{"id":4281,"date":"2009-08-02T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4281"},"modified":"2010-06-14T05:19:43","modified_gmt":"2010-06-14T09:19:43","slug":"the-nostalgia-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-nostalgia-journal","title":{"rendered":"The Nostalgia Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I mentioned that I once kinda maligned<\/a> the great cartoonist Richard Sala<\/a>. A commenter who professed to be a fan of both of us asked me for the story. I was a bit suspicious, given the fact that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have any fans, but hey.<\/p>\n

In 1998, I wrote a number of short reviews for The Comics Journal<\/a>. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d struck up an e-mail friendship with the editor at the Journal<\/em>, the oft-mentioned Tom Spurgeon<\/a>, a few years earlier, and he invited me to contribute to the new short-review section. He probably realized early in our correspondence that my longer-form writing tended to lose its way, contradict itself and otherwise become unintelligible, while my snarkiness, witticisms and occasional insights were best limited to a 150-word maximum. I wish I realized that.<\/p>\n

The August 1998 ish of TCJ<\/em> ran my short review of Mr. Sala’s comic Evil Eye<\/em> #1:<\/p>\n

I was under the impression that this comic was going to be sort of an Eightball<\/em> to the Lloyd Llewellyn<\/em> of Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs past work. In fact, after his 17-part, 200-page Chuckling Whatsit<\/a>\"\" serial and subsequent collection, I was sure he’d move in a new direction, that he’d say, “Enough with the conspiracy melodramas. Enough with the mysterious stalkers, ritual killings and overlapping cabals!” Alas, that’s not the case. Evil Eye<\/em> features a new serial replete with the B-move trappings and labyrinthine plots of The Chuckling Whatsit.<\/em> Don’t get me wrong: Sala’s expressionistic artwork is more delightfully creepier than ever. It’s just the story is utterly stale. The inside cover of Evil Eye promises “thrills! chills!! and shock!!!,” but Sala’s delivered each of these so unerringly in recent years that I’d love to see him tackle a different milieu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was harsh. Not as harsh as some of the things I wrote for TCJ<\/em> in those days, because it does include my genuine affection for Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s art and writing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that I thought that Mr. Sala had run his course with stories of secret societies, severed hands, fortune-tellers and ape-like killers, and was hoping he’d pursue a new direction with his comics.<\/p>\n

Just a few months later (November 1998), TCJ<\/em> ran a lengthy interview with Mr. Sala, conducted by Darcy Sullivan. Discussing the recurring \u00e2\u20ac\u0153components\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Mr. Sullivan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word) in his stories, Mr. Sala remarked,<\/p>\n

Many artists actually have a specific vocabulary of obsession. Look at Hitchcock: he told very similar stories over and over again, and those are the ones that people love. When he tried to do something different, a screwball comedy or a period piece, people just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept it. As an artist, your goal should be to recognize your own personal obsessions, your own personal vocabulary, and use it. There was a review of my work where a guy said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Enough with the mysterious killers and secret societies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d sure like Peanuts a lot better if it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have those kids in it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I mean, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I do. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it, read something else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a guy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because of the interval between publication of my review and the interview, but it sure sounds like what I wrote. Now, the point I was trying to make was that Dan Clowes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Lloyd Llewellyn<\/a> comic was a young man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work in a narrow(ish) genre, where the next stage of his career \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Eightball<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d was a quantum leap in terms of sophistication, humor, experimentation, and storytelling. One major difference was Mr. Clowes’ use of stories that directly address\/engage the reader \u00e2\u20ac\u201d like Art School Confidential, I Hate You Deeply<\/em> (and its followup, I Love You Tenderly<\/em>), Chicago<\/em>, and Grist for the Mill<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in which \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dan Clowes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or a stand-in plays the role of (usually irate) narrator. (This wasn’t the only thing I dug about Eightball<\/em>, but it felt like a significant move away from LlLl<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

What I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get back then is that not everyone is Dan Clowes<\/a> (or Pete Bagge<\/a>). For Mr. Sala, all those recurring themes, locations and components are as direct as he can get. As he put it in that interview, explaining why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interested in characterization:<\/p>\n

What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing are fever dreams. One person thrashing about in a world he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother searching for anything resembling a fully-rounded character. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother looking for any situation that has anything to do with reality. In other words, characterization is subordinate to plot and atmosphere. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll sacrifice characterization in a second for atmosphere. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care what the character had for breakfast.<\/p>\n

I mean, these stories are basically extensions of my personality. People use to ask me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you do autobiographical comics?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And I would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing them. These are my autobiographies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few years after writing my review, I read over my old Sala comics \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Thirteen O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Clock, Hypnotic Tales, Black Cat Crossing<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and found them much richer than I recalled. Sure, his usual coterie of storytelling elements cropped up again and again, but I saw them now as much subtler symbols, not simply of the mystery-at-hand, but of the roles of mystery and mysticism in the psyche. Of course, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t discount the possibility that agents of a secret society had sneaked into my home and replaced the earlier comics with new, stranger ones, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more likely that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d grown to understand the role of these personal, stylized components to Mr. Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s storytelling.<\/p>\n

So I realized that my complaint about Mr. Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lack of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153development\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was like asking Edgar Allan Poe why he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write Last of the Mohicans<\/em>; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the story he was here to write. Moreover, to continue the cartoonist comparison, Dan Clowes soon outgrew the “personal narrator” device and went on to write some remarkable comics during the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take Mr. Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice \u00e2\u20ac\u201d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it, read something else\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00c2\u00a0because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten a great deal of joy out of his later work. Even if Delphine reads a little too quickly for a book that took almost 4 years to serialize. (I know, I know: Delphine is as much about the textures as it is about the story.)<\/p>\n

Now go immerse yourself in some of Mr. Sala\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comics<\/a>. I’m waiting for Cat Burglar Black<\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

\"2D6E7C7C-989A-4463-A9EBA11169DA13DF\"<\/p>\n

Cover art to Richard Sala’s Black Cat Crossing<\/a>\"\".<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Reading over my old reviews as I prepared to write this post, I realized that they really need their own forum, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m planning to run \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Klassik Komiks Kritikism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d every Thursday, bringing you the best of my 11-years-old meanness. Because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worth it.<\/p>\n

To be fair, I also wrote some positive reviews. In fact, one of my most gratifying moments came when one of the Langridge Bros.<\/a> mentioned that my longer review of Zoot Suite<\/a>\"\" meant a lot to them at a time when one of them was ready to get out of comics, because it told them that someone out there \u00e2\u20ac\u0153got it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sure, it sounded to me like the episode of Cheers<\/em> where Cliff appears on Jeopardy!<\/a>, but I was happy for the flattery. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll run my good reviews, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I mentioned that I once kinda maligned the great cartoonist Richard Sala. A commenter who professed to be a fan of both of us asked me for the story. I was a bit suspicious, given the fact that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have any fans, but hey. In 1998, I wrote a number … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Nostalgia Journal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,793,26,4],"tags":[794,792,788],"class_list":["post-4281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-classic-comics-criticism","category-comics","category-literature","tag-dan-clowes","tag-darcy-sullivan","tag-richard-sala"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-173","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4265,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-to-me","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":0},"title":"New To Me","author":"Gil","date":"July 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I discovered a couple of sites this week, and figured I'd share 'em with you. Since they're not around individual posts, they don't make as much sense for Unrequired Reading: NYC Grid - a photoblog that chronicles a different block of Manhattan each day (discovered via Subtraction) Feinstein on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13678,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-384-adrian-tomine","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":1},"title":"Episode 384 – Adrian Tomine","author":"Gil","date":"July 21, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 384: Adrian Tomine \"For all those years, one of the main questions in my mind was: What is my own style? What isn't a hodgepodge of things I've borrowed from my heroes? With this book, it felt like a great opportunity to probe that and challenge myself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tominecomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tominecomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tominecomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tominecomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tominecomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16350,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-558-daniel-clowes","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":2},"title":"Episode 558 – Daniel Clowes","author":"Gil","date":"October 10, 2023","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 558: Daniel Clowes \"As I started working on Monica, everyone around me started dying in succession, and that drastically changed the course of this book.\" With MONICA (Fantagraphics), legendary cartoonist Daniel Clowes has pushed the limits of his storytelling and art to make one of the great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clowescomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C680&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clowescomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C680&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clowescomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C680&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clowescomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C680&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clowescomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C680&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14838,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-460-rutu-modan","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":3},"title":"Episode 460 – Rutu Modan","author":"Gil","date":"November 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 460: Rutu Modan \"I don't feel that I finished everything I want to say with comics. I feel like comics are my way to express myself and tell my stories.\" With TUNNELS (Drawn & Quarterly, tr. Ishai Mishory), Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan has created a fantastic, thoughtful,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rutucomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C503&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rutucomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C503&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rutucomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C503&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rutucomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C503&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rutucomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C503&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4408,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/classic-comics-criticism-langridge-bharrier","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":4},"title":"Classic Comics Criticism: Langridge Barrier","author":"Gil","date":"August 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of the trade paperback release of the most entertaining all-ages comic I've read in forever, The Muppet Show: Meet the Muppets (as well as the 2nd ish of The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson), this week's Classic Comics Criticism celebrates Muppets writer\/artist Roger Langridge! This is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1934506850","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4302,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-blood-club","url_meta":{"origin":4281,"position":5},"title":"The Blood Club","author":"Gil","date":"August 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"On Monday, I wrote that I was going to launch a recurring Thursday feature reprinting mean-spirited reviews I wrote for The Comics Journal back in 1998. It was going to be Klassik Komiks Kritikism, but my lawyers have informed me that title could be construed as a sign that I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4281"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4291,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4281\/revisions\/4291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}