STAFF PICKS :: DAL TOKYO HC :: SEPTEMBER 05, 2012
SETH’S PICK :: DAL TOKYO: If you’ve heard the name Gary Panter before, you’ve probably heard it mentioned in association with abstract comics. He’s got a long track record of producing unique works that stretches all the way back to RAW magazine. Panter’s punk aesthetic suggests a do-it-yourself mentality, but there’s also a poetic element to his writing. His cartooning is on full display in Dal Tokyo, Fantagraphics’ 200 plus page collection of Panter’s strip originally published in America in the eighties, and later picked up for Japanese publication. It is an abstract work, and one not easily digested as a straight ahead narrative. That said, it’s an interesting piece of cartooning and will entertain and confound you in alternating waves.