Stuff like this has comics reporting in a spot. Do the reading habits of Bill Hader merit being news? Pretty much anyone getting excited about comics is a good thing. A win for team comics. And when celebrities like things, it gets people talking about them, which then also other people become interested, cascading good things, etc etc. Take Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s sexual awakening to ElfQuest. Maybe a better example is LeBron James’ recent (relatable) wondering where someone returning to the scene could jump back on with a character they like. Heidi MacDonald has already opined on the comic book milk board with considerably more historic insight than my snarky analysis will provide. That said, the spot: a burgeoning industry built on the idea of trickle down celebrity status; that a package from James Gunn is the rising tide that lifts all comics dinghies. Ours is a trade built on talking and writing about when niche things arise, summation articles and reaction pieces, in more desperate corners the pursuit of ad revenue driving what was once everyday conversation into a minefield of Easter egg listicles and thinkpieces. And yet, despite all the content, cartoonists these days aren’t exactly swept up in a wave of financial success.
No, this is about me personally benefiting from my new friendship with Bill Hader that happened because comics. Sorry, y’all. I won’t forget you. Hey Bill. How’s it going? I (and 900,000+ other people) saw your What’s In My Bag at Amoeba Music, but unlike the other, well-adjusted folks, I was immediately struck by the idea that a small press publisher should swoop in and James Gunn the Bill Hader comics situation. An even better idea, I should write about it, and then people can support some creators instead of just my new friend Bill getting some stuff. Publishers: have you ever considered sending promo comics to barber shops and beauty salons if you want more adults to read them? How generous are you with libraries? Hooking up the stars is cool. But celebrities by and large have enough stuff already (pretend you didn’t read that, Bill).
And so, a list. Going off Dan Clowes (that’s The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist in the still), but also Bill Hader’s interest in music and documentaries, taste in movies. Comics that are offbeat and filmic. Getting back into comics, so sticking to stuff that’s new- stuff from across the 2000s to as recent as last month. Not to say exploring old stuff isn’t a great way to also get back into comics. Right now there’s more fascinating archival work available than there has been in decades! No wrong way to get back into comics. But, just as the art form grew in the time between Prince Valiant and Dan Pussey, so too has the 21st century seen the medium mature, expand, experiment, adapt and change. As broad a range of possibility as film, with just as much of it in jeopardy- as all the arts are right now (support more indie creators). Without further ado, in esoteric order, Top Ten Comics Bill Hader Should Read:
Hobtown Mystery Stories Vol. 1: The Case of the Missing Men
Kris Bertin, Alexander Forbes, Jason Fischer-Kouhi – Oni Press
In the vein of Eightball era Clowes. Pulp, retro influences worn on the sleeve, unpredictable twists that go long and hard into the surreal, while never dropping the numbing veneer of everyday and normalcy. Weird, gross, funny, distinct. We are hyped for the new volume.
(If you want something even dreamier but still played straight, try Zuo Ma’s Night Bus)
J + K
John Pham – Fantagraphics
Someone who loves stories of mundane absurdity, those things your friends did that you cannot even believe but also totally tracks. When George Saunders wrote about being charged by God with the job of being complete and total fuck-ups. Rendered in the most delicate, loving, vintage kids comics way.
(If you want social dysfunction but also creative metaphor and smutty, check out Iggy Craig’s Sad Girl Space Lizard)
Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow
Toranosuke Shimada, Adrienne Beck, Nicky Lim – Seven Seas Entertainment
This manga is what artsy sci fi is all about. The style is this slick, atomic throwback, Googie deco and flawless. The robots are custodians, designed to protect the world for the remainder of the holocene and beyond. Like the emotional defense architecture of Michael Brill and Safdar Abidi. But people, stuck being people, long after people no longer exist. Great stuff.
(For harder sci fi in deep time, Simon Roy’s Habitat is the tip of the Grobusberg)
The Prince of Cats
Ronald Wimberly – Image Comics
Change Shakespeare so the side characters steal the show, the turf disputes are over graffiti, and the gangs are armed with samurai weapons. Keep the iambic pentameter. Go extra heavy on the expressionist style, make it look European and Japanese and NYC. An epic adaptation. You can lend it to your uncle afterwards.
(If you were looking for something more Bruegel the Elder meets TH White, there’s The Golden Age from Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa)
Flash Point
Imai Arata, Ryan Holmberg, Lauren Eldon – Glacier Bay Books
This is another story about a couple friends floating through life. But when they stumble into the background of a political assassination, their in-joke gone viral social media video becomes entangled in the dark web of conspiracy theory extremists. You know, a comedy.
(Another indie manga that takes modern troubles further into fantasy is To the Sea by Mukoubi Aoi)
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
Ram V, Filipe Andrade, Inês Amaro, AndWorld Design – BOOM! Studios
Hey! Where’s the serialized, staple-bound, episodic storytelling I’m familiar with? I was promised comic books, not graphic novels or (gulp) manga. Well, it does not get any better than this, a modular race against time to kill the man who would end death. For job security reasons.
(For the familiarity of episodic progression but the vibes of William Blake, Emma Rios’ Anzuelo)
Thieves
Lucie Bryon – Nobrow
Getting caught by the owner trying to stealthily put back something you stole only to immediately find out she stole it in the first place is more than a meet cute. But also yes this comic is about being totally crushed out. Sharp, witty, and real. Very cartoony. Real and cartoony both.
(If you’d like your lovers actually star-crossed, Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam is cosmic)
The Winter King
Matt Emmons – Second At Best Press
It’s not a silent comic, the animals make noise and so do the woods, but a comic without speaking. The coyote protagonist can’t talk, neither can the geese he encounters, or the ghosts, or the monsters. This comic is all showing, no telling, but not really, its showing is the telling.
(If you want a wise-cracking pack of ghost-busters who are also dogs, there’s Evan Dorkin’s Beasts of Burden with Jill Thompson, Benjamin Dewey, and Sarah Dyer)
Bio-Whale
Ville Kallio – Peow2
This is John Woo directing Solaris. The dreams of a flying killing machine are true, that guy on the internet is packing a rocket launcher, the car chase, the hail of bullets, a feast for the flies. As opaque and psychedelic and sardonic as you could want. Intensely planned RISO prettiness.
(Redefine the concept of inside-the-actor with Connor Willumsen’s Bradley of Him)
Becoming Andy Warhol
Nick Bertozzi, Pierce Hargan – Abrams ComicArts
The story of the invention of Andy Warhol, told in an artful immersed way. The printmakerly artwork I find particularly compelling. Documentary with no notes. This period where Warhol was making art in response to what upset his critics is one of his most interesting, shown with phoned-in warts and all.
(For substantive biopic in a coffee table pinups style, Steve Horton and the Allreds’ Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns, and Moonage Daydreams)
You don’t have to be Bill Hader cool to be interested in comics. Nor do you have to be Arpad Okay snobby. My peers here at the Beat do weekly Top Comics columns, publisher round-ups of superheroes, genre comics, new and throwback graphic novel reviews, cover all things periodical- to say nothing of all the new stuff going on with K-Comics Beat‘s expanded webtoon and manga coverage. If I sound like I’m playing the hype man, it’s because I am. This site is one of many “comics crit” resources for the curious to explore what about the medium speaks to them. If there’s a realistic counterpart to trickle down comics success, it is the network- emphasis on work- of passionate writers out there contributing to the contemporary cultural canon. Hey, you’re part of it. So go on Bill. Get back into comics!
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