Friday, June 11, 2004

Walking around Old Alexandria with Daniel yesterday evening, we stopped at Olsson's, a cool independent book and record store. My eyes were grabbed by issue 13 of McSweeney's Quarterly, guest edited by Chris Ware and dedicated to comics. I've only skimmed it, but I can already say that it's chock full of little jewels, surprises, and rarities. I had not been that attuned to comics since the glory days of Charlie with Crepax, Pratt, Tardi, Muñoz and Sampayo, Swarte, and a few more recent forays into Gaiman and Spiegelman. The comics in McSweeney's are fresh, visually idiomatic, emotionally and perceptually revealing. It's too soon to pick favorites, but I'm sure that I'll have some. [Later: I forgot to say that the volume is beautifully designed, except that the font size is a bit too small for older readers.] 6:49:50 PM