"Kramer's Ergot #7" Book Tour @ Brillobox.

In terms of traveling performers, Pittsburgh has long been sort of a flyover town (or perhaps more appropriately a drive-by destination). For regional and national bands, this has largely been the result of a prohibitive entertainment tax that makes it a bit more difficult for smaller acts to make a stop. Various fanatics have had to travel to Cleveland, DC, and/or Philly to catch their favorites live. While it can be fun to make a road trip, this situation is a bit of a black mark on the city's cultural scene. Considering the relatively low cost of living in town, it's also incongruous. It's hard to make an exact assessment of how this affects local artists, but I'd guess it dampens interest in general.

Fortunately not everybody makes a wide berth around the 'Burgh. Apparently some entertainers wouldn't even consider skipping the Steel City. Such is the case with a small group of rather obscure comics artists who will be appearing at the Brillobox (4104 Penn Ave) tomorrow night. The visit marks the release of a collection of work called Kramer's Ergot 7, the latest in a series of annual publications that showcases the cutting edge of alt comics. A varying selection of creators will be appearing to promote the new book. They are making a limited tour of eight American cities, including L.A., NYC, Baltimore, Toronto, Chicago, Providence, and Montreal. Certainly our hometown is in rarefied company.

I imagine that the significance of this event will elude most people. After all, there are still some among us that believe that the comics form is limited to men in tights and newspaper strips. But the fact is that if you are interested in drawing, the place to see the best modern practitioners is probably at your local neighborhood independent comics store. In our case that is the Copacetic Comics Company (1505 Asbury Place, 15217), the Squirrel Hill establishment that is sponsoring tomorrow's activities. Proprietor Bill Boichel has been providing our area with the finest comic product for a couple of decades, and it is a tribute to his knowledge and good taste that the Kramer's Ergot folks have graced us with their presence.

Truly some of the best cartoonists of the modern age will be around to promote KE7. Naturally series editor Sammy Harkham will be present. Without his tireless efforts, this showcase wouldn't even exist. But he has somehow convinced a number of outstanding contributors to join him, including Kevin Huizenga, John Pham, Ron Regé, Jr., Frank Santoro, and Matthew Thurber. If you are not familiar with these guys, you really ought to do some net surfing. In a way, I envy you, because I realize the stimulating discoveries that you are about to make. On the other hand, if you are already a fan of alt comics, then you know the incredible quality that these artists deliver. These are not minor players.

So what's the occasion? If there have been six Kramer's Ergot collections previously, why is this the first national tour featuring an impressive lineup? Well, this edition dwarfs the previous books in the series... literally. Its size is 16" x 21", and intended to reference the Sunday paper comic sections that are so reverentially remembered by connoisseurs of the medium. It includes a spectrum of the best artists working today, including luminaries like Matt Groening, Dan Clowes, Kim Deitch, Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Chris Ware. And it's virtually all-new, with individual pieces specifically created for the unusual format size. As Bill says, "The equally amazing renaissance that comics is currently undergoing will likely come to be symbolized in some fashion by this very volume of Kramers Ergot." You don't want to miss this event.



*This stop on the KE7 National Book Tour is open to all ages this Thursday, December 4th, 2008, from 5pm - 9pm @ Brillobox (4104 Penn Avenue). There will be additional local creators and products available at the event, including items from Unicorn Mountain and Encyclopedia Destructica. So bring your cash, suckas.

The Genius of Rick Geary.

Yesterday I had a chance to stop by my favorite local comics store in the area (Copacetic- in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood). My main reason for visiting was to pick up the new issue of Mome, a Fantagraphics seasonal anthology of comics that features some of the best young cartoonists working today- including Jonathan Bennett, Martin Cendreda, Gabrielle Bell, David Heatley, Sophie Crumb, and Anders Nilsen. Of course I got tempted by some other fine products as well. I picked up a back issue of The Ganzfeld, a Wild at Heart DVD, and Rick Geary's J. Edgar Hoover. It just so happened that my trip to the store coincided with the arrival of a shipment which included that last book.

As far as I'm concerned, the discovery of a new graphic novel by Geary is always an occasion for celebration. His series of little books, chronicling some of the most famous Victorian-era crimes, demonstrates the high level of artistry, style and professionalism that Geary is known for. Had I not initially discovered them at my local library (which has an outstanding selection of graphic novels), I'd likely own everything he has ever put out. As it is, titles focused on the Lizzie Borden murders, the Garfield Assassination, and the Beast of Chicago (H.H. Holmes) have lingered in my mind long after I've finished reading them. The amount of research he invests in order to capture the historical accuracy of the events, and the period details of the settings, is absolutely striking.

I'll admit that Geary was a bit of an acquired taste. I wasn't initially attracted to his drawing style. A Geary character is unmistakable- with its pinched face, flat expression, and meticulous cross-hatching. The look of his page is extraordinarily clean, and can be superficially mistaken for being almost uptight. The all-capital lettering of his copious narration boxes are almost mechanical in appearance. His approach is straight-forward and informative. But the more I looked at his work, the more I began to appreciate his attention to craft. It is nearly impossible to spot an incongruous or sloppy portrayal. His writing style avoids melodrama and flashiness, and begins to carry you away into the depths of his story. Rick Geary definitely has a way of creeping up on you.

It's gotten to the point that I will immediately buy anything new that he releases. It doesn't even matter if I think it's a good deal or if I'm particularly interested in the subject matter. I have complete confidence that, by the end of the book, I will have been transported fully to another time and place, and in the meantime- I'll have actually learned something. These are educational comics that are extremely entertaining. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to a teenager or a senior citizen. Geary's J. Edgar Hoover biography is no exception. He presents an unbiased survey of the controversial man's life and times. I can't say that I've ever been exceptionally interested in studying the career of the man that defined the FBI for the first several decades of its existence... but still I made my way through this 100-page volume effortlessly.

Unlike the other examples of Geary comics in my collection, the J. Edgar Hoover book is a hardback edition. It's published under the Hill and Wang division of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. The production values are impressive... just as I would expect from any Geary work. His output demands that special care be invested in its presentation. I wouldn't be surprised if the cartoonist is called on to illustrate more historical figures. I can't think of an artist with better skills for that purpose than Geary.

Steven Millhauser, "In the Penny Arcade" (1986)

I have to admit being just a bit skeptical about book recommendations. Because of my ongoing project, I have refined my tastes to the point that I already know the type of stuff I want to be reading in the upcoming year. So generally I'm not interested in disrupting that continuity. Occasionally someone makes a compelling enough case to convince me that a particular author is worth paying attention to. Even so there are several layers of resistance that such a suggestion has to pass through before I honor it.

One of my sources that I generally trust is Bill over at Copacetic. He has guided me through the world of alt-comix during the last several years. Because I usually enjoy the things he sends my way, he gets the benefit of the doubt. I could create an quick list of cartoonists that I only know about because of Bill. But this post isn't about comics- it's about an author. On more than a few occasions, Bill has seen me browsing through the relatively small but impressive collection of literature that he stocks in his little store. And he's tried to turn me on to one of his all-time favorite authors, Steven Millhauser. It may be solely because of the imprint under which he is published (Pheonix of Orion Books Ltd), but his books were never quite intriguing enough to catch my interest. I admit this exposes a particularly American superficiality, but I am definitely vulnerable to marketing demographics. The packaging of Millhauser's works is plainly stolid. That may reflect the fact that the publisher is British. I'm not 100% certain.

When I was finally ready to take the Pulitzer Prize-winning Martin Dressler (1996) home, I prepared myself for an intensely dry read. That wasn't at all what I discovered. The award-winning book traces the rags-to-riches ascendancy of the title character. Dressler works his way up from cigar store stock-boy to hotel mogul in a couple hundred pages. Along the way his visionary dreams of creating an interior world within the confines of a quickly developing NYC proceed at a break-neck pace. There is a side-plot in which Dressler courts a pair of sisters, but I found that arc a bit contrived. What Millhauser succeeds best at is in evoking grand images through a series of very descriptive lists. He's obviously obsessed by systems theory, and this fetish is enough to sustain the discriminating reader's interest.

After I was done with his magnum opus, I wasn't sure if I needed to return to Millhauser in any expedient fashion. But then I found a couple more of his works in the remainder section of an independent bookstore in Shepherdstown, WV. I recently finished In the Penny Arcade (1986), a collection of short stories. The first entry is called "August Eschenberg", and the character for which it is named is very similar to Martin Dressler. Eschenberg is a man of extraordinary vision and imagination, and he inevitably struggles with social forces that tend to bring visionaries down to the mediocrity of the masses. American attentions are fickle, and tend to focus on the grandiose and sexy aspects of their various entertainments. A true thing of beauty will only engage the consumer mindset until it is no longer novel. Eschenberg's clockwork art becomes a victim of its own co-option, meeting a similar fate as Dressler's hotels. After concluding this story I thought I had a firm grasp on Millhauser's thematic range.

But I was pleasantly surprised at the emotionally resonant tales that followed. It turns out that Millhauser is perfectly capable of documenting the inner lives of his characters, even when they are confined to a more human scale. Stories like In the Penny Arcade, A Day in the Country, and The Sledding Party demonstrate that Millhauser is no stranger to the wonders of the heart. While his sometimes Dickensian prose belies the magical realism tucked away at its center, Millhauser's fictions here contain a deeper strain of understanding for the subtleties of memory and loss. I found both a deeper and wider facility in this writing that I had not expected after my initial reading of Millhauser. And that means I will be returning again soon.