates a touching story that peers in to the final day of one man as he anticipates a reunion with his wife, dead these past five years. In eight pages, readers are able to fill in the details of this man’s life, discovering the romance he was lucky enough to have experienced, something many of us fail to find. For his final meal, the man goes to the diner that was once the soda fountain where he met his wife. Enjoying a blueberry muffin and an earl grey, he ponders his life, achingly aware of his age, surrounded by so many young people. Finishing, he takes the postcard from his pocket, the one from his wife’s photo album, the one he has carried with him every day for five years, and leaves it as a token that love lingered there – a fitting epitaph.

There are many more tales like these to be found in Postcards. Each one is a work full of emotion, some treading close to overly romanticized visions before pulling the audience back from the edge. It is a fine line these creators walk and a testament to Jason Rodriguez that each story is of such a high quality. With stories ranging from one of an expatriate American couple stuck in WWII France of their own accord to a tale of the highest stakes revolving around a game of tic-tac-toe set in the old west to a pulp hero yarn in the vein of the Shadow and the Green Hornet, this is an intriguing mix of story and art that all fans of the medium, and of good storytelling, should have on their shelves.

An Interview with Jason Rodriguez:

Why comics? What was it that attracted you to this storytelling medium?

Where to begin…

Autobio, sci-fi, historical epic…no matter what your story may be your budget stays the same.

There are so many challenges involved when writing a story for comics and so many novel ways that you can address those challenges.

Nostalgia – I can admit that, right? I’ve been reading comics since I was a kid. I still love to be involved in plays and I’ll occasionally write some prose but comics…it takes me back.

The community. The conventions, the message boards, the websites – when you’re making comics you seem to have a support network behind you from the start. Starving actors and unpublished writers are a cliché at this point; they’re in their small apartment trying to get their big break, no-one really helping them. But in comics? You can make a good comic on your own, put it out there, and all of a sudden the community is behind you.

I could go on.

What was the inspiration for Postcards, and how did you sell the concept to Random House?

The idea behind Postcards came from a postcard I found at an antique store. It was in a dusty shoebox, cost fifty cents, and was sent from an army private to his mom before he was shipped out to fight in World War II. I realized that this private may have never returned from the war and I may be holding his last communication in my hand. I wanted to do the book at that moment and everything just fell into place, including Random House who was already on line to publish Elk’s Run, another book I edited.

What has the reaction been to Postcards thus far, and would you characterize it as a successful project?

I’d categorize it as a good start. I think I learned a lot from this project. The book made it into some hands, not as many as we thought it would, but I know some of the things that held it back and I’m learning from it. The second volume (and other projects I’m developing) will benefit from the lessons learned with my first go around.

In your opinion, what is it that makes for a successful anthology? Do you think having a thematic “spine” helped with Postcards?

I think the thematic “spine” helped get Postcards in people’s hands, yes. It made for a very easy pitch. When I hand sell it at conventions it goes very fast because I put a quick pitch out there, people dig the concept, and they come on board. Now that’s not what makes a successful anthology, that’s the first step, I think.

As far as steps two, three, etc…I’m still theorizing on that one. I’ll get back to you.

You have a great mix of talent from well-known creators such as Harvey Pekar, Phil Hester, and Antony Johnston, to up-and-coming talent such as G.B. Tran, Micah Farritor, and A. David Lewis. How did you decide on the final “roster” for the anthology, and what criteria did you use when deciding upon contributors?

Some were friends that have fantastic books out, some were friends that I believed in, and some were folks I admired for a long time. There wasn’t really a formula, I just sat around and asked myself who’d be good for the book and came up with a list of about fifty names. I pulled out the folks that I knew I could get in the book (like Josh Fialkov, Phil Hester, etc) and went to them first. With a bit of a roster on board I went to the folks that I’ve never talked to before (like Ande Parks and Tom Beland and Harvey Pekar/Joyce Brabner).

What other projects are you working on that you would like to tell readers about?

I need a kick in the ass but once I get that, Postcards II is still in development. I’m also co-writing a biography of Sam Cooke with my friend Chris Stevens and I’m writing a young adult novel about a kid that’s known everything from the moment he was born except for how it is he knows everything. I have some other concepts that I like but I need that kick in the ass, as mentioned above.