{"id":4408,"date":"2009-08-27T07:50:40","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T11:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2013-10-27T07:31:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-27T11:31:08","slug":"classic-comics-criticism-langridge-bharrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/classic-comics-criticism-langridge-bharrier","title":{"rendered":"Classic Comics Criticism: Langridge Barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>\"\" (as well as the 2nd ish of The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson<\/a>), this week’s Classic Comics Criticism celebrates Muppets writer\/artist Roger Langridge<\/a>!<\/p>\n

This is a review I’m kinda proud of. As I mentioned in a few weeks back, I actually got a message from one of the Langridges (Roger, as I recall) about how happy they were to find out that someone actually “got it”. I think this led to my receiving a bunch of Rogers’ mini-comics (like this one<\/a>) later on, which I’m sure survived my last move in 2003.<\/p>\n

If you’re trying to get kids into comics and you were a fan of The Muppet Show<\/a>, you’ll do just fine by starting ’em off with Roger’s Muppet book<\/a>\"\". Zoot Suite<\/em>? Wait till they’re a little older.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Zoot! Suite<\/a>\"\" \u2022 Roger and Andrew Langridge \u2022 Fantagraphics Books<\/p>\n

Is there something perverse about waiting for the conclusion of a story based on Zeno’s Paradox? If so, then label me a pervert. The story in question, “The Journey Halfway,”\u009d from the Langridge Brothers’ Zoot!<\/em>, began as a relatively light jab at the Kafkaesque workings of the DMV. Over the course of six issues, as Zoot!<\/em> grew increasingly bizarre (and, one presumes, unsaleable), the story evolved into a traipse through Beckett’s theater, then launched into a near-death experience culled out of Finnegans Wake<\/em>. And then Zoot!<\/em> was canceled.<\/p>\n

I held out a minor hope that there would be a wrap-up of some kind, a final installment of the Langridge Bros.’ criminally underappreciated comic. That idle optimism faded just around the time the brothers’ work began appearing in various comics from DC. I wrote off Zoot!<\/em> and “The Journey Halfway”\u009d as another casualty of the comics marketplace, buried in the graveyard with Puma Blues<\/em><\/a> and Big Numbers<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming across Zoot! Suite<\/em>, then, was like Hanukkah in March for me. This 80-page collection includes several short humor strips from Zoot!<\/em> and a previously unpublished coda of sorts, but its main attraction is the “conclusion” to “The Journey Halfway.”\u009d After four long years, would Mr. Bodkin at last find out what had become of his impounded and possibly demolished car? Would the meaning of his unnamed friend’s Joycean trip to the afterlife be made clear\/ Would the actor playing the lead in Waiting for Godot<\/em> ever show up at the theater?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, of course, no questions are answered. Though Bodkin and his friend seek a shortcut home (through a graveyard, naturally), they never get more than halfway. Despite this pre-set limitation — Bodkin’s friend describes the paradox on the second page of the story — Andrew Langridge (the writer) manages to make this odd story work remarkably well by playing off the absurdity of the premise. The brothers’ work in Art D’Ecco<\/a>\"\"<\/em> achieved the same trick, beginning with absurdist humor and somehow bringing on authentic, if existential, human feeling.<\/p>\n

This is a difficult feat, not only given the logical premises of the story, but also because of Roger Langridge’s strange artwork. It would seem that his cartoonish, at times Muppet-like figures would be suited for the collection’s gag strips but not its 50-page serial. Somehow, Roger manages a full range of expression with these seemingly limited figures, while managing to play up their physical appearance for several sight-gags. Further, with its mixture of tones and ross-hatchings, Zoot! Suite<\/em>‘s artwork gives its ludicrous figures weight, bringing them into a more arresting visual context.<\/p>\n

Besides concluding “The Journey Halfway,”\u009d Zoot! Suite<\/em> also has another previously unpublished work by the Langridges. “I Dreamt I Was In Heaven,” which closes out the book, is a double treat, albeit a befuddling one. Visually, it ties together each of the strange (and, one presumes, unsaleable) cover illustrations for Zoot!<\/em>. A “roving eye”\u009d carries the reader from one absurd setting to the next. For someone who bought the whole run off the shelf, it’s a nice, asbsurdist form of nostalgia, but it would be completely baffling for the (ha-ha) new reader who decides to give this strange comic a shot. Forget I wrote that.<\/p>\n

The written story doesn’t pertain in the slightest to the visual one. Instead, it relates the narrator’s dream about an “entrance exam” to get into heaven. The prose is quite graceful and the overall story, in its meandering way, is a delight. In all, the collection showcases bizarre humor (“A Dictionary of Oubliettes” is one of the strangest joke ideas in history) and apparent existential dread via cartooning that would make E.C. Segar proud. While several other strips from Zoot!<\/em> should have been included (“The Answer,”\u009d and “Short Story,”\u009d to name a pair), Zoot! Suite<\/em> comprises a fine survey of a fantastically inventive comic that no one ever read.<\/p>\n

Now if they could just get to work wrapping up “The Derek Seals Story” . . .<\/p>\n

–Gil Roth, originally published in The Comics Journal<\/a> #204, May, 1998<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 a review I’m kinda proud … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Classic Comics Criticism: Langridge Barrier”<\/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":[793,26,4],"tags":[835,834],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classic-comics-criticism","category-comics","category-literature","tag-muppet-show","tag-roger-langridge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-196","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7405,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-show-must-go-on","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":0},"title":"Podcast: The Show Must Go On","author":"Gil","date":"October 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 3 episode 24 - The Show Must Go On \"We have to decide what sort of comics industry we want before we decide what sort of books we're going to work on.\" Roger Langridge\u00a0has\u00a0become the best all-ages cartoonist in the business, despite (or because of) starting\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":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=1560972955","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10067,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fanta-pods","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":1},"title":"Fanta-pods","author":"Gil","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fantagraphics is celebrating its 40th anniversary and holy crap have I interviewed a ton of their cartoonists and writers: Peter Bagge \u2022 mp3 MK Brown \u2022 mp3 Ivan Brunetti \u2022 mp3 Jules Feiffer \u2022 mp3 Mary Fleener \u2022 mp3 Drew Friedman 2013 \u2022 mp3 Drew Friedman 2014 \u2022 mp3 Josh\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\/12650933_10153906782188069_7522455933169836573_n-440x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8275,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-35-cents-a-stamp","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":2},"title":"Podcast – 35 Cents & a Stamp","author":"Gil","date":"October 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: John Porcellino\u00a0- 35 Cents & A Stamp \"I managed to go 43 issues before I hit the paralyzing grip of self-doubt and self-consciousness [from realizing that I had an audience]. I feel lucky that I had all those years to write comics in essentially a vacuum. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=1770461647","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4430,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-83109","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":3},"title":"What It Is: 8\/31\/09","author":"Gil","date":"August 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Moby Dick, The Jew of New York, and The Muppet Show: Meet the Muppets, by Roger Langridge. What I'm listening to: The Flat Earth, by Thomas Dolby, and the soundtrack to Stop Making Sense. What I'm watching: A documentary on Faubourg Trem\u00c3\u00a9, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0199535728","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7590,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-guest-list-2013","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":4},"title":"Podcast: The Guest List: 2013","author":"Gil","date":"December 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 3 episode 32 - The Guest List: 2013 The year is over! I exceeded my podcast goal of getting a new episode out every other week! And rather than eke out one more interview for the final podcast of the year, I decided to make my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002VA464S","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7844,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-hello-columbus","url_meta":{"origin":4408,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: Hello, Columbus","author":"Gil","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 4 episode 15 - Hello, Columbus \"I'm a person who works in comics and knows a lot about comics, and I'm teaching people who know nothing about comics to talk to other people who know nothing about comics, about comics.\" Caitiln McGurk, fresh off of curating\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:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002SQJLA4","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","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=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7415,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions\/7415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}