I really wanted to say something about this a few weeks ago, but things got away from me. But no time like the present! August 12 was the two-year anniversary of our friend Mike Wieringo‘s death.  Mike was one of the sweetest, friendliest, most generous people ever to cross the threshold of a HeroesCon, and believe me that’s saying something. 

I don’t want to get into a long thing here, because frankly I liked Mike a lot and it will totally screw up my day if I get all sad. Besides, many other people (including Mike’s brother Matt) have already done a much better job than I could.

BUT I do want to point out something we can all do to commemorate the life of Mike–contribute to the Mike Wieringo Scholarship, the first of which was awarded this June at the HeroesCon Art Auction. It took a little longer than normal, mainly because Matt Wieringo got a loonnnnng standing ovation when he took the stage to present the award:

This is just as people starting to stand up–at that point I had to stop taking pictures because I wanted to clap too.  Anyway, the scholarship is awarded to a student at the Savannah College of Art & Design‘s Sequential Arts program.  The scholarship was set up through contributions and the sale of some of Mike’s original art, and is run by Matt, so 100% of the proceeds go to the scholarship.  If you’d like to donate you can drop your donation off at the store and we’ll get it to Matt, or send you donation by mail here: 

Savannah College of Art and Design
Attn: Office of Institutional Advancement
Mike Weiringo Memorial Scholarship Fund
P.O. Box 3146
Savannah, GA 31402

Make the check out to “The Savannah College of Art & Design” and put “The Mike Wieringo Scholarship Fund” in the memo line.  Be sure to include your name and address somewhere, so SCAD can send you a thank you note. I’m a little unclear on whether the donation is tax-deductible or not.

We don’t make a lot of these kinds of endorsements, but this is something that’s important to us, and we think it’s a great cause, something Mike would have been enormously proud of. And something which we’re enormously proud to be a part of as well!

Do you like Seth Peagler, our Warehouse Manager and taciturn Hero? Sure we do!! Do you like to rock out for totally free? You know that’s right!! Are you a fan of musical genres including “Americana,” “Jazz,” “Rock,” “Blues,” and “More?” What are you kidding those are my top 5 musical genres in exactly that order!!Well, you are going to be pleased as punch when you enjoy Seth’s band American Motel, which is playing tonight at the Borders Morrocroft location, next to the “Taj Ma-Teeter” palatial Harris Teeter over by Southpark Mall. What? You don’t live in Charlotte and aren’t familiar with all these landmarks? You should already be in your car making the road trip, not reading blogs!!

Most of us will be there, if you like hanging out with us. And if you don’t, I believe there is enough seating for you to comfortably avoid us! Especially Shawn, who is on this new broccoli diet. Gross, Shawn! Okay see you there!

By the time Sammy Harkham‘s Poor Sailor book came out, he had already produced at least 4 volumes of his now-essential Kramer’s Ergot anthology, been featured in Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, and was about 25 years old. Whew! Humbling, no?

Poor Sailor reprints the story of the same name from the classic Kramer’s Ergot Volume Four; except, instead of printing on big pages, with multiple panels per page (or were they? I don’t have mine in front of me, and now can’t remember), the Poor Sailor hardcover is not even 6″ square, printing a single panel on each page. The little orange book was the first work by Harkham I’d seen, something I ordered for the store on a whim out of Previews, then bought on impulse once it showed up.

I don’t want to oversell this book–it’s a good book, even a great book, but I like to think Harkham has and will do better. But it’s hard to overstate what happened in my brain when I first read it, then immediately reread it, then left it by my bed for weeks, picking it up often and flipping through its strange silent pages. Poor Sailor was one of the books that made me want to start making my own comics–not that I hadn’t before, but something about Poor Sailor made me want to IMMEDIATELY START making comics. I suspect this would be similar to how a budding writer might read a certain short story and feel compelled to pick up their pen, or a painter with Picasso, or whatever… I have always been drawn to the kind of art that provokes a creative response.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Poor Sailor is the aforementioned format, which has two clear effects (for me). The first is to completely compartmentalize the passage of time, which is no different from “regular” comics, but since there is a single panel per page, each page is one “moment”, rather than a collection of them. The story follows the fortunes of a husband smitten with wanderlust, who leaves his wife and home for adventure on the high seas. The early pages are a scattered portrait of the man’s life, chopping wood, building his house, his wife hanging clothes in the wind. The strange meta-space between pages–a page turn can propel the story forward by months or seconds, you never know–adds a dreamlike, haiku quality to the storytelling. It’s almost like a folk tale, a cautionary tale–it’s at once mundane and terrible.

The second effect of the single panel format is harder to explain, especially since I’m only now realizing it, years later: without exception, each page is bounded by a thick black panel border. Yes I know that’s very normal, BUT: by containing each image in that big chunky border, Harkham delineates the space within that panel–in effect, he CREATES the space by placing it inside the box, each image static, a little portrait of time. When you flip through the book, there is often more SPACE than there is image, with a character’s head just popping into view at the bottom of the frame, or a tiny boat floating in an immense ocean. The characters in Poor Sailor are grappling with SPACE, often drowning in it: the space they live in, the space between them and where they’d like to be, the space between them and what they’ve left, and most of all the limitless SPACE that time and circumstance create, and into which any evil thing may insinuate itself.

It helps that Harkham’s style is a weird amalgam of the European ligne claire (“clear line”) style and that of old newspaper strip artists like E.C. Segar (Popeye) and Frank King (Gasoline Alley). His figures are lumpy and worn-in, regular schmoes who are trying to figure out what’s what. His steady line creates systems of forms on the page, just shapes and occasional dollops of black floating in all that SPACE. Oh, and speaking of space, the end of the story kills it, the last little coda emerging from 4 blank pages, each still with its panel border, containing just… SPACE!

For more Sammy Harkham, I heartily suggest Drawn & Quarterly Showcase volume 3, which he has a long story in, as well as any volume of Kramer’s Ergot, especially 4 and 5. Also Crickets, which is amazing and which is also now cancelled. Bummmmmmmer. You can check Sammy out (sort of) online at his store’s site (he runs a store in LA called “Family”), or just Google “sammy harkham” and start the fun! Below is an image I found via this aformentioned fun Googling, some more clear line magic courtesy of the Comic Art Collective.

On Saturday afternoon, the Heroes Discussion Group met for the lucky thirteenth time to discuss David Mazzucchelli’s new book, Asterios Polyp.

Because of the number of participants–there were over 20 in attendance!!—we held the meeting across the street at Jack’s.  We decided to sit outside.  This created a variety of obstacles: the length of the table, the oppressive August heat and the growing number of cars racing loudly up and down Seventh Avenue.

But we prevailed and the two and a half hour conversation proved to be well worth the effort. Here is a just brief list of what we covered:

The subtext of narrative: Mazzucchelli‘s use of Greco-Roman myths (Orpheus and Odysseus), literary allusions (The Secret Sharer and others) and classic comics (Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy and Sandman). We examined the role of the numbers 3 and 2 within the story.

We discussed the importance of the characters Asterios encountered and how they helped the hero on his journey.

We spent a good deal of time discussing Mazzucchelli’s artistic technique.  The book’s use of page layout, panel placement, word balloon and color choice to portray character, show emotion, illustrate change and enhance subtext.

Finally, we discussed the final scenes in the book.  There were many ways to analyze the end of our hero’s journey and to Mazzucchelli’s credit, each hypothesis was valid and especially worthwhile.

There were several topics we barely touched on: the role of Noguchi the cat, faith versus logic, the role of architecture in daily life. If you have not read the book yet, we strongly urge you to pick up a copy.  You will not be disappointed!

We want to publicly thank everyone who attended.  I felt as though we could have talked about Asterios for another few hours.

If any of you want to discuss any of these topics now, please do so.

Watch this space for upcoming announcements regarding our next Discussion group!