One of my favorite things about Gus is the breezy way the story is told, much more so than Isaac. The way elements pop up and disappear gives a lot more room for that world to breathe, and since we follow numerous different characters there’s an idea of the world being much larger than what we’re seeing.

I agree with those who would rather see comics DRAWN for album size PRINTED at album size. But I’m getting old and my vision is less flexible than it used to be, you young whipper snapper!

Still, the cartooning is so good, you want to forgive the slight, but the extra effort– the squinting etc– detracted from the overall experience.

I see Blaine’s influence in Harbin’s work; he is a master and I believe this book has helped you raise your game to a higher level.

BUT, the difficulty I had reminded me of the old–pre Digital age–when you had to watch black and white foreign films with white subtitles that were so hard to read it you just wanted to give up.

Am I just being argumentative?? I say, no. This kind of production slight is unacceptable–especially for a potential classic.

In the eighties, when NBM published the Captain Easy Sunday pages split in two separate pages to fit their volume, I had the exact same reaction. One of the great comics of all time, but presented in such a way that it performed a disservice to both the work and to the reader.

Last example– but it is a good one: Reading this version of Gus was like trying to watch Tati’s Playtime or Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia on a small screen in pan &scan (as opposed to letterbox). The presentation harmed the work irrevocably.

Thanks for listening.

(P.S. – Can I suggest the addition of the “subscribe to comments” wordpress addon?)