Like Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly doesn't really publish any bad books. Even when I come across one that I might not love, it's always apparent that it's just not to my taste, rather than the work itself is deficient in some way.
If you scan the spines, you will see a lot of familiar names here, including Daniel Clowes, Guy Delisle, Tove Jansson, Shigeru Mizuki, John Porcellino, Adrian Tomine and the aforementioned Seth. This shelf contains a lot of great work, although if forced to reread something right now, I would probably choose a volume of the John Stanley Library, each book beautifully designed by Seth. I have three volumes of it here: Melvin Monster, Nancy Vol. 1 and Thirteen Going on Eighteen; I wish I had bought the other Nancy volumes, of which there were three more. (I actually did revisit this Nancy volume a few years back, following Nancy Fest).
I also now regret not keeping up with Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie's Aya series; I have the first two volumes here, but I just checked, and it went on for five volumes. (Although I guess it's never too late to catch up, huh?)
As per usual, there are several exceptions to the organizing principle of the shelf. Most obviously is, to the far left, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's fairytale-based erotica Lost Girls, an Alan Moore comic that Hollywood has yet to attempt to adapt, which is there due both to its size and because its slipcase serves as a bookend capable of holding up all the others.
Nestled between Clowes' Wilson and Seth's George Sprott is Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius, which is from Fantagraphics, and I think is only there by mistake (the shelf right below this one, which will be featured next week, is a Fantagraphics shelf).
And laying across the top, between Moomin and Hitler, is Mummies, an IDW/Yoe Books collection of old pre-code horror comics featuring the bandage wrapped undead wreaking havoc in the modern world.
No comments:
Post a Comment